 by Renata Smith, MPH In this growing era of ‘wearable tech’, from Google Glass to the forthcoming Apple watch, our lives are increasingly intertwined with technology. What comes along with this every day technology is vast amounts of digital data. The scale is such that terms like exabyte (1 billion gigabytes) exist, and “Big Data” is now a common phrase. Big Data refers not only to the almost incomprehensible amounts of data being generated and stored but also to the ability to extract new insights from this data.
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by Fahad Razak, MD, Aditi Krishna, S.V. Subramanian, PhD It is well known that in high-income countries such as the United States, average body weight, typically measured as body mass index (BMI), has steadily increased over the past few decades. It is implicitly assumed that these average BMI increases are constant and unchanging across all weight classes (i.e. normal weight, overweight, obesity). Very few studies have systematically looked at whether this is true. Does BMI increase equally across weight classes? Has the range in BMIs actually increased as average BMI rises? We used data from the largest dataset available to examine yearly changes in weight gain in the United States – the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a survey of more than 3 million people.
 by Wei Perng, PhD As the obesity pandemic rages on, researchers fervently uncover risks that contribute to our growing waistlines - from conventional diet and lifestyle characteristics to more surprising culprits like the air we breathe and the people with whom we hang out. That’s right: our friends can make us gain weight.
 by Jenn Woo, MD I have a very fond memory of the lunches I brought to school — turkey or PB&J on whole wheat, an apple, and carrot sticks — even if I was often envious of the kids who ate the fried foods typically served at school. You probably have your own unique memory, and a strong gut reaction, to the phrase “school lunch.”
School nutrition is an emotion-laden topic. Childhood obesity is at an all-time high. A 2008 Institute of Medicine panel found that schoolchildren consumed an excess of more than 500 calories per day from sugar and fat. On school days, children consume almost one-half of their total daily calories at school. Unhealthy school food environments have been linked to a higher risk for obesity. Knowing these facts, how can we give children the opportunity to eat more healthfully at school? |
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