The debate rages on… are diet drinks okay when trying to cut calories when you're losing weight? Or do they put you at higher risk for heart disease, as some recent studies have claimed?

Weight loss, especially in the belly, is key to improved blood vessel function. The improved blood flow was noted regardless of whether the pounds were shed from a low-fat or low-carb diet.

The obesity epidemic especially afflicts low-income people - who are also less likely to receive good health care. But at least one experimental program offers some positive results.

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel has approved investigational diet drug Qnexa designed to treat obesity in adults. The panel had previously rejected the weight loss drug in 2010 based on safety concerns.

Among the most common pieces of advice offered by doctors to their patients: start running, biking, walking, swimming, playing tennis or whatever it takes to get in regular exercise.

Weight loss surgery is a last resort for morbidly obese teenagers. For those that do receive the operation, researchers are finding it is offering them benefits in addition to shedding extra pounds.

Moms-to-be who are both overweight and smokers are more than twice as likely to have a baby with a congenital heart defect than women who are either overweight or a smoker but not both.

Baffled by how to best help your obese child? The key may be a positive treatment program filled with plenty of praise and parental involvement.

A spoonful of sugar may help the medicine go down, but a review of studies on dietary fiber shows including enough of it in your diet might mean avoiding medicine in the first place.