Tagged: Obesity

Slowing the rising rates of obesity in this country by just 1 percent a year over the next two decades would slice the costs of health care by $85 billion.

Keep obesity rates where they are now — well below a 33 percent increase that's been expected by some — and the savings would hit nearly $550 billion over the same 20 years.

Endurance athletes sometimes say they're "addicted" to exercise. In fact, scientists have shown that rhythmic, continuous exercise — aerobic exercise — can in fact produce narcoticlike chemicals in the body.

Now researchers suggest that those chemicals may have helped turn humans, as well as other animals, into long-distance runners.

The man behind the research is University of Arizona anthropologist David Raichlen, a runner himself. He does about 25 miles a week.

An American tradition is in jeopardy.

The bake sale, a staple of school fundraising for generations, is getting squeezed. The epidemic of childhood obesity is leading some districts to restrict the kinds of foods sold or to ban the sales altogether, Bloomberg Businessweek's Stephanie Armour explained on Friday's Morning Edition.