Despite the regular onslaught of mixed messages from those in scientific research land, I still take a multivitamin most days. (Thanks, Mom, for starting me off young with those delicious Flinstone Kids niblets of nutrition.)

Placebo effect? I don't know. I do know that I feel better when I remember to take my multivitamin, iron and vitamin D supplements, and the occasional fish oil horse pill. But will it help me in the long run with any aspect of my health?

If your New Year's resolution is to lose weight, you aren't alone. (Although given the lack of follow-through among many of us, it should be named a New Year's dissolution.)

But this year, the ranks of tens of millions of adults trying to shrink the ever-expanding waistlines are swelling with an increasingly larger (no pun intended) population - overweight and obese children.

Case in point: the January issue of Pediatrics. The majority of articles touch on the staggering consequences of overweight/obese pediatrics and adolescents, and their future looks anything but rosy.