Archive for October, 2014

Industry Influence, Integrity, and Respect

October 21, 2014 — A simmering controversy in the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics brought out issues of food industry influence, integrity, and respect in a lively session yesterday at FNCE 2014 (the Academy’s annual meeting in Atlanta). Academy President Sonja Connor moderated the session, which should tell you how seriously the Academy is taking this subject. Joy Bauer opened the […]

BMI: Can’t Let It Go

October 20, 2014 — BMI (body mass index) is a tool that everybody loves to hate. And despite all the problems we have with it and plenty of other options, we can’t seem to let it go. That’s the conclusion that Steven Heymfield and Scott Going presented to an auditorium packed with dietitians at the annual meeting of the Academy of […]

Myth: Losing Weight Too Fast

October 19, 2014 — Losing weight too fast is the paragon of a non-problem, now vanquished to the status of a myth. To begin with, few people encounter this supposed problem. But plenty of authoritative sources have long been dispensing advice along the lines of this example from the Mayo Clinic: A weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds […]

Jet-Lagged Mice?

October 18, 2014 — Who can resist a story about jet-lagged mice? It’s especially intriguing because those cute little travelers are feeding headlines about how jet lag causes obesity. Those headlines about jet-lagged mice and jet-lag causing obesity all come from a new publication in Cell that’s really about the effect of a disrupted sleep cycle on gut microbes. Jet travel actually has very little to […]

Skin That Nobody Needs

October 17, 2014 — Is excess skin after obesity treatment medically important? Miles’ Law seems to apply: where you stand depends on where you sit. For people who have to live with the excess skin that is left after successful weight loss surgery, it’s a no-brainer. The discomfort, irritation, infections, and other complications caused by this excess skin add […]

Thanks Ten Thousand Times Over

October 16, 2014 — Its time to say thanks ten thousand times to each of our Facebook fans who now number more than 10,000. The fascinating people who read our daily updates keep pushing ConscienHealth through new milestones. Thanks for reading, commenting, and spreading the word! In September, we registered 17,000 visits to ConsicienHealth — a new record. Thanks to you […]

The First-Person Advocacy of Sarah Bramblette

October 16, 2014 — Sarah Bramblette — recipient of the Obesity Action Coalition’s highest honor, Member of the Year — has been popping up everywhere lately. Just in the last few months, she has published an essay in a bioethics journal, won HealthCentral’s Live Bold anti-stigma photo contest, lobbied on Capitol Hill for the Lymphedema Treatment Act, and appeared […]

Gated Communities of Health

October 15, 2014 — Headlines about us and them and Ebola are shining a spotlight on the gated communities of health where we live. Stark disparities in health are a fact of life around the world and, to a shocking extent, even in the U.S. Just a few miles of difference in your address can mean 20 years of […]

Champions of the Obesity Society

October 14, 2014 — On November 5 at Obesity Week in Boston — the premier annual scientific and educational conference for obesity professionals — the Obesity Society will be awarding special recognition to five individuals for distinguished work to advance the understanding of obesity and strategies to reduce its impact on human health. We salute these champions of the […]

Style Plus

October 14, 2014 — Full Figured Fashion Week (FFFW) — where plus fashion takes a bow annually in New York — appears to be a romp that people enjoy far more than the traditional New York Fashion Week. And it’s sparking some fascinating discussion of the social order of body size. In a word, the order is changing. According to […]