Children see thousands of commercials each year designed to increase their desire for foods high in sugar, fat, and salt. Researchers analyzed how the advertising onslaught affects the brain by measuring the brain activity of teenagers while watching food and nonfood commercials.

Regions of the brain linked to attention, reward, and taste were active for all participants, especially when food commercials aired. Overall, they recalled and liked food commercials better than nonfood commercials.

While 100 percent fruit juices are widely marketed as healthy beverages, they contain the same amount of calories as soda and lack the fiber that is present in whole fruit. In addition, previous research in Pediatrics has shown that excessive consumption of 100 percent juice is associated with increased risk of weight gain.

The WIC program is designed to help meet the needs of pregnant and postpartum women, infants, and young children who are at nutritional risk. Prior to the WIC food package revisions, the federal monthly allowances of 100 percent juice exceeded dietary recommendations for juice consumption in young children. New WIC food packages provide considerably less juice.

Teased at school for being “Timmy Two Chins,” Tim’s weight makes him feel unmanly and invisible. The story demonstrates Tim’s struggle to find his self-worth and serves as an educational resource for students. The film will be shown in schools across the country and includes a lesson plan.

"Scenarios USA has helped give a voice to young people experiencing weight-based bullying,” according to Rebecca Puhl, PhD, the Rudd Center’s Director of Research and Weight Stigma Initiatives, who contributed her expertise to the film. “This film will help educate students across the country about this problem, and the importance of treating each other with respect and tolerance, regardless of one's body size."

Researchers conducted a survey of 487 undergraduate students at an urban university. The survey was conducted over a three-month period during the 2009 – 2010 academic school year and asked students about their perceptions and use of nutrition labels in dining halls.

Ninety-eight percent of the students surveyed indicated that it was a good idea to make nutrition information available either online or in the dining halls for each meal. In addition, the majority of students said that nutrition information would impact their food choices. Most students reported that the calorie and ingredient information were the most important aspects of the nutrition information cards, followed by fat content.

Across the country, states and localities have always played a vital role in safeguarding the public’s health and safety. “Anti Big Brother Government” would have undermined this historically recognized power, asserted Jennifer Pomeranz, JD, MPH Director of Legal Initiatives at the Rudd Center.

Victims of weight discrimination have unsuccessfully sought legal justice through the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 or the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (collectively, the ADA), which protect against discrimination based on mental or physical disabilities in various settings including the workplace. However, a recent amendment to the ADA will have a positive impact on weight-based discrimination, according to researchers from the Rudd Center in a paper published in the journal Obesity.

Previous research in the journal Obesity has documented negative stigma by health providers toward overweight and obese patients, but this is the first study to examine whether physicians themselves are vulnerable to the same weight bias from patients.

The report, "Where children and adolescents view food and beverage ads on TV: Exposure by channel and program," demonstrates that there is no clear differentiation between programming viewed by preschoolers, children, and early adolescents, which makes it difficult to protect children from junk food advertising.