After more than 9 years at PLOS.org, Obesity Panacea is moving.  We would like to take this time to thank PLOS for hosting us during these years, and for being supportive of science blogging and science communication in general.  Obesity Panacea will be moving back to our original home at ObesityPanacea.com.  All of our PLOS posts have already been moved there, where you can read our full archive. If you subscribe to Obesity Panacea via…

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On this blog I write frequently about sedentary behaviour.  And of course I focus on the topics that interest me personally. But I’d like to know – what questions do you have about sedentary behaviour?  What interests you the most about it?  What concerns do you have? What (if anything) have you done to reduce your sedentary time at home or work? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to comment below, or click…

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Last December I reviewed a number of options for parents looking to manage their kids’ screen time. One of the options that struck me as most useful was OurPact, an app that allows parents to limit their kids’ phone use by setting time limits, bed times, completely restricting certain apps, etc.  Or at least, OurPact used to be able to do these things, before Apple took those abilities away. OurPact is not the only app…

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How strong is your pelvic floor? If you are like me, you may have no idea what it even is, let alone how strong it is. For those who are unaware, the pelvic floor consists of several muscles that run under your pelvis, and essentially stop your guts from falling out of your body.  They are also how we control our pee and poo – a weak pelvic floor means you may not be able…

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Ninety-eight per cent of children now live in homes with internet-connected devices. (Shutterstock) Researchers, doctors, public health officials and parents are all trying to make sense of the impact of screen time on children. Some historians argue that every new technology has been vilified — from the printing press and television to digital technology. Others argue that the accessibility, intensity and desirability of digital media is different. And research shows that 98 per cent of…

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In the past few months I have had increasingly frequent conversations with people about their children’s (usually boys) time spent playing Fortnite. For those who are unaware, Fortnite is a video game that can be played on computer, as well as a range of video game consoles and even smartphones and tablets. The most popular form of the game is the Battle Royale, which is essentially “a mass online brawl where 100 players leap out…

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Given my research interests, I spend a lot of time thinking about the way we integrate (and fail to integrate) physical activity and sedentary behaviour into our lives.  Rarely has this been more obvious than last summer, when I flew through Terminal 3 at Pearson airport in Toronto. I had about 5 hours to kill at the airport, so I took my bags and headed to a bar for a beer. An iPad was stuck front…

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I wrote the below post 3 years ago.  Not much has changed.  I go to the gym a bit more often than I used to, and I’m sleeping more than I used to.  Both are likely due to the fact that my son is a bit older now, and both are likely to be destroyed by a new baby in the near future.  The way we have structured our lives simply makes it way too…

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As I mentioned in a recent post, I have a lot of conversations with teachers and parents about screen use.  My wife is an elementary school teacher, so we have a lot of these conversations around the dinner table as well. One practice that comes up a lot is that screens are used frequently to help with classroom management.  This can be done in a few different ways – by showing videos at lunch time,…

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I’m writing this seated on a plane heading to San Francisco. We’ve been in the air for under an hour, and the drink cart is just starting to make its way down the aisle. As the cart rolls nearer I’m forced to decide what drink I’ll be having. Since the cups are minuscule, and the liquid is largely displaced by ice cubes if one’s not quick enough to add “no ice, please” to the order,…

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