News Archive for November, 2014

Parents have long held onto a myth that sugar will make their kids hyper and then ultimately cranky when they crash from their sugar high. That myth has been dispelled by a considerable body of evidence. But now we’re noticing that sugar might make grown-ups cranky. Increasingly it seems that the subject of sugar can […]

Picky eaters are back in America’s school lunchrooms, turning up their noses at the healthy lunches being dished up under the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act and bringing junk from home. At least that’s what two recent studies are suggesting. One study, presented at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, found that students might […]

How do they come up with these objects of desire? Just as the frenzy over the return of the pumpkin spice latte is waning, Starbucks is ready to line people up for a chestnut praline latte or an eggnog latte topped with freshly ground nutmeg. Can’t you just smell it? It turns out that a […]

Barely more than a year ago, Pittsburgh artist Nickolay Lamm conceived a doll that he called “Average Barbie.” Now, just in time for the holiday season, his idea is a reality. He’s shipping the Lammily™ doll to more than 13,000 backers who helped him raise more than half a million dollars through online crowdfunding early this year. When he […]

“Obesity Rivals Smoking and War among Self-Inflicted Health Risks.” This headline from the LA Times, paired with a stereotypical “headless fatty” picture, was too much. The assertion that people with obesity should be blamed for it is a subtle, pernicious lie buried in the headline and reinforced with a dehumanizing image. It’s a lie repeated […]

FDA will today unveil their final rules for labeling calories everywhere that food is prepared and served away from home. Within a year, you will be seeing calorie counts in restaurants, vending machines, delis, bakeries, pizza joints, and even the prepared food departments in grocery stores. Cranking out these rules has taken almost five years. The […]

Ask any hoarder. Nothing is better than their junk. And we are collecting a mountain of junk conclusions based upon junk data about dietary intake and energy expenditure — self reports that we know are inaccurate and biased. The International Journal of Obesity has just published a new report in which Obesity Society President Nikhil […]

The proposition that better nutritional advice might come from analyzing your genes has been floating around for a few years. And now a new study in PLOS ONE finds that “disclosing genetic information for personalized nutrition results in greater changes in intake for some dietary components compared to general population-based dietary advice.” Does this mean it’s […]

Neuroscience researchers meeting in Washington DC this week seem to have obesity on the brain. The Society for Neuroscience highlighted four abstracts from their annual meeting that focus on ways that diet and obesity alter brain and behavior. Once again, we have a hint that the relationship between diet, physical activity, and obesity is a […]

Two more studies this week suggest that early life experiences — even before birth — may well shape a child’s risk for obesity. Antibiotics, C-sections, and childhood obesity appear to be linked. In a study published by the International Journal of Obesity, researchers from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health found that antibiotics in […]