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    The Weekly Skinny: All the healthy news you need (9-4-09)

    By | Healthy Living – Fri, Sep 4, 2009 4:41 AM EDT



    Would a tax on junk foods and soft drinks help stem childhood obesity? A new report says it would be a good start. FatFighterTV has a look at this story and other diet and fitness headlines making news this week.

    Should the U.S. tax junk foods and soft drinks to fight childhood obesity    ?
    The fight against childhood obesity seems to be gaining momentum lately. Last month, HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, talked about making it a priority to reverse the trend at The Weight of the Nation conference. This week, a new report from the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council recommends steps local governments can take to cut the rates of childhood obesity. Putting a tax on soft drinks and junk food is high on the list.Taxing high sugar drinks has come up before. Do you think it's a good solution? Would it keep you from buying soft drinks and junk food?

    Regular drinkers exercise more than nondrinkers
    This is one of those studies that makes you go, hmmm… A new report finds people who drink regularly seem to exercise more often than those who don't drink, and those who have more than a drink or two a day on average may be the most active. The results show heavy drinkers - women who have at least 46 drinks a month, and men who have 76 or more - exercised for an average of 20 minutes more per week than nondrinkers.Hmmm… I would actually expect it to be the opposite!

    Those heavily in debt more likely to be overweight
    We've talked about how easy it is to put on "recession pounds" during this tough economy. Now, a new report finds people who are badly in debt are more likely to be overweight or obese. Researchers say "overindebted" people - those who can't pay off debts in a reasonable amount of time - are about twice as likely to be overweight as the general population and they are more than 2.5 times as likely to be obese.

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