February 18, 2014 — Weight Bias is someone else’s problem — until you turn it on yourself and begin to believe it diminishes your self-worth. This internalized weight bias is the subject of some new research that sheds light on the uniquely destructive effects of weight bias turned inward. People with internalized weight bias essentially buy into false stereotypes […]
February 17, 2014 — Rosie O’Donnell revealed at a luncheon Friday for the American Heart Association that she had gastric sleeve surgery due to health concerns following a 2012 heart attack. “I did it to save my life,” she said. Her weight has dropped from 230 to 190 pounds since she had the procedure in July, 2013. In 2011, […]
February 16, 2014 — Breastfeeding has important, indisputable, and immediate benefits for an infant’s health. Protection from infectious, gastrointestinal, and allergic diseases are at the top of the list. Perhaps because of these important short-term benefits, many authorities promote some long-term benefits for breastfeeding that are not so well proven. Obesity is often cited. For example, CDC states in […]
February 15, 2014 — New standards for food labeling will emerge from the FDA sometime next month. This will be the first change since the nutrition facts label format was introduced 21 years ago. But before that can happen, the White House Office of Management and Budget must review them. Does that help your confidence that an evidence-based proposal […]
February 14, 2014 — The persistent mythology of food deserts seems immune to evidence that continues to contradict long-held assumptions. This month in Health Affairs we have yet another in a long line of studies that show simply opening new supermarkets in food deserts neither alters dietary habits nor has an impact on obesity. The concept of food deserts […]
February 13, 2014 — Leaping to apply anti-smoking strategies to junk food is sorely tempting. When CVS declared that “cigarettes and tobacco products have no place in a setting where health care is delivered,” experts and cartoonists alike wondered aloud, “What about junk food?” Now comes the news that lawyers are pitching litigation against the food industry to make […]
February 12, 2014 — Time gets the prize for the most absurd headline this week by hanging a false statement about soda onto a barely related story about deadly child abuse. Parents of a five-year old girl were charged with murder Friday because they reportedly forced her to consume more than two liters of grape soda in a short […]
February 11, 2014 — Obesity will change hospitals as they face the fact that they must adapt and accommodate patients with obesity. The latest report in the annual series by Novation finds that only 25% of 125 hospitals surveyed have invested to accommodate patients with severe obesity. Here are five key changes that hospitals must make: Architectural Design. Doorways […]
February 10, 2014 — For those of you living under a rock, the rest of us are being pummeled with ads urging us to ask our doctors about low T. Who knew that low T was a huge medical crisis? Well, in fact, the prevalence of low testosterone levels is growing and it’s driven largely by two factors: an […]
February 9, 2014 — Smartphones at night turn out to be pretty dumb, according to research in press from Michigan State University. Russel Johnson and colleagues collected data on business-related smartphone use after 9 pm, sleep, energy, and engagement in work. They found three types of harmful effects from business use of smartphones at night. Workdays stretching into night. […]
