Recently, I've been hearing from a lot of girls I know about the book French Women Don't Get Fat. I haven't read it yet, but from what I've been told, the book basically says that you can eat whatever you want -- cheese, chocolate, wine, crusty bread -- and not get fat as long as you watch your portion control and eat these foods in moderation.

This common sense attitude has kept French women svelte while the size of people in other populations balloons. According to this though, even the French are starting to become victims of the obesity-epidemic sweeping many nations. A recent study on that nation's weight found that nearly half of the population (42%) either had a weight problem, were overweight or obese.

The number of obese French is still much lower than in North America but still obesity is on the rise in France. The problem isn't a traditional 'eat what you please, just don't go overboard' attitude, but an increase of people switching to a North American lifestyle. So if you still want to eat what you want don't lose heart, because you can as long as you keep the portions reasonable.

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New information is challenging the accepted rules regarding how much weight is "healthy" to gain during pregnancy: studies show that women who gain pregnancy pounds within the acceptable range are twice as likely to have over-weight toddlers (3yr olds) than women who gained less than the recommended amount.

But don't make any decisions about how to handle your pregnancy just yet -- pretty much all the experts agree it's too early to change the standard, and your baby's health (as well as your own) isn't something to play around with. At most, aim for the lower end of the currently accepted range.

Hopefully they clear this up soon -- there's enough anxiety around having a healthy pregnancy without throwing more "unknowns" into the mix.

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I was having a hard time sleeping and turned on the TV at 4:00a.m. to watch some morning news. The news anchor announced a new diet pill for dogs with a picture of an extremely over weight beagle behind him and said that the pill should be approved by the FDA, Food and Drug Administration, by next year.

HELLO.......Get your lazy butt up off the couch and take the dog for a long walk every day. You know you might shed some pounds yourself. It is time we build some healthy relationships with our pets and give them the care and nutrition and exercise that they require to live a healthy life. With obesity rates rising in the U.S. in children, teens, adults and in pets, we should get a clue on our daily diet and exercise programs. For heaven sakes your dog can't open the fridge to feed itself unless it is the dog in the beer commercial who fetches his owner a beer. Fat-filled dog foods and treats can create exceptionally unhealthy pets that are subject to the same health complications as people with obesity and related complications. Supermarket shelves are filled with dog foods that claim to be natural dog food or healthy dog food. Read the ingredients in the fine print. So feed the dog a good quality food low in saturated fats and low in corn meals and other fillers and by products. Reduce the quantity of food every day if your dog is over weight. And a must is to give the dog some exercise. All dogs like to take walks. I think it is the owners that don't like to walk. Go out in the back yard and throw a ball or Frisbee. Give it healthy snacks and treats like a piece of carrot or a slice of apple or a piece of banana. Yes my dogs love these healthy treats.

In an extreme case if the dog has a major physical ailment that keeps it from walking and exercising, the pill might do some good. But you know the diet pills for humans can eventually create problems for our liver and heart so if that is the case for dogs also, we need to take a look at the quality of life here for that pet.

Yes, yes, we all know that Americans are getting fatter and fatter all the time. But wanna hear some good news? In a ranking of the most obese countries, the U.S. is not #1!

Sadly, however, we are in the top 10.

This is a pretty depressing article if you ask me -- over 74% of our adult population is overweight? I guess that shouldn't surprise me, since the issue is in the news so often, but it kinda does anyway. That's a really big number.

But back to the positive, at least we're doing better than the list topper, Nauru. At the #1 spot, 94.5% of their population is overweight. For the complete list of countries ranked from fattest to thinnest, click here.

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