Author wants to take a bite out of obesity

This just in off the PR Newswire:

A new study reported in the journal Pediatrics shows that when infants are exposed to fruits and vegetables repeatedly, they’re more likely to not only eat them, but to actually want to eat them. Researchers in Philadelphia looked at a group of 45 4- to 8-month-olds and found that the babies ate more green beans when they were fed these vegetables repeatedly, regardless of whether they had already developed a taste for sweeter peaches.

“This study confirms the ideas behind my new book, The ABC's of Fruits and Vegetables and Beyond (Ceres Press, $16.95),” says David Goldbeck, its coauthor and creator. “The central concepts are to have kids’ first words – their ‘ABCs’ to be for example, ‘B is for banana’ and ‘T is for tomato,’ instead of ‘ball’ and ‘truck.’ After teaching kids the alphabet through fruits and vegetables, I continue to strengthen kid’s relationship to these important foods in new contexts (such as jokes and geography), in order to develop an easy-going relationship with them."

Obesity rates in the U.S. have tripled among children ages 2 to 5 and nearly quintupled among 6- to 11-year-olds since the 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The medical consequences amount to an estimated $100 billion a year and an immeasurable amount of human suffering. Kentucky cardiologist, Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., nominated as the next surgeon general, says fighting childhood obesity is his top priority.