June 28, 2020 — The pandemic has been tough on many businesses, but it’s been a boon to others. Dietary supplement sales, for example, are feeding quite nicely on our fears. At the top of the list is vitamin D, getting a boost from speculation that deficiencies could make a person more vulnerable to the coronavirus. However, the bottom […]
June 23, 2020 — Tamar Haspel tells a positively appealing story in the Washington Post this week. We don’t have a problem with obesity because of carbs, she writes. Nor fats, nor processed foods. The problem is the food environment. Cheap, convenient food surrounds us, with endless prompts to eat it. All these food cues, coaxing us to eat […]
June 18, 2020 — In ordinary times, yesterday’s meeting of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee would have been big news. They were supposed to unveil their draft report. But instead, the meeting came and went with a small thud. That’s because everyone has already staked out a position and they’re digging in. Also, it’s fair to say that […]
June 15, 2020 — Now, there can be no doubt. This new coronavirus is indeed a cruel one. It is radically reshaping our dietary habits. Many of us are having to cook at home. But it’s worse than that. As a few of us start venturing out and staying at newly sanitized hotels, something is missing. No more DIY […]
June 9, 2020 — The expectations are low, so it’s not getting much attention. The 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is trying to wrap up its work on a report. That report goes into a black box at FDA and USDA. Then sometime around the end of the year, the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans will pop out from […]
May 30, 2020 — Like a dog with a bone, Nina Teicholz is not ready to let it go. She has a point to make and a book to sell. It’s all about pushing everyone to eat a low-carb diet. No matter what the problem, we find her telling us that low-carb diets, with plenty of saturated fats, are […]
May 22, 2020 — Remember when Blue Apron was poised for a hot IPO? It’s only been three years, but it seems like a lifetime. Along with the rest of a flock of fledgling meal kit services, Blue Apron has been down in the dumps since its IPO. It seems that beautiful images and romantic notions of cooking with […]
May 21, 2020 — Some things, it seems, never change. Even, and perhaps especially, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, magical thinking about nutrition and diets persist. So publishers feed us a steady diet of diet books. More than most, Dr. Michael Greger has captured the purest essence of this genre in his bestselling book: How Not to […]
April 19, 2020 — Enough. We know that the coronavirus pandemic is bringing lots of harm. Already, more than 160,000 precious souls are dead because of it. It’s hitting people with obesity and other chronic conditions especially hard. It’s ravaging communities that are already living with tremendous disadvantages. And it’s taking some of our oldest, wisest, and most talented […]
April 15, 2020 — With Sonny Perdue at the helm of the USDA, the Trump administration was ready for white bread and salt to make a comeback in school lunches. Back in 2018, the agency issued rules to roll back school nutrition standards for whole grains and sodium. But yesterday, a federal court nixed it. Apparently, the agency broke […]
