childhood obesity

Wal-Mart Stores plans to help its customers figure that out by adding a new green icon that reads "Great for You" to packaging of some of its house-brand foods. The green and white seal, which shows the stylized outline of a human figure with its arms spread toward the sky, is part of a multiyear campaign the world's largest retailer is undertaking to promote healthier products and fight childhood obesity.

With both obesity and fiscal austerity on the rise, makers of unhealthy foods are a tempting target for taxation. While companies like Coca-Cola and McDonald's are most obviously in the sights of the food police, the rest of the food industry may be vulnerable as well.

As part of a plan to increase access to high-quality nutritious foods, First Lady Michelle Obama announced on Wednesday that she is teaming up with several of the country's largest food retailers. From healthier foods to new jobs, see what's in store for big chains like Walmart.

Quaker Oats, which manufactures the cereal, and parent company PepsiCo, appear to have distanced themselves from the highly sweetened brand. Indeed, Cap'n Crunch's Crunch Berries is tied for first on a Yale list of the least nutritional cereals marketed to children and families.

It's official: McDonald's has a little over a year to change its Happy Meals if it wants to offer a toy with the meals in San Francisco. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 today to give final approval to a proposal that would set nutritional guidelines for children's meals in the...

So what could a McDonald's Happy Meal look like under San Francisco's proposed nutritional rules? If the fast food giant wants to be able to continue to put toys in its Happy Meals in that city, it may want to look at the menu suggestions posed by the online diet site CalorieLab.

San Francisco could become the first U.S. city to ban toys from Happy Meals after its Board of Supervisors approved the rule in an 8-3 vote Tuesday. If Mayor Gavin Newsom is unable to overturn the ban, it will take effect late next year.

Nestle, the global food giant known for Kit Kat, Haagen-Dazs, Hot Pockets, Baby Ruth and other supermarket brands, has teamed up with the American Academy of Pediatrics to educate consumers about childhood obesity. The union, announced last week in a press release on the academy's website, is...

Forget California's huge budget deficits, high unemployment levels and nasty political campaigns. One of the most polarizing issues in the Golden State today is about a proposal to ban Happy Meals toys in San Francisco.

Fast food giant McDonald's isn't happy over a proposal in San Francisco that would ban toys from Happy Meals and other kids' food unless the meals met certain nutritional standards. Under San Francisco's proposal, toys would be banned if the single food item or meal is high in calories, salt and...