“More than 50 percent of the food dollar is spent outside the home now, and that’s a big difference [from] what it was several decades ago. People are eating outside because they’re on the move, they have crowded schedules, they want to take the family out for a treat – and there are so many restaurants out there now to cater to this need. … The problem is when you go out, you tend to eat more and you tend to eat worse than when you eat at home.” — Kelly Brownell

“There are medical consequences to obesity, but there are also psychological, social and financial ones that matter, that really bear down on people and can really make their lives very, very unhappy.” — Kelly Brownell [complete interview here]

Percent of Obese Americans by State in U.S. in 2010. [via CDC]

There’s this funny paradox is that nearly every diet works and nearly no diet works at the same time. A diet may be effective in the short term because you’re cutting your calories. So you can do that with cabbage soup, molasses, chicken tenders. If you cut your calories back, you’re going to lose weight. But the diets can be very unsafe. And they also tend to not work in the long term, because people can’t stay on them very well.

— Psychologist Kelly Brownell on dieting.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is now, by far, the largest funder of work in this country on childhood obesity. They’re spending $100 million a year on the problem. The food industry spends that amount every year by Jan. 4, just marketing junk food – just to children.

— Psychologist Kelly Brownell on how food companies market junk food to kids.

The numbers are staggering: One-third of Americans are obese; another third are overweight. Some 26 million Americans have Type 2 diabetes. An additional 79 million more are pre-diabetic. Thanks to these figures, the children of today have a good chance of becoming the first generation of Americans to die at younger ages than their parents.

Today: Why we’re getting fat. Obesity expert Kelly Brownell will explain why changes in eating habits, the food we eat and our sedentary lifestyles pose serious threat to adults and children.