That too much fondness of fast food can cause weight problems is old news. But the idea that nearly all types of restaurants dish up meals that can expand your waistline has not been as widely discussed – until now. Two separate studies, one from the University of Toronto, Canada, the other from Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, found that most restaurant food is not all that superior to hamburgers and fries when it comes to calorie and fat content.

Americans don’t like to cook. They don’t want to spend the time it takes for food shopping, food preparation and clean up, especially when it’s so much easier to stop for a quick bite at a restaurant or drive-thru or bring home some take-out. Yet, experts are convinced that making home cooking fashionable again would be one of the most effective steps we could take to address the nation’s obesity crisis.

I can hardly believe it’s been over ten years since the University of California Press first published my book “Food Politics.” My goal in writing this book was to point out that food choices are political as well as personal. Initial reactions to this idea ranged from “You have to be kidding” to “How dare anyone suggest that food choices could be anything other than matters of personal responsibility?” How times have changed.

Many of my clients attending my diabetes class report that several years earlier they were told they had “borderline” diabetes. Unfortunately, they only made temporary efforts to eat more healthily or add some physical activity to their schedule, but they didn’t really take this diagnosis of “borderline” diabetes seriously. Within a few weeks the scare was forgotten and it was back to the old lifestyle.

As a physically active person, you are unlikely to be obese, but you may have concerns about your weight or have relatives who struggle with their weight. To address the complexities of how to deal with undesired body fat, the Weight Management Group of the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics (AND) held a recent conference on the subject. Here are some highlights.