Archive for July, 2016

Liraglutide Gains Momentum as Others Struggle in Obesity

July 11, 2016 — Now in the second year since approval of liraglutide for treating obesity, a pattern is becoming clear. While other obesity drugs struggle, liraglutide gains momentum. The momentum is evident in growing prescriptions for Saxenda (the brand name for liraglutide sold by Novo Nordisk at the dose for obesity). For the second quarter of 2016, total prescriptions for Saxenda […]

Searching for Healthy Food

July 10, 2016 — Americans are searching for healthy food. The FDA is working on its guidelines for what foods can claim to be “healthy” since it had to backtrack with the makers of Kind Bars. Delving into this issue, the New York Times reports some significant gaps between what nutrition experts think is healthy and what the public thinks. Number […]

Subsidizing Obesity

July 9, 2016 — A new analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine raises the possibility that agricultural policies are subsidizing obesity. In their analysis, Karen Siegel and colleagues find that consuming food from subsidized agricultural commodities is a risk factor for obesity and cardiometabolic disease. They conclude: Nutritional guidelines are focused on the population’s needs for healthier foods, but to date food […]

Where Does the Blame Lie for Nutrition Myths?

July 8, 2016 — Nutrition myths are a pesky plague, difficult to dispel. One of them – skipping breakfast will make you fat – might well be on the way out. In two different articles this year (here and here), the New York Times has made its status as a myth completely clear. On the other hand, WebMD is […]

Pasta: Friend or Foe in Obesity?

July 7, 2016 — Depending on the nutrition dogma you read, pasta is either “full of toxic refined carbs” or “a defining element of healthy Mediterranean diets.” How can we make sense of this riot of conflicting dietary advice? A new observational study published in Nutrition & Diabetes offers some insight. Researchers examined data from two large observational studies […]

Selling Veggies

July 6, 2016 — “You have to eat your vegetables” doesn’t do much for the cause of selling veggies to the next generation. Scolds make lousy marketers. So Michelle Obama is right on target when she tells the readers of AdWeek: “Marketing can make America healthier.” Through six years of her signature Let’s Move! initiative, the First Lady defied […]

Untangling the Puzzle of Obesity and Breast Cancer

July 5, 2016 — The close relationship between obesity and breast cancer is well known to researchers and oncologists. Obesity after menopause can raise the risk of breast cancer by 30-50%. Not only that, obesity makes the prognosis  worse – both before and after menopause. Survival rates drop significantly in women with abdominal obesity. The risk goes up with each […]

Why Are People Going Vegan?

July 4, 2016 — On this Fourth of July holiday, a growing number of Americans are going vegan. Meatless burgers have become commonplace and restaurants have gotten the message that they need options for guests who are seeking vegan options. The number of people who actually follow a vegan diet remains pretty small, but their influence is growing through public […]

Perverse Incentives for Health Fall Out of Favor

July 3, 2016 — When perverse ideas about incentives for health fall apart, everyone can celebrate. Today we celebrate one that is losing support: penalizing employees for obesity. For several years now, certain elements of the wellness industry have been pushing the idea that obesity could be reversed by imposing financial penalties on employees who don’t weight what their employers say they […]

Processed Foods Are Bad, Right?

July 2, 2016 — The idea that processed foods are wrecking the American diet occupies center stage in in much of what is written about food and nutrition. Want a lecture on the subject? Just tune into a commercial for Panera Bread’s “clean food.” These ads capture the popular zeitgeist defining “food as it should be.” But we can’t help but […]