Fed Up!: Winning the War Against Childhood Obesity
Author: Susan Oki
Once dismissed by the medical profession as a purely cosmetic problem, obesity represents an ominous health threat for our children. Obesity is now second only to smoking as a preventable cause of death. Without early intervention, overweight children often become overweight adults - and we know that at any age obesity can lead to diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, and other life-threatening conditions. Diabetes and heart disease alone cause more than 780,000 deaths each year. In fact today's kids may be the first generation in U.S. history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents.
Publishers Weekly
Drawing on up-to-date research as well as personal stories, Okie presents the astounding statistics on what she calls "the fattest generation" and the dire health risk the obesity epidemic poses. Okie, a Harvard-trained family physician and Washington Post medical reporter, tackles obesity's causes methodically and without sensation, explicating the biology of body mass and appetite regulation and the relationship between calorie intake and energy expenditure. She also examines some of the rare hormone problems and genetic disorders that, in a tiny minority of children, can cause obesity. Having explored how obesity lowers self-esteem, the author persuasively shows that recent shifts in the environment are most likely to blame for today's childhood obesity epidemic: sprawling suburban neighborhoods that discourage walking, ballooning portions in restaurant food, poor choices in school lunches, a decline in home cooking and the resulting tendency to snack rather than sit down for a family meal are among the factors she cites. Commenting analytically on pediatricians' reluctance to deal with obesity, Okie documents the innovative efforts of certain states and schools to engineer healthy eating and exercise programs. She also meets and describes several families who have put diet and exercise plans into action, or whose children have been hospitalized for obesity. Never preachy or patronizing, Okie will inform and empower all concerned parents about a problem whose time has come (as shown by a New York Times Magazine piece on the subject and recent books like Generation Extra Large. (Feb.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
Book review: The Prince or Molly Ivins Cant Say That Can She
Stitch in Time ... Life's Most Essential Hand-Sewn Repairs (Finishing Touches Series)
Author: Clarice Taylor
The basic skills of homekeeping once were at everyone's fingertips. But the days when a girl sat at her mother's knee and observed the proper way to sew on a button or a young boy learned how to shine his shoes are long gone. Today, we are more likely to pay someone else to perform these minor repairs, or worse, toss something away simply because we don't know how to mend or clean it.Finishing Touches is a new series of small and stylish guides to the home arts. Easy to understand and clearly illustrated, each book offers complete instruction in the most essential techniques of each topic, beginning with a basic materials guide that details all the basic tools and products one should have on hand at all times. A Stitch in Time… demonstrates the seven basic sewing stitches that everyone should know, along with thirteen emergency fixes-from catching a hanging hem to repairing a torn pocket or ripped zipper-all completed without a machine. Author Bio: CLARICE TAYLOR is passionate about needle arts and handicrafts. Working in humanitarian affairs she has, during her assignments, learned about sewing arts from all over the world.
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