 Previous literature has shown varying associations between food establishments and childhood obesity, so we sought to examine these associations in a very large sample of nearly 50,000 pediatric patients ages 4-18 years. The results were recently published in the journal Childhood Obesity. Our aim was to determine if the distance from a patient’s home to six types of food establishments was associated with their body mass index (BMI) or weight status.
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 Recently, I’ve had the great fortune to visit Greenland. As luck would have it, a friend of mine is living there to studying fisheries as a Fulbright Scholar. When I got the invitation, I was very excited to see the mountains and fjords and to learn more about the Inuit, as well as the interesting political relationship between Greenland and its colonial ruler, Denmark. I was a bit less excited about the food.
 With the recent news that the FDA has demanded that trans fats –fats found in margarine, and in many processed foods as partially hydrogenated oil -- be removed from the US market within 3 years, I was afraid that my mother had been correct in telling me to limit my fat intake while I was growing up. As a teenager growing up in the 1970s, she was coming of age when the first set of dietary guidelines called for Americans to limit how much fat they ate. This advice stuck with her through adulthood when she eventually became a mother and did her best to raise healthy kids.
 In 2014, Mexicans purchased 137 liters of soda per person – that’s more than 1 liter every 3 days. (Only three countries consume more soda per capita -- Argentina, the United States, and Chile). In 2012, sugary drinks accounted for an astounding 17% of total daily calories consumed among Mexican children and 19% among Mexican adults. Mexico also has the highest overweight and obesity rates in the world, coming in at 72% of its citizens as either overweight or obese, just above the US. In response, Mexico has aggressively implemented policies to address excessive sugary drink consumption and overweight/obesity. In January 2014, Mexican lawmakers implemented a tax of 1 peso (around 7 cents) per liter (about a 10% tax) on any non-dairy, non-alcohol drink with added sugar. Taxes like these are often referred to as “soda taxes” but usually cover more than just soda, as the Mexican tax does. They also passed a companion 8% tax on unhealthy snack food, covering “salty and other snacks, confectionery products, chocolate and products derived from cacao, puddings and flans, candy, peanut butter and hazelnut butter, ice cream, and popsicles.”
 What do Rob Gronkowski, Cindy Crawford, and newly crowned NBA champion Stephen Curry have in common? In addition to being famous celebrities, they are all part of Team FNV (Fruits ‘N’ Veggies), a new marketing campaign sponsored by the Partnership for a Healthier America. The campaign is seeking to market fruits and vegetables with the same tactics that companies use to advertise packaged foods. It is recruiting influential actors, athletes, and other celebrities to endorse fruits and vegetables as a product, much like the shoes, makeup, and other goods they normally promote.
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