Overweight

You've heard about the "Wheat Belly" diet, right? Well, technically, it doesn't exist. Dr. William Davis points out that the word "diet" does not appear on either the cover of his bestselling "Wheat Belly" book published in 2011 or on the follow-up, "Wheat Belly Cookbook," which was published last month and already tops bestseller lists. And that omission is intentional, Davis said. "Wheat Belly" is about stripping your plate of a substance that contributes to heart disease, causes joint pain, inflammation, foggy thinking, bloating and much more, Davis said.

When teensy-weensy Samoa Airlines debuted its pay-by-the-kilo policy in January, I doubt it expected to set off an international controversy about fat discrimination. But that's what happened when news seeped out this week after the airline's chief executive, Chris Langton, told ABC News radio in Australia that the system is not only fair but destined to catch on. “Doesn't matter whether you're carrying freight or people,” explained Langton. "We've amalgamated the two and worked out a figure per kilo.” Samoa Air, he added, has always weighed the human and non-human cargo it carries.

The percentage of American children who are overweight or obese has been growing for decades, and now nearly one in three has a body mass index that's greater than normal. Although evidence suggests that obesity rates are leveling off overall, for some groups of kids — especially poor or minority kids — the problem continues to grow, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs. Using data from the 2007 National Survey of Children's Health, the study showed marked regional differences.

The morbidly obese protagonist of "The Whale," the latest play by Samuel Hunter running at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, weighs close to 600 pounds, scarfs meatball subs and hasn't left his dingy apartment for months. Creating the character of Charlie has been a technical challenge for the play's production team, which includes several costume fitters and an Academy Award-winning makeup artist. By far the biggest challenge belongs to actor Matthew Arkin. For eight performances a week, he must wear a 30-pound costume - he refuses to call it a fat suit - that is made out of Lycra, nylon, micro foam beads and foam sculpted from king-sized pillows.

In response to "Too Much of a Good Thing," by Greg Critser, Opinion, July 22: For the past 15 years I have served as the medical director of the KidShape program, a family-based pediatric weight-management program that has treated thousands of children ages 6 to 14. KidShape is offered both in English and in Spanish and is available for children and families who are recipients of Medi-Cal, are in Healthy Families or are private payers. KidShape teaches children and their parents the basics of nutrition, including proper portions.

Even with report after report documenting the nation's considerable girth and the perils of obesity, millions of men and women nonetheless remain blissfully unaware that they have a weight problem. Those who do recognize it tend to underestimate its severity. A National Consumers League survey conducted by Harris Interactive in 2007 found that adults consistently identify themselves as being less severely overweight than they actually are. Eighty-two percent of obese people surveyed considered themselves to be simply overweight; among those who were in fact only overweight, close to 1 in 3 believed that they were normal weight.

Americans are in the midst of so many crises — healthcare, economic, environmental — that it seems unfair to add another to the list. But nothing makes us crazier than fat kids. Lately we're calling it "the childhood obesity epidemic," but it's much more complicated than that. I was a fat kid once upon a time, when fat kids were less common and easy targets for derision, Judy Blume's "Blubber" notwithstanding. Then Karen Carpenter died of anorexia and everyone began wringing their hands over the pressure put on young women to conform to a scaled-down beauty ideal.

After spending the majority of her 48 years trying, and failing, to slim down, Veronica Mahaffey was still 50 pounds overweight -- not morbidly obese by a long shot, but still far from the size she wanted. Worried about her health, she called a San Diego weight-loss surgery clinic last spring and asked for help. She was told no. At 185 pounds and with a body mass index of 28, the Ramona mother of four was not heavy enough to meet medical guidelines or insurance company qualifications for weight-loss surgery.

Steve Wynn, owner of the Mirage, should sue Buster Douglas for $20 million for breaking his contract. He came in overweight, out of shape and half asleep. STEVEN VICKERY Goleta

Let's BE honest -- most of us are able to exercise, we just choose not to. We set up our own roadblocks that undermine whatever intentions we may have to be physically active. But obese women may have more roadblocks. A study presented at the Obesity Society's meeting in Phoenix last week found that they create more mental barriers that keep them from exercising than normal or underweight women. Researchers from the Center for Obesity Research and Education and the kinesiology department at Temple University in Philadelphia surveyed 105 overweight and obese women and 173 normal and underweight women in a home-based exercise promotion trial.

