July 21, 2015 — Encouraging news about progress in access to evidence-based obesity care came yesterday in reports from the summer meeting of the National Conference of Insurance Legislators. NCOIL resolved that state legislatures should provide for “coverage of the full range of obesity treatments.” The resolution began by saying: NCOIL urges the 50 State Legislatures, health departments and other […]
July 20, 2015 — A quick search of scientific literature yields nearly half a million references to fast food and obesity. Various proposals have surfaced to address the problem of fast food, including a ban on new fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles enacted in 2008. (It accomplished exactly nothing.) So, what if fast food is no better or […]
July 19, 2015 — It might be that kids help grownups eat better, according to a new observational study just published in Obesity. This particular study (by Winston et al) looks at the relationship between helpful or unhelpful friends and family, and weight outcomes in a population of mostly female Black and Hispanic adults. On average, people lost about 11 […]
July 18, 2015 — Pulling a dog’s tail to make it wag seems like a direct way to go. But it doesn’t do the trick. Likewise, putting grocery stores into food deserts seems like a pretty good way to address the high rate of obesity in neighborhoods with poor access to fresh, whole food. So the idea of eradicating food […]
July 17, 2015 — A new study published yesterday in the American Journal of Public Health finds slim chances for people with obesity returning to a normal weight without any particular treatment. This is something that people who understand obesity know quite well: the probability of obesity just going away is stunningly small. But it gives people — even the researchers who […]
July 16, 2015 — The options for evidence-based obesity care are growing faster now than at any time in recent memory. And in this context, it’s especially jarring to hear a physician say there’s not much a doctor can do for people with obesity. But this is what we heard recently: When will we stop blaming doctors for what they […]
July 15, 2015 — After sorting through a range of new drugs, surgeries, and medical devices for obesity care, the California Technology Assessment Forum (CTAF) voted unanimously yesterday that bariatric surgery offers a net health benefit for people with diabetes and a BMI between 30 and 35. A small group of advocates and experts commented and participated in this […]
July 14, 2015 — Food addiction is a very real concern for a significant population of people who find that certain foods have addictive properties for them. Yet careful scientists who study addiction are sharply divided on this subject. Some argued vigorously for the inclusion of food addiction in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders […]
July 13, 2015 — Could it be that obesity entertainment television is losing favor? Ask the former employee of a production company who was fired for reaching out with insults to the town of Huntington, WV. In fairness, she was arguably just really getting into her job — recruiting people for a reality TV show about people living “fun, […]
July 12, 2015 — Last Monday, we wrote about an article in the New York Times chock-full of cheap shots at people who devote their medical careers to caring for people living with obesity. We expected that most people would accept that biased reporting at face value and go right along with their faux scandal. We were wrong. The […]
