By analogy with cigarettes, taxes on sodas might discourage people—especially young people—from consuming sugary drinks. This might help with weight issues.

Coca-Cola is out, and soy milk is now part of San Francisco's official city policy. Under an executive order from Mayor Gavin Newsom, Coke, Pepsi and Fanta Orange are no longer allowed in vending machines on city property, although their diet counterparts are - up to a point.

A government program aimed at curbing the disproportionately high rate of diabetes among Native Americans has only one year left, and supporters are urging its renewal. "The rate of those suffering from diabetes is alarming, and we need to continue to build on our efforts to combat it," said Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D. "We made some strides in improving health in Indian Country earlier this year with the passage of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act as part of comprehensive health care reform, but there is still a lot of work to do."

In the bleak cityscape of Philadelphia's poorer neighborhoods, the corner store is both convenience and curse, stocking milk and cheese, as well as junk food and cigarettes. Thanks to federal stimulus money recently pumped into the city, such stores may also start carrying healthier foods, like fresh produce.

Editor's Note: The Food Trust, mentioned in this article, is an RWJF grantee.

Q:Of all the health topics you can tackle, why childhood obesity?
A:Since 1980, obesity has doubled in adults and tripled in children. That, to me, is just astonishing. ... I certainly understand what parents are going through. They're very busy, and trying to juggle all these balls and keep them in the air is very hard. But the real thing is the long-term effects -- the heart disease, diabetes, the strokes, that as a doctor, I would be seeing in the next 10 years. That was really, really frightening.

Maine employers are already coping with rising costs related to overweight and obese workers. But they are in for a lot more if youth obesity rates stay as high as they are now, according to new research by the University of New England.

More than two-thirds of Texas schoolchildren flunked the state's physical fitness test this year, a troubling trend that doctors worry could get worse with the Legislature loosening the requirements for high school gym class.

One Holland neighborhood would look very different if a bill that cleared the state House this week becomes law. City planner Mark Vanderploeg said Holland had planned to put in bicycle lanes and another sidewalk along 40th Street between Washington and Lincoln avenues last year, in addition to the current sidewalk. But residents along 40th objected.

Health advocates, lawmakers, educators, business representatives and outdoor leaders gathered for a one-day conference in Auburn aimed at reducing youth obesity in Maine.

As obesity rates hit record levels, a new study finds that many adults don’t recognize weight problems in their children. The consequences can be severe.

Think the national dialogue on the obesity epidemic in the United States is overblown? Think again. The latest cautionary statistics are contained in the American Heart Association's new scientific statement on Dietary Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Health that concludes our country is on a sugar binge and our sweet tooth is a major reason why more than one-third of Americans are obese.

Sergio Escafuller hopes to change the way people think about fruit and veggies. He’s landed his first job at The Veggie Project, which brings farmers’ markets to communities that tend to have the lowest concentrations of grocery stores and poor produce selection.

The Southern states of the U.S. have some of the highest rates of obesity in the country, according to a new report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The report found that adult obesity rates rose in 28 states over the past year, with Washington, D.C. as the only area that showed a decline. Ten out of 11 states with the highest rates are located in the South; Mississippi has the highest for the sixth year in a row.

A day after a large national study that included San Antonio showed that healthier food and more exercise in middle school can lower obesity rates in heavy kids, a second paper from the same study warned that there's a lot of them who are really, really heavy. The HEALTHY study, which followed 4,600 students through three years of middle school, found that 7 percent of them were severely obese in the sixth grade — in the 99th percentile for their age and gender.

Most parents think childhood obesity is a problem. Just not their kids' problem. An annual obesity report by two public health groups includes more bad news — obesity rates increased in 28 states last year — and also a new survey of parental attitudes about the issue. The survey shows an increasing awareness of obesity and its threat to public health, though that knowledge has yet to translate into results.

For almost 40 years the federal nutrition program known as Women, Infants and Children (WIC) has given its participants the same package of food. High-fat items such as milk, peanut butter, eggs and cheese took up the bulk of the groceries given to pregnant women and children younger than 5 years old. All that changed in October 2009, when WIC cut back on the fruit juice and fattier foods and added fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains to the menu… Now California's WIC program has decided to go a step further in making fresh produce available to its participants by allowing them to shop at local farmers markets.

The U.S. government has just served up a heaping mouthful to people who eat — the Report of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. It not only squarely addresses the undeniable — that two-thirds of American adults are either overweight or obese and that our children are on a similar trajectory — it also recasts some advice we have heard before: urging Americans, for instance, to shift their diets away from meat and animal protein and fats — foods such as red meat, cheese and butter — toward a more "plant-based diet," a term that includes not just fresh fruits and vegetables but also foods such as nuts and lentils and olive or canola oil.

Tantalizing evidence that America's epidemic of childhood obesity might be starting to subside was presented Sunday by researchers who also found that the trend could be speeded up through school programs. Several recent studies reported that rates of overweight and obese children plateaued after rising rapidly since 1980. But this is the first major study to detect a decline - of 4 percent - and it was in a national sample dominated by low-income blacks and Hispanics, the groups at highest risk.

The value of a farmers market is fairly evident: fresh, healthful produce, grown locally. But for the more than 115,000 people in the Kansas City area who rely on government food assistance, the markets were virtually off limits. Many farmers take cash only, and not many have a scanner for the Electronic Benefit Transfer cards that food stamp recipients use. A new program launched over the weekend aims to change that.

Nutrition specialists are redesigning the cafeteria menus and adding to the curriculum for J.S. Clark Elementary, one of the few schools in the state chosen to participate in the Healthy U.S. Challenge grant. Monroe City Schools Food Nutrition Supervisor Stephanie Weaver said the district is one of only five in Louisiana chosen to receive the grant, which will provide $10,000 to the school for an increased focus on nutrition and exercise.