The “Start Something with Alesse” contest was developed to encourage girls to be creative. Contestants entered their ideas for new businesses, charities, etc., in the hopes of winning five thousand dollars. Alyssa Fontaine Reid - and her company “Planet Pounds” - is one of the finalists in the contest, and we spoke with her about how she hopes to end global malnutrition. (You can vote in the contest until February 13 here.)

WatchMojo - What made you enter the “Start Something with Alesse” Contest? continue reading...

Chubby aerobics instructors, overweight vegetarians and caffeine addicted trainers, Oh my! continue reading...

Did you know that a medium-sized popcorn and medium soda at the nation’s largest movie chain have the same nutritional value of three Quarter Pounders topped with 12 pats of butter?! I didn’t! continue reading...

This is not new information for most of us, but it’s always nice to be reminded of the benefits of our healthy habits or a reminder of why we should develop these habits. continue reading...

Men and women have different nutritional needs - therefore there are foods that are more important for each to eat.  Here are a few, and why they’re important: continue reading...

Food manufacturers love them because they’re cheap, give food a longer shelf life and add flavor. We love to hate them because they make foods like donuts, pastries and fries hard to resist, but are a hazard to our health and diet. continue reading...

OAKLAND, Calif., March 11 /PRNewswire/ — Findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the largest weight loss maintenance study to date reinforce Kaiser Permanente’s approach to obesity prevention. The combination of both personal contact and web-based support are identified as the key to successful, long-term weight management. Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., was the coordinating center for the Weight Loss Maintenance Trial of 1,032 overweight and obese adults and provided five of the study co-authors.

“The big discovery of this study is that losing weight and keeping it off is possible if you have ongoing, long-term support,” said study second author Victor J. Stevens, Ph.D. a senior researcher at Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research. “Everyone in this country — men, women, and children of every racial group — is getting heavier because our society promotes eating too much and not getting enough exercise. We all need a personal health coach, and hopefully health care systems can provide that. That’s why Kaiser Permanente does research: to find successful programs that fit into routine medical care, and that’s what this study shows.” continue reading...

Any time we avoid cramming pills into children’s systems, parents have to listen and take note:

Characterized by hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and the inability to focus, ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed behavioral disorder in childhood, affecting from 3 percent to 5 percent of U.S. school-age children.  Most parents and physicians treat ADHD with medication—in fact, the use of medication tripled worldwide between 1993 and 2003, with the United States prescribing more medication for ADHD than any other country. Yet some parents have taken a rigorous look at their child’s diet, as a substitute for or in conjunction with meds, in an effort to minimize symptoms and ultimately sidestep a dependency on drugs. continue reading...