Many American parents can't see that their kids are overweight, according to a poll released Monday. According to the survey , which was conducted by National Public Radio, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health, only 15% of parents interviewed said that their children were a little or very overweight. National studies have shown that about a third of children in the U.S. -- twice as many as the poll responses reflected -- are overweight or obese.

It's a common medical refrain: Carrying extra pounds raises the risk of ills such as heart disease and diabetes and therefore the risk of a premature death. But does that heightened risk of early death apply across the board to those who are merely overweight? A new analysis of nearly 3 million people suggests maybe not. The finding, published online Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., pooled data from 97 studies encompassing adult men and women in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan, Brazil, India and Mexico.

It really wasn't a surprise to see the Clippers play such an uneven exhibition game against the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night at Staples Center. The Clippers spent last week in China playing two games against the Miami Heat, returning home Sunday afternoon after a 10-hour flight. So, not only was the plan to limit minutes for his key players in their fourth exhibition game, but Clippers Coach Vinny Del Negro also held out Lamar Odom and Grant Hill because of nagging injuries and for rest.

The big man has a message for everyone who doubts him. Two simple words for fans who call him soggy around the middle and too slow down the court. A succinct reply to detractors who insist that he has squandered his God-given talent - and hurt his team - by habitually eating his way out of shape. Joshua Smith nods his head: "They're right. " And UCLA's center, a lightning rod for criticism over the past two years, realizes the skeptics will not be easily swayed. Not by the fact that he returned from summer vacation incrementally slimmer.

A twin-engine plane that crashed shortly after takeoff in Long Beach last year, killing several prominent community members, was 653 pounds overweight and might have had water in its fuel tanks, according to National Transportation Safety Board records. Real estate broker and cycling activist Mark Bixby, 44, a descendant of one of the city's founding families, was among the five killed in the fiery crash of the Beech Super King 200 as it took off from Long Beach Airport for a Utah ski trip in March 2011.

I was a pioneer of childhood obesity. By the time I was a junior in high school, I weighed more than 200 pounds. I was a fat kid before being a fat kid made you the topic of a national conversation and the first lady's pet project, back when Gatorade still tasted gross and no one knew how many calories there were in anything. For most of my childhood, I was the only fat girl in my class - I can still name the other two fat girls in my grade. Now, fat kids fill the playground and the high school bleachers, including a whole new breed of fat girl who wears skin tight jeans and mid-riffs and dares anyone to say anything.

Three days before Magic Johnson came back, NBC said he was 17 pounds overweight. Two days before the game, ESPN said he was 27 pounds overweight. The day before the game, CNN said he was 30 pounds overweight. At this point, I expected to see either Nate Newton or Stanley Roberts waddle onto the court. At this rate, Magic will probably look like Akebono at the end of the season. MATTHEW A. BERNSTEIN Los Angeles A little suggestion to Laker announcer Stu Lantz: When describing Magic's ability to make his teammates raise their level of play, contagious is probably not a good choice of words.

The July 23 article "Worth Its Weight in Debate" quotes Paul Campos, who is stuffing himself with a high-fat meal and admits to being overweight per the government guidelines. He dismisses this as junk science. I know several people who are grossly overweight, including two men who are taller than six feet but weigh more than 350 pounds each; and a woman who tips the scales at nearly 400 pounds and is only about 5 feet, 6 inches tall. I know what these people go through on a daily basis, and it offends me to read of a man who has not apparently experienced severe obesity.

When roasted at 475 degrees, coffee beans are sometimes described as rich and full-bodied. But for the full-bodied person who is not so rich, unroasted coffee beans - green as the day they were picked - may hold the key to cheap and effective weight loss, new research suggests. In a study presented Tuesday at the American Chemical Society's spring national meeting in San Diego, 16 overweight young adults took, by turns, a low dose of green coffee bean extract, a high dose of the supplement, and a placebo.

Does your seafood look more succulent than it is? “Overglazing” fish by adding layers of ice and “soaking” scallops to boost bloat are common -- and fraudulent -- tactics that federal seafood officials say they're trying to curb. Economic fraud is endemic is at least 40% of products submitted to the seafood inspection program at the National Marine Fisheries Service, chief quality officer Steven Wilson said at the International Boston Seafood Show this week. In at least 80% of those cases, added weighting that raises seafood prices is at fault, according to the Associated Press . "We've decided we're going to take on the economic fraud concern," Wilson said at the confab.