December 21, 2017 — It’s a fact. Around the time of winter holidays, people tend to gain weight. And when it comes to pop nutrition advice, you can find just about anything you want to hear on the subject of holiday weight gain. Holiday Food Patterns The pattern is clear enough. Lisa Jahns and colleagues actually documented it in […]
December 20, 2017 — Bad assumptions make bad policy. And at the heart of policies to address obesity for three decades has been a wobbly understanding of what exactly is causing the perfect storm of obesity. That storm continues to rage despite best efforts to prevent its impact on health around the world. Why, exactly, has the obesity’s prevalence grown […]
December 19, 2017 — For three decades now, health policy to address obesity has followed the boogeyman model. Children, if you don’t behave better, the obesity boogeyman will get you. The boogeyman is an instinctive human response to to an ominous threat. Hundreds of variations thrive in cultures across time and all over the world, from Iceland to Indonesia. […]
December 18, 2017 — This has been a year like no other. As 2017 winds down, we’re grateful that more and more of you have been reading the mix of science and consumer insights we report and interpret here every day. So far this year, more than 90,000 users have spent time reading what we offer on the ConscienHealth […]
December 17, 2017 — French culture faces a dilemma. Paris has long held a global reputation for its fashion. And along the way, a preoccupation with thinness became part of that culture. It came to define a social order of body image in France. Thin privilege. But earlier this year, Gabrielle Deydier exposed the ugly side of that social order […]
December 16, 2017 — Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. For a couple of decades, fat was banished from our diets. Food makers took out fat and compensated by adding sugar and other carbs to processed foods. Now sugar is out of fashion and fat is in. So big food is dutifully doing what the nutrition gurus […]
December 15, 2017 — The time is coming near. As this year draws to a close and the next year opens, people are lining up to sell you inspiring stories of weight loss. These stories are all about people who have changed their lives in dramatic ways. Sometimes they’re selling a product or a program. Sometimes it’s a book. […]
December 14, 2017 — Many people think obesity is all about weight and height and BMI. To them, we suggest pausing to think about the liver. Everyone has one. No one can live without it. And in obesity, liver function suffers. But with a new study published in Diabetes Care, we find some encouragement. Researchers found that six months […]
December 13, 2017 — We have a new window into the thinking of primary care physicians (PCPs) about obesity. But the view is dismal. On the subject of obesity, physicians believe that that biology is not so important. Why do people with obesity tend to regain weight? Physicians say behavioral factors are more important than biology. Likewise, they rated […]
December 12, 2017 — The food industry wants to sell you food. And the industry frequently uses nutrition research to do it. For many good reasons, scientific journals require disclosures of conflict of interest. But in a new JAMA viewpoint, John Ioannidis and John Trepanowski submit that these routine disclosures are not adequate for nutrition research. Superficial transparency is not […]
