Many health experts agree that childhood obesity is an epidemic in the modern world. In the United States alone, government data suggest that the number of overweight or obese children is nearly triple the number of 1980, and there are no signs that this incidence is decreasing. Information like this cannot be ignored or trivialized because excess weight can prove damaging to general wellness. Indeed, overweight or obese children and youth risk a wide range of medical complications. Extra pounds can also negatively impact their well-being, which can cause long-term mental health problems. In short, if the childhood obesity crisis is left forsaken, an unprecedented generation of youth will have a diminished quality of life. Expanding Waistlines is ideal for child advocates and youth-serving professionals who seek to learn more about childhood obesity. A prominent feature of Expanding Waistlines is that each chapter poses a series of questions relevant to school personnel, such as: • What can I do at my school and in my classroom? • How should I approach my students who are overweight or obese? • What are some key elements I should look for when evaluating a potential program? Specifically, the book explores the factors that contribute to obesity in society and the associated risks of excess weight on children and youth. Subsequent chapters discuss how to promote healthy eating practices and regular physical activity at school and home. The final chapters report on specific resources. Expanding Waistlines also features the latest demographic data, BMI calculations and classifications, recommended guidelines for health, Wellness Policy requirements, and food label information.

'Fat China' provides an in-depth analysis of the growing problem of obesity and body image in China as urban lifestyles change and a sizeable middle class emerges. Rising obesity rates are examined in relationship to changing diets, modern lifestyles, investment from foreign fast food and supermarket retailers and urban planning. Crucial to this analysis is the likely effects on China's future development and already overburdened healthcare system.

Draws on popular examples and sound science to explain our expanding waistlines and to discuss the consequences of being overweight for different demographic groups. Reviews the various studies of human and animal fat use and storage, including those that examine fat deposition and metabolism in men and women; chronicle cultural differences in food procurement, preparation, and consumption; and consider the influence of sedentary occupations and lifestyles.

GenX Religion is the first in-depth collection on this generation's religious experience. The contributors, mostly GenXers themselves, offer both a disciplined methodology and a valuable insider's sensitivity as they examine the differences between GenX religion and "traditional" religious avenues.

A producer of NPR’s All Things Considered takes readers on a culinary adventure in “this eclectic but cohesive cookbook” featuring 50+ cake recipes (Publishers Weekly, starred review). Melissa Gray started as a baking novice, but soon became National Public Radio’s Cake Lady. Every Monday she brought a cake to the office for her colleagues at NPR to enjoy. Hundreds of Mondays (and cakes) later, Melissa has lots of cake-making tips to share. Following the more than fifty recipes in this book, readers can develop their cake-baking skills alongside Melissa—and enjoy irresistible treats like Brown Sugar Pound Cake, Peppermint and Chocolate Rum Marble Cake, Lord and Lady Baltimore Cakes, Dark-Chocolate Red Velvet Cake, Honey Buttercream and Apricot Jam Cake, and more.

Since its launching in 1955, rational-emotive therapy (RET) has become one of the most influential forms of counseling and psychotherapy used by literally thousands of mental health practitioners throughout the world. From its beginnings, RET has dealt with problems of human disturbance. It presents a theory of how people primarily disturb themselves and what they can do, particularly with the help of a therapist or counselor, to reduce their disturbances (Ellis, 1957a,b, 1958a,b, 1962). Almost im mediately after the creation of RET, it became obvious that the meth odology could be used in many other fields-especially those involving human relations (Ellis & Harper, 1961a), and in love, sex, and marital relationships (Ellis, 1958a, 1960, 1963a,b; Ellis & Harper, 1961b). The evident popularity and clinical utility of RET in different cultures and its increasing application to contemporary problems of living indicate that rational-emotive therapy continues to be vital and dynamic. The growing appeal of RET may be due in part to its essentially optimistic outlook and humanistic orientation; optimistic because it pro vides people with the possibility and the means for change. Showing to people how their attitudes and beliefs are responsible for their emo tional distress and interpersonal problems (and not some out-of-con scious early childhood experience), awakens in them the hope that, in reality, they have some control over their destiny.

In Rethinking Diabetes, Emily Mendenhall investigates how global and local factors transform how diabetes is perceived, experienced, and embodied from place to place. Mendenhall argues that the link between sugar and diabetes overshadows the ways in which underlying biological processes linking hunger, oppression, trauma, unbridled stress, and chronic mental distress produce diabetes. The life history narratives in the book show how deeply embedded these factors are in the ways diabetes is experienced and (re)produced among poor communities around the world. Rethinking Diabetes focuses on the stories of women living with diabetes near or below the poverty line in urban settings in the United States, India, South Africa, and Kenya. Mendenhall shows how women's experiences of living with diabetes cannot be dissociated from their social responsibilities of caregiving, demanding family roles, expectations, and gendered experiences of violence that often displace their ability to care for themselves first. These case studies reveal the ways in which a global story of diabetes overlooks the unique social, political, and cultural factors that produce syndemic diabetes differently across contexts. From the case studies, Rethinking Diabetes clearly provides some important parallels for scholars to consider: significant social and economic inequalities, health systems that are a mix of public and private (with substandard provisions for low-income patients), and rising diabetes incidence and prevalence. At the same time, Mendenhall asks us to unpack how social, cultural, and epidemiological factors shape people's experiences and why we need to take these differences seriously when we think about what drives diabetes and how it affects the lives of the poor.