Archive for December, 2013

Brains, Muscles, Obesity and Aging

December 12, 2013 — Obesity and aging is a neglected subject of growing importance. In people between the ages of 65 and 74 years, obesity quadrupled in men (10.4% to 41.5%) and grew by 74% in women (23.2% to 40.3%) between 1960 and 2010. The interaction of brain, muscles, obesity, and aging assumes considerable importance as people progress from […]

Aspartame: Safe, Sweet, No Calories

December 11, 2013 — Aspartame is safe. That’s the conclusion of an exhaustive evidence review by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Safe is a four-letter word that regulators are pretty shy about tossing around, so we’re taking this seriously. The EFSA affirmed that an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for aspartame represents 16 cans of diet drinks per day. […]

Five Hurdles for Obesity Drugs

December 10, 2013 — Two new obesity drugs — Belviq and Qsymia — have cleared formidable hurdles just gaining approval and at lease three more drugs appear to be on the way. But how can it be — with 100 million Americans affected by obesity — that uptake of these new treatments is painfully slow? The answer lies with […]

Food Mood Bra

December 9, 2013 — The food mood bra for emotional eating makes us wonder why people think the folks at Microsoft (who came up with this) have lost their innovative edge. Who else could dream this up? The people behind this breakthrough say that their device can detect stressful situations because its sensors are close to the heart. “It’s […]

Tough Going for Guidelines

December 8, 2013 — Developing guidelines can be tough going. Just ask the folks who worked without pay on the new cholesterol guidelines for five years, only to find them under attack within days of being released. Dietary guidelines are no less challenging, as we learned at the ASN conference on Advances and Controversies in Nutrition 2013. Johanna Dwyer […]

3 Reasons Objectivity Is Scarce on “Healthy Obesity”

December 7, 2013 — The response to a pair of publications in Annals of Internal Medicine about “healthy obesity” reminds us that objectivity on this subject is scarce. Jim Hill and Holly Wyatt this week declared “healthy obesity is a myth.” Their editorial accompanies an analysis of risks associated with metabolically healthy obesity and overweight. Arya Sharma takes strong […]

Three Openings for Obesity in the Affordable Care Act

December 6, 2013 — The Obesity Society’s advocacy advisor, Ted Kyle, recently talked with the Cronkite News Service about openings for better coverage of obesity in the Affordable Care Act (embedded video below). The ACA is a bit of a mixed bag for people concerned about obesity, but it provides some good openings for progress. The three most important […]

False Assumptions about Impulsiveness

December 5, 2013 — Impulsiveness is a false assumption made about people with obesity. It relates to a common, false weight bias — that people with obesity are undisciplined and cannot control their own impulses. A new study published in Obesity provides some objective data to put this bias in perspective. Katrijn Houben and colleagues looked critically at the […]

Really? 5 Daily Meals Prevent Obesity

December 4, 2013 — Headlines declaring that five daily meals will prevent obesity win ConscienHealth’s Worst Headline in Obesity Award (WHOA) this week. Prompting these headlines was a study by Anne Jääskeläinen and colleagues that examined the interaction among meal frequency, genetic variations associated with obesity, and BMI in a sample of 4,624 adolescents. They found that even with a […]

Happier Kids’ Meals?

December 3, 2013 — Happier kids’ meals might be a real possibility. The Yale Rudd Center — no fan of the fast food industry — is praising McDonald’s for healthy changes to its trademark Happy Meals. At the same time, a new study published in Obesity shows how such changes can make a difference for children. Don’t get the […]