Michelle Obama's visit to Philadelphia on Friday will focus on a critical component of her campaign against obesity — access to healthy food. Millions of low-income and minority families live in what have been tagged "food deserts," areas that lack supermarkets or other places to buy fresh, healthy food. But "food deserts" are not empty. In fact, they are dotted with thousands of corner stores that carry little healthy food but a lot of empty calories. The snacks that kids buy there add hundreds of calories to their daily diets, according to a study by Temple University’s Center for Obesity Research and Education and the Food Trust that was published last year in the journal Pediatrics.

February 16, 2010 | 6ABC

The benefits of breastfeeding are well documented. However, other claims — such as giving a child a higher IQ or less of a risk of obesity — aren't as strong. "You can't put your finger on any one issue that sets in stone how much someone is going to weigh or how smart they are going to be when they grow up," said Paul Lyons of Temple’s School of Medicine. Katie DiSantis, a research associate at Temple, said that her research indicates breastfed infants have lower obesity rates because the mothers look more to the infants for fullness cues rather than focusing on emptying the bottle.

February 16, 2010 | Metro (Canada)

Chances are slimmer that your kids will be fat if they eat meals at home, don’t watch too much TV, and get lots of sleep. Researchers including co-author Robert Whitaker, professor of public health and pediatrics at Temple, analyzed data on thousands of four-year-olds to find out whether some good, old-fashioned household habits were associated with lower risk for obesity. And the results were quite dramatic. There was a lower risk of obesity associated with 10 and a half hours of sleep each night, two hours maximum of screen-viewing time per day, and family meals more than five times per week.

February 16, 2010 | WHYY-FM's "Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane"

Last week Michelle Obama announced a new initiative to combat childhood obesity called "Let’s Move." Since 1980, childhood obesity rates have increased threefold. The First Lady's plan calls for healthy school lunches, increased physical activity, healthier eating at home, and improved access to nutritious foods in rural areas and inner cities. Some fear children aren't interested in healthy foods. According to Gary Foster, director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple, "Children will eat nutritious foods if they’re offered at school. We also need to look at schools’ policies more broadly: Do we sell candy for the annual fundraiser?"