Archive for January, 2016

3D Calorie Counting

January 21, 2016 — One of the toughest problems in nutrition and obesity is getting an accurate estimate of what people are eating. Without good measures of food intake, it’s tough to make good nutrition assessments or sound recommendations. 3D calorie counting is an intriguing possibility for solving this problem. Scientists at the University of Washington developed technology that utilizes laser scanning and […]

Persistent Organic Pollution, Obesity, and Insulin Resistance

January 20, 2016 — A new study in PLOS ONE adds to the evidence that the endocrine disrupting properties of persistent organic pollution can be a significant factor in the dual epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Jung-Wei Chang and colleagues examined the relationship between abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, and exposure to dioxin. They found a five-fold higher risk of elevated insulin […]

Courtesy and Respect in Air Travel

January 19, 2016 — Geico has fun in commercials with the catchphrase “when pigs fly.” But according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, flying pigs — as service animals — are not so rarified. Reporter Elizabeth Bloom describes flying over the holidays with a pig named Hamlet as a fellow traveler. What is striking about this story is the degree of courtesy and respect that […]

A Cautionary Tale of Hyping Chocolate Milk for Concussions

January 18, 2016 — An unfolding story about the University of Maryland hyping chocolate milk for concussions might easily be dismissed as an anomaly. Doing so would be a serious mistake. Shortly before Christmas, the university issued a press release that claimed: Fifth Quarter Fresh, a new, high-protein chocolate milk, helped high school football players improve their cognitive and […]

Have We Provoked the Bugs in Our Guts?

January 17, 2016 — It sounds faintly like science fiction: A range of societal changes, including use of antibiotics and increasing consumption of food additives, have provoked microbiota aggression and, consequently, may be contributing factors to the increased incidence of obesity and its associated diseases. Have we indeed provoked more aggressive microbes to displace some of the hundreds of trillions of bacteria that peacefully […]

Resilience May Come from Listening to Your Body

January 16, 2016 — Some fascinating brain research just published in Biological Psychology provides evidence for the supposition that resilience to stress may result from how well you listen to your body. Lori Haase and colleagues studied individuals with different degrees of resilience to stress. They evaluated brain function during and after a stressful situation. Through functional MRIs, they […]

Hypocrisy in Plus Size Fashion?

January 15, 2016 — Fat shaming is definitely not in good taste these days and body positivity definitely is. So shouldn’t marketing plus size fashion be a simple matter? Hardly. Graduate students at the NYU Costume Studies Program have assembled an exhibition that provides extraordinary insight into just how complex this subject has been across centuries of fashion and […]

A Marketing Windfall in Dietary Guidelines

January 14, 2016 — Prepare for an onslaught of no-added-sugar products. Food marketers have had more than a year to prepare for new dietary guidelines that formalize America’s growing aversion to sugar. And they provide a treasure map to a marketing windfall. Fresh new health claims are already emerging. Nutrition VP Jaime Schwartz Cohen of Ketchum Public Relations tells Advertising Age […]

Families Hold the Key to Childhood Obesity

January 13, 2016 — At the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Obesity Solutions Tuesday, a concise review of the latest obesity prevalence data provided a strong close for the meeting’s  two-day agenda. New data on obesity trends forced a reconsideration of previously sunnier assessments that obesity rates were yielding to strategies for controlling its growth. To reverse trends in childhood obesity, it […]

Keeping Track of Activity Trackers

January 12, 2016 — On many levels, the phenomenon of activity trackers