Investigators from the University of Minnesota have found a direct association between parenting style and the frequency of meals eaten together as a family and that an authoritative parenting style was associated with more frequent family meals. Their data further indicated that family meals have a positive influence on adolescents to eat a healthy diet…

The nutritional situation of children in Niger has deteriorated considerably in the last 12 months, according to the results of the annual survey on child nutrition publicly released this Thursday. The World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF urge the international community to mobilize all necessary resources to enable them to protect and heal suffering children…

Over half of malnourished patients in hospital also show signs of depression, according to a small-scale study presented today at the International Congress of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Edinburgh. Doctors from Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust in London studied 129 elderly patients who were admitted to medical wards in August 2009…

Normal weight and underweight teenage girls who falsely believe they are overweight are at significantly greater risk of succumbing to unnecessary and unsafe weight-loss behaviors than girls who can accurately assess their weight status, according to new research by a University of Illinois expert in eating disorders and body-image perception. Janet M…

Web sites that promote anorexia and bulimia offer interactive communities where site users can encourage one another in unhealthy eating behaviors, yet the majority of these sites also recognize eating disorders as a disease, according to new research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public health and the Stanford University School of Medicine…

A hormone that helps to regulate blood sugar levels may also influence a person’s sensitivity to sweet-tasting foods, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. They found that blocking the tongue’s ability to respond to the hormone known as glucagon decreases the taste system’s sensitivity to sweetness…

Our brains contain a highly distorted model of our own bodies, according to new research by scientists at UCL (University College London). A study just published, which focussed on the brain’s representation of the hand, found that our model of our bodies is out of sync with reality – with a strong tendency to think that the hands are shorter and fatter than their true shape…

For the first time, scientists have discovered a possible biological culprit in the development of eating disorders during puberty: a type of estrogen called estradiol…

A nutrient that’s common to all living things can make hibernating marmots hungry – a breakthrough that could help scientists understand human obesity and eating disorders, according to a new study by a Colorado State University biologist. The study appears in the current issue of the Journal of Experimental Biology. The full paper is available at http://jeb.biologists…

College cheerleaders are at high risk for body image issues and eating disorders – and may be affected by how revealing their uniforms are, according to a study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine’s 57th Annual Meeting in Baltimore. Toni Torres-McGehee, Ph.D., ATC, studied 136 Division-I and Division-II college cheerleaders to determine if position (base, flyer, etc…