First Lady Michelle Obama suggested that taking small steps like exercising a little more or skipping a cookie ("little things") added up over time and make a big difference in weight gain. However, Tara Parker Pope journalist for the NYT suggests otherwise in her article "In the obesity epidemic, What's one cookie." Numerous scientific studies show that small caloric changes have almost no long-term effect on weight.…

In the December issue of Educational Leadership you'll find a great article on physiologically why we over-eat. It is called, "Finding Our Way Back to Healthy Eating: A Conversation with David A. Kessler."

Kessler points out that "forty or 50 years ago, the U.S. food industry shifted from food that was locally grown to a highly interdependent food distribution network that had many advantages in terms of cost and food safety. …

The Rand Research Corporation released a study indicating that a "nearly free" resource in the childhood obesity crisis is the local school park or playground. The study found that "girls who live farther than a half-mile from a school playground have a 3-percent higher body mass index than girls who do have playgrounds within a half mile of where they live."

The impact of the built environment on helping children and youth…