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More educated people who make more money have lower rates of several chronic diseases, including obesity, compared to people with lower education and income levels, according to Health, United States, 2011, a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report.

The town will soon kick off its "Healthy East Hartford Program" — involving the local YMCA and a nationally recognized community planning consultant — to promote more active lifestyles for residents. For its role in the national Pioneering Healthier Community program, the East Hartford YMCA has received a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to work with community leaders to reduce childhood obesity. The grant funds will allow for the town and the YMCA to work with Mark Fenton, an MIT-trained biomechanical engineer who is a community design and planning consultant.

Last year, the average American drank slightly under two sodas a day, a drop in per capita consumption of about 16 percent since the peak in 1998, according to Beverage Digest, a trade publication. What began as a slow decline accelerated in the middle of the last decade and now threatens some of the best-known brands in the business.

Editor’s Note: The Alliance for a Healthier Generation is mentioned in this article, and the Alliance’s Healthy Schools Program is a grantee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

A new HBO documentary series, The Weight of the Nation, explores how our country got this way and what can be done to tackle what has become a growing national health crisis... "Very rarely do you hear the human stories [behind the epidemic]," says psychologist Kelly Brownell, who is featured in the documentary and directs the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale.

Editor’s Note: The Rudd Center is a grantee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) introduced a bill Monday to stop the amount of tomato paste used on a children's slice of pizza from counting as a serving of vegetables in school lunches, arguing that the standard effectively qualifies pizza as a vegetable. He said he hopes the measure can be included in this year's farm bill.

First, we should limit the marketing of fast food and junk food to kids. Young people are just not in a position to make wise choices when it comes to sweets and treats... How about a cigarette-style tax on such foods and beverages, with the proceeds going toward obesity research and wellness programs? How about higher insurance rates for the overweight, just as smokers typically pay more for health coverage? Meanwhile, there needs to be more attention paid to giving people healthful choices. This means incentives to encourage supermarkets and produce stores to open in lower-income neighborhoods, and perhaps subsidies to lower the price of organic fruits and vegetables.

In order for America to reverse the dangerously unhealthy trend toward obesity, it’s going to take action on multiple fronts. That was the takeaway message from the report released last week by the Institute of Medicine.

Editor’s Note: This report was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The first lady is partnering with the U.S. Olympic Committee, the Partnership for a Healthier America, U.S. Paralympics and numerous national governing bodies that have pledged their time and resources toward introducing young people to their sports over the course of the summer.

Though there are no easy answers for food deserts, obesity and other health-related issues, data (and common sense) strongly suggest that working to improve access to healthy foods in areas where it's needed is one of many ways to address the problem. Denying there is a problem at all may construct a roadblock to innovative solutions that could ultimately improve the health of Coloradans -- and keep us from getting sideswiped by Colorado's obesity epidemic.

WalkBoston, through a grant from the MetroWest Health Foundation is working with officials in Franklin, Northborough and Milford to identify walkable areas and map out routes that show the distance and time to walk between shops, historical landmarks, schools and other destinations.

In its continuing quest to be the "bike friendliest" city, Long Beach hopes to extend its pedal-pushing mission to west and north portions of the city.

The latest Community Report Card from the Coordinating Council of Calhoun County said 17 percent of middle schoolers, 16 percent of high schoolers and 38 percent of local adults were obese in 2009. To combat that, Valley View’s Mileage Club invites students to walk or run quarter-mile laps at recess and earn punches in foot-shaped mileage cards. Every five miles, kids get a toe-shaped token that they can collect for prizes such as T-shirts, water bottles and more.

In the Journal of Preventive Medicine on Monday, health-policy experts estimated that 42 percent of American adults will be obese in 2030. That’s a 9-point drop from an earlier projection. Forgive us if we don’t cheer at the prospect of adding 32 million to the total number of Americans who are dozens of pounds too heavy, a count that stood in 2010 at 78 million. It’s not easy to transform deeply ingrained habits and attitudes, particularly given humans’ biological predisposition to gobble calories and remain at rest. But as a National Academy of Sciences report released on Tuesday indicates, there are policies worth trying. Like the battle against tobacco, the fight against obesity might be a slow, hard campaign in changing minds and behaviors. But it is no less important.

What you see is what you eat, according to the latest study to confirm that TV viewing encourages children to eat more junk food. But the researchers say there may be an easy way to counter unhealthy snacking in front of the tube, simply by putting healthier foods within easy reach. Leah Lipsky and Ronal Iannotti, staff scientists at the Eunice Kennedy Shrive National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, report that for every hour of television children watch, they are 8% less likely to eat fruit every day, 18% more likely to eat candy, and 16% more likely to eat fast food.

The Special Supplemental Nutritional Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) provides nutrient-rich foods and nutritional counseling to those who need it. Ideally, participation in the WIC program alleviates some of the economic and the emotional stress on parents. That, theorized a group of researchers from a variety of institutions (including the University of Maryland and Boston University Schools of Medicine), should mean healthier parents and healthier children — and according to their research, reported in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, it did.

Fortunately, many Northeast Ohio residents seem eager to unite to battle the bulge. No one initiative or conference or slogan will be enough, but making this issue a priority can lead to a healthier region.

A coalition of health advocacy groups on Wednesday urged the U.S. government to put more resources into school-based efforts to improve health and fight obesity among youth. The recommendations by the Healthy Schools Campaign and Trust for America's Health were backed by more than 70 groups including the American Cancer Society and the National Education Association.

Fairfax-based Safe Routes to Schools was one of six groups in the nation to receive the Centers for Disease Control's Pioneering Innovation Award for its work toward preventing and controlling obesity. "This really is recognition for Marin which got the pilot program going," said Fairfax resident Deb Hubsmith, director of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership.

Editor’s Note: The Safe Routes to School National Partnership is a grantee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The federal government is spending $4 million to help hook up farmers and low-income customers. Currently, fewer than a quarter of the nation’s roughly 7,100 farmers markets are set up to use the Electronic Benefit Transfer system, or food stamps. But Kathleen Merrigan, deputy secretary of agriculture, said she hopes these grants will bring another 4,000 of those outlets on line with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

City schools are expected to be healthier places in September when new nutrition policies, approved by the School Board last month, take effect. The new policies, some of which have been in development for five years, represent a change in the way schools around the country feed students and teach them about nutrition. While the changes may be drastic at some schools, they represent something the Portland Public Schools have been doing for several years.