Its no secret that people who carry excess weight also carry an increased risk for various health problems including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, and even certain cancers.  Some overweight people develop a health condition known as Metabolic Syndrome. It is a combination of medical disorders commonly seen in overweight individuals. [...]

A little over a generation ago, the meals served in school cafeterias mirrored the four basic food groups and soft drink and candy vending machines were nowhere to be found. Beginning in the 1970s, funding got tighter and schools began to relax their standards on the types of foods routinely sold on campus. Fundraisers featuring [...]

This is the second in a 3-part series on developing an exercise program. Last month’s segment described how to develop a walking program. This month’s article will focus on biking. WARNING: Do not undertake the biking program described below, or any other exercise program, unless your physician has cleared you for activity. Biking If you [...]

It’s easier to cut 500 calories from your diet than it is to burn off 500 calories through exercise – much easier. Exercise alone is not a particularly effective method for losing weight-especially large amounts of weight, and people who attempt weight loss through exercise alone have a difficult task ahead of them. However, while [...]

It’s just a few weeks since the start of the New Year, and already many people who jumped into their 2009 weight loss plan on January first have hit a plateau or even a wall. What’s the difference and how do you get your weight loss efforts back on track? Did Your Diet Hit a [...]

In the early 1990s, new food labeling laws were developed and implemented to help consumers make smarter food choices and manage their weight. Key features of the 1991 labeling laws were: That all foods, except for those made in tiny amounts by very small companies, must carry a Nutrition Facts panel, recently called “the block,” [...]

Your doctor can advise you, your family can beg you, and your friends can urge you, but you are the only one who can change your weight by changing your behavior. It is human nature to wish for an easy fix, a magic treatment, or for others to lose the weight for us, but spending [...]

f you always feel sleepy, even though you are getting 7 or more hours of sleep each night; you drift off to sleep if you sit still for more than a few minutes during the day; or your partner complains that you wake him/her by snoring. Chances are you have a condition known as sleep [...]