obesity — James Poling

San Francisco Wins the World Series and Bans Happy Meals

OK, the two are probably unrelated but they deserve a big kudos for both. The Giants get props for humiliating the Rangers that destroyed my Yankees and now they get even bigger props for taking a step that should be adopted by every city around the country.

The Board of Supervisors today passed an ordinance that will require meals to meet nutritional guidelines if restaurants wish to include a toy with the food purchase. More importantly, the supes passed the so-called “Happy Meal Ban” by an 8-3 vote ― meaning it can survive a promised veto from Mayor Gavin Newsom. That’s right: San Francisco done banned the Happy Meal. Robble robble.

Recently Mayor Bloomberg proposed banning the purchase of soda with food stamps, that, along with many other forward thinking health initiatives Bloomberg has supported since he’s been in office have helped improve the general health of New Yorkers and helped saved the city millions in health care costs.

Let’s hope NYC is the next city to follow suit in putting the kibosh on McDonald’s Happy Meals and help curb the obesity epidemic sweeping our country.

Source: SFWeekly

Fat People Find Something They Like More than Food: Money

A new study proves that fat people are just as greedy and money hungry as skinny people.

One group of dieters was given $3 a day plus additional matching funds for meeting weight loss goals, meaning they could earn up to an extra $168 during a four-week period. A second group was eligible to compete in a cash lottery for $10 to $100 a day during the study period if they achieved weight loss goals. A third control group simply attended monthly weigh-in sessions.

At the end of 16 weeks, the dieters in the lottery group had lost an average of 13.1 pounds each, while those in the matching-funds group had lost an average of 14 pounds each, compared to just 3.9 pounds in the control group, according to a report published today the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The downside is once the money dried up the eating ramped back up and most everyone put back on the weight, although even seven months later both groups remained an average of six to nine pounds lighter.

“The goal is to design a reward system in a way to help people in the short term do what’s in their long-term best interest,” said Dr. Volpp, an internist and health economist. “A lot of insurers are starting to spend a lot of money on incentive programs to improve health. This shows that providing tangible rewards with a higher degree of frequency makes the use of these dollars more effective.’’

Yeah, I guess living a longer, healthier life isn’t reward enough to get off your fat ass, but throw $10 cash money into that mix and I am all about Jenny Craig.