August 9, 2023 — Yesterday brought us one of the most curious mashups of news we’ve seen in a while. On one hand we have stories about employers and insurance companies conspiring to deny obesity care to their employees and customers; on the other we have the news that the drug they don’t want to cover actually prevents deaths […]
August 8, 2023 — No two ways about it. This is huge. The topline results of the SELECT trial of cardiovascular outcomes with semaglutide in obesity are out and unequivocal. Semaglutide cuts deaths and cardiovascular (CV) events in people with overweight and obesity. An important detail in the announcement of these results regards the three components of the primary […]
August 5, 2023 — Back in February, we noted a study documenting the effects of a childhood obesity program that, according to its authors, “shows promise.” Since then, much has happened with this study. Scholars from the School of Public Health at Indiana University in Bloomington took a closer look at the statistics in this paper. The authors corrected […]
August 5, 2023 — Often in scientific research we find a tension between answering a question and telling a story. A recent study of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) after metabolic surgery offers a case in point. The scientists who designed this study wanted to answer a simple question. Does CBT improve the the clinical outcome of weight reduction? Or […]
August 4, 2023 — We say it over and over again. Obesity is a very heterogeneous disease. This simply means that different people can have very different experiences with it and face very different risks. At a time when treatment options are multiplying, some with a very high price tag, it’s important to know who has the most urgent […]
July 29, 2023 — Two publications this week set up a stark contrast in views of how bad the abundance of ultra-processed food is. In the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Kevin Hall tells us that these foods present us with a huge challenge. He writes that we must: “Transform the current food system to one that […]
July 24, 2023 — We’re hearing quite a buzz at Nutrition 2023 about ultra-processed foods. Presenting in a session on scientific questions regarding ultra-processed foods, Distinguished Professor Rick Mattes offered one statement that perhaps everyone concerned with this subject can agree upon: “An abundance of epidemiologic evidence shows, very convincingly, that there is an association between consumption of ultra-processed […]
July 23, 2023 — Slowly, but surely, the world is waking up to realize that obesity is not a problem of bad behavior by the people who live with it. Of course, this is not to say that healthy behaviors are unhelpful for our well-being. Good health habits can benefit anyone. But thinking that behavior change can reverse obesity, […]
July 20, 2023 — Obesity care is suffering from a blinding distraction – BMI and weight loss. It’s not hard to find critiques of this. The American Medical Association recently cautioned physicians against the misuse of BMI as a surrogate for health and obesity. PLOS One has a new paper telling us BMI may not necessarily increase mortality independently […]
July 19, 2023 — New research today in the New England Journal of Medicine offers an important lesson – for anyone with an open mind. Finding an association of a dietary pattern with a better health outcome is not the same as showing that a dietary pattern has that effect. Eight years ago, Martha Clare Morris and colleagues told […]
