Rudd Center Creates Blog for Discussion, Debate of Obesity Epidemic

The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale goes live today with a blog that encourages people to discuss topics ranging from how advertising determines what children eat to what pressures a bride-to-be is facing to squeeze into a size-four gown.

The center was founded last year in response to the obesity epidemic as well as to the prejudice faced by people who are obese. As a practitioner of “strategic science” designed to develop solutions to this major public health problem, the Rudd Center is a trusted source of information. The blog www.ruddsoundbites.typepad.com will add an interactive dimension to the center’s work as it allows visitors to contribute their own comments to the center’s posted articles.

New posts will be added daily by a pool of internal authors and future invited  perspectives from various professions. Many contributors from the Rudd Center are young adults and hope to move their generation toward greater awareness of the serious problem obesity poses.

The blog will feature opportunities to act personally and in the realm of public policy. Several Rudd Center faculty will participate, including Director Kelly Brownell, professor and chair in the Department of Psychology who was recently named as one of  Time magazine’s “The World’s 100 Most Influential People” for championing of public policy changes to combat the obesity epidemic, and Marlene Schwartz, director of research and school programs at the center. Other bloggers will bring expertise in agriculture, relationships, the media and many other topics that influence eating and activity levels.

The conversation is going on at www.ruddsoundbites.typepad.com. For more information about the Rudd Center, please visit www.yaleruddcenter.org