Michelle Obama’s breastfeed plan attacked by Tea Party’s leading ladies

Rightwingers Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann scorn US first lady's effort to give tax breaks to mothers for breast pumps

I mend hearts. Then I see my patients served junk food by our hospitals

Aseem Malhotra: The healthcare that clinicians offer is usually exemplary. Why, then, are the ill served such disgraceful food?

'Part of me wishes I could be a big, confident, beautiful woman. But a bigger part wants to be slim and normal, like everyone else'

Amanda Marcotte: Culture warriors try to cast anti-obesity advice as bossy elitism, but the bottom line is we all know we have a big problem

Zoe Williams: This dressing up of vanity in the sackcloth of good health obscures the basic fact that exercise won't make us thin – just hungry

The number of pupils classified as obese is also rising, new NHS statistics show

NHS is ill-equipped to cope with heavier mothers, increased health risks and higher likelihood of stillbirths

Response: Initiatives must be led by science if we are to bring the obesity epidemic under control, says Joe Millward

Philip James: By cosying up to the food industry the health secretary is ignoring all scientific thinking on obesity