September 10, 2015 — In a quick, but piecemeal response to the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC), ABC removed fat shaming content from a comedy series called Dr. Ken that is set to premier in October, starring Ken Jeong. In a promotional trailer for the series, Jeong was shown examining a patient with obesity. When the patient asked for his diagnosis, Jeong — who […]
September 9, 2015 — Ideological investment in the concept of fighting food deserts remains resilient in the face of a continuing stream of data that suggests it will do nothing to reverse obesity trends. The latest blow comes from a study by researchers at the Rand Corporation and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. They analyzed the 2011 […]
September 8, 2015 — A good friend recently asked: “Will we ever be able to have a real conversation about obesity or will it always be these side shows?” The example of comedian Nicole Arbour (right) — pathetically grubbing for attention with a hateful video on YouTube and Facebook — gives us doubts about the near-term possibilities. Arbour put out a […]
September 7, 2015 — Two new studies give us more evidence on what to expect from bariatric surgery. Both of them provide data on outcomes after five years: one for patients with sleeve gastrectromy and the other for patients with gastric bypass or biliopancreatic diversion. Taken together, they serve to remove some of the uncertainty about long term outcomes. […]
September 6, 2015 — The latest food conspiracy pits the vast empire of Big Egg against a little fake mayo upstart called “Just Mayo.” And here is where the trouble starts — with a brand name that quietly screams authenticity. That’s because, according to legal definitions of what’s real mayonnaise, “Just Mayo” is just not mayonnaise. The result is that […]
September 5, 2015 — The Obesity Society this week announced the winners of its highest honors for 2015, recognizing five of the top leaders in obesity. These fine people will be recognized at ObesityWeek 2015 in Los Angeles November 2-6 for their exemplary leadership, advancing efforts to reduce the health impact of obesity. Thorkild I. A. Sørensen (above) was named to […]
September 4, 2015 — In oddly twisted news from Washington, a lobbyist for restaurant, food, and tobacco interests is attacking Chipotle with offensive ads about obesity. In the process, the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) seems to be finding a way of weirdly offending everyone. The CCF is an odd and secretive nonprofit organization led by Rick Berman, a Washington […]
September 3, 2015 — Remember the sensational headlines a year ago about “A Grizzly Answer for Obesity” in the New York Times and elsewhere? Well, all that buzz was created by a study of grizzly bears with doctored data. And the story about how a Big Pharma company, Amgen, rooted out the corrupted data didn’t make the New York […]
September 2, 2015 — PR, research, and transparency keep crashing together with unpredictable results. One outcome is an ample supply of indignation, but a relative trickle of pragmatic critical thinking. The indignation comes from activists certain that nothing good could ever come from Big Food. Indignation also comes from folks from within Big Food who find themselves under siege by activists who are aided by […]
September 1, 2015 — Three international business professors — Aneel Karnani, Brent McFerran, and Anirban Mukhopadhyay — have looked at the market failures driving obesity and explored four tools for fixing those failures in a new working paper from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. They argue that obesity is a market failure because the qualities of food […]
