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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.
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 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?  by Nicole Witham I am not much of a gambler – a one or two-dollar scratch ticket is my max. I would rather spend my money on a coffee or, to be honest, a cookie than a card game or a slot machine. But what if consistently choosing to eat the cookie would end up costing me $100 later on? That is to say, what if I bet $100 that I could lose a certain amount of weight in a month and if I didn’t make my goal, my money would go to someone else? This is the idea behind incentivizing weight loss and the business model of websites such as DietBet and HealthyWage.
 by Jason Block, MD, MPH The Scientific Report of the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Committee is out and based on media attention to it, the report arrived with a bang. What was recommended and why was it controversial?
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