How to Lose Pounds Fast

CAMDEN, N.J. – The Campbell Soup Co. is planning to spend $10 million over the next decade on a new initiative to reduce obesity and hunger among children in Camden, the company’s impoverished hometown.

Company officials plan to announce the initiative Wednesday but gave The Associated Press details in advance.

“We want to build hope in Camden,” Campbell President and CEO Douglas Conant said. “And we think we can.”

“People could eat nothing but jelly beans, and if they were eating just a small amount, they would lose weight,” says Donald Hensrud, chairman of preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic and medical editor in chief of The Mayo ClinicDiet, a guide to healthy weight loss. “You might be able to get away with it for a period of time, but the more restrictive (the diet) is — and the longer you follow it — the greater the risks.”

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Two prominent Republicans came to the defense of First Lady Michelle Obama, breaking ranks with some of their party’s top stars who have taken jabs at her campaign against obesity.

Mike Huckabee, a formerly overweight talk show host who is a possible presidential contender, took issue with conservative critics who say the first lady is unduly involving the government in personal and family decision-making.

The critics include Sarah Palin, Minnesota lawmaker and Tea Party champion Michele Bachmann, and radio commentator Rush Limbaugh.

Because I know you’ve all been paying close attention to all of the posts that Jimmy and I have been filing, it should be obvious to you what my weakness can be in regard to my diet.

Thankfully it’s not the endless temptations of drive-through restaurants that line the streets as I drive home, nor is it the plethora of tasty snacks that sit atop desks and tables all through the workplace.

In his latest book, former FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler argues that modern food is addictive. In it, he recounts how he was once helpless to stop himself from eating a cookie. In a paper in this month’s Journal of Health Economics, University of Illinois researchers join a long list of analysts who blame urban sprawl for obesity. In November, former Carter administration advisor Amitai Etzioni argued that it’s so hard for Americans to keep weight off that adults should simply give up and focus attention on the young instead.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – First Lady Michelle Obama, a champion of measures to fight childhood obesity in the United States, welcomed passage in Congress Thursday of a law aimed at improving the quality of school meals.

The House of Representatives earlier passed The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, following passage by the Senate. The bill now awaits President Barack Obama’s signature to become law.

It allows the federal government to encourage schools, through subsidies, to serve students meals that respect nutritional standards set by the National Academy of Sciences.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The number of obese U.S. adults rose in 16 states in the last year, helping to push obesity rates in a dozen states above 30 percent, according to a report released on Thursday.

By that measure, Mississippi is the fattest state in the union with an adult obesity rate of 34.4 percent. Colorado is the least obese — with a rate of 19.8 percent — and the only state with an adult obesity rate below 20 percent, according to “F as in Fat,” an annual report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.