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‘Obesity is a family illness’: Research offers clues on how to stop the cycle

The first step in addressing the obesity epidemic is to teach parents of young children how to eat right, according to new Saint Louis University research published in this month’s issue of Preventive Medicine.
“Obesity is a family illness,” says Debra Haire-Joshu, Ph.D., principle investigator and director of the Obesity Prevention Center at Saint Louis University School of Public Health. “Children typically are not born obese. They learn to become obese in an environment that encourages it. If parents are eating poorly, that’s what they’re providing their children.”

A cookie less per day keeps the fat away

Eating 100 fewer calories a day?roughly three bites of a fast-food hamburger?could prevent the 1.8 to 2.0 pounds that the average person gains per year, according to new estimates by James Hill and colleagues. Their article appears in the 7 February issue of the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.