Chasing monsters, ghosts and other costumed villains has paid off for the Mystery Inc. gang.

Despite the constant scarfing down of Scooby Snax, burgers, pizza and chicken wings, Scooby Doo has just been named the "healthiest" cartoon character for British children to watch, along with his mystery-solving sidekicks.

The Scooby crew snagged #1 on the UK Department of Health's new ranking for being the most active (and thus the best role models for kids) based on 200 hours of cartoon-watching by the DoH, which separately is partnering with the LazyTown TV (#3 on the new list) to get kids up and moving.

The new ranking of DoH-approved cartoon characters:Continue reading...

Boston isn't the only US city that's not sweet on sugar these days. In what seems to be a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, sugar producers are suing corn processors in Los Angeles for peddling unhealthy products.

C&H Sugar and other groups of sugar-cane and beet farmers sued in Los Angeles this week to block Cargill, Archer-Daniels-Midland and other members of the Corn Refiners Association who produce high-fructose corn syrup from rebranding their product as "corn sugar."

The court battle kicked off today, with sugar farmers claiming they want to save nutrition-minded Americans from the companies' false advertising and efforts to undermine good ol' American healthy eating. 

It's no surprise that even sugar producers would want to keep their distance from the HFCS Complex these days.Continue reading...

New York City aimed to disgust New Yorkers on the notion of imbibing sugary beverages with a graphic campaign that launched last fall (all that was missing were street signs warning, "Don't even think about drinking that soda.")

Now it's Boston's turn to crack down on sweetened soda brands. Beantown officials have launched a public health media blitz including spots that state: "Don’t get smacked by fat. Calories from sugary beverages like soda, sweet tea, and sports drinks can cause obesity and type 2 diabetes."

As you'll see below, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino is on a mission to rid the streets of the public health scourges.Continue reading...

Tony the Tiger is changing roles with the times, and so is advertising for the Kellogg's Frosted Flakes that he has so distinctively represented for 60 years. The cereal giant is asking its venerable mascot to play offense instead of defense in a new approach to advertising its so-non-PC sugary cereal.

Kellogg's TV ad features an athletic Tony clowning around in the back yard with a father, his young son, and playing baseball.

With the noose tightening around Kellogg's freedom to advertise Frosted Flakes to kids, because regulators and activists are trying to further throttle promotion of suspect foods directly to children, the company has decided to try some new tactics.

Instead of targeting moms, Kellogg's is aiming directly at fathers. As Ad Age notes, more dads are buying groceries these days, and more fathers say they're eating Frosted Flakes along with their children.Continue reading...

Everybody knows by now (or should) that there is an obesity epidemic in America, particularly among children. And a good chunk of the blame can go to the wide availability of high-sugar, high-calorie, low nutritional value food.

But how do those products continue to sustain themselves? How do such things keep being selected from grocery-store shelves in a culture that constantly congratulates itself on putting our kids first! After all, they’re our future, right?

A new study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health lays some blame on the nagging abilities of American 3- to 5-year-olds, according to USA Today.Continue reading...

Tattoos as personal branding is a growing trend for people living with HIV who want to communicate their status, as seen in the above video of Michael Lee Howard:

It's a branding of who I am, and it's a branding of being comfortable with that, being comfortable with who I am and particularly the ribbon because after five years I've gone through a huge amount of stuff to get to where I'm at now.

Howard is tattooed with a biohazard symbol on his right arm and a radiation symbol on his left. The origin of HIV-related tattoos is unclear, but the biohazard symbol is a clear sign "to let other men know that they're HIV-positive so that they don't have to come out and say it… a "secret identification code," said David Dempsey, clinical director at the Alexian Brothers Bonaventure House in Chicago and The Harbor in Waukegan, Illinois, transitional living facilities for HIV-positive people in drug and alcohol recovery.Continue reading...

McDonald's USA President Jan Fields has kicked off the brand's first ever "listening tour," at the BlogHer conference in San Diego.

The Hillary Clinton-style move to engage parents (particularly moms — ideally, those who blog with vast Twitter and Facebook networks) was promised as part of its new nutrition commitment that was announced on July 25th. That's when the company announced its menu overhaul a "series of town hall style meetings (that) will connect us directly with parents and nutrition experts for important dialogue about how McDonald’s can continue to play a role in children’s well being."

McDonald's executives also talked up its new Family Arches online community, signing up members of the private community at a boot at the conference. Above, listen to Fields field questions — and, well, listen.

Americans would agree that they don’t want carmakers in the bedroom or their accountant’s office. But what about their doctor’s office?

Ford, Toyota and General Motors are among auto companies developing and demonstrating new technologies that could turn their vehicles into rolling health clinics, with various types of telematics (electronic systems) able to monitor heart rates, blood-sugar readings, air quality for asthmatics and other safety criteria and medical conditions.

The technology is relatively "easy" because modern cars already are highly advanced electronic environments full of sensors, digital readouts, wireless-communications devices and other essential building blocks of medical-monitoring systems. And automakers argue that the need is a crying one:  About 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day, and 26 million Americans have diabetes.Continue reading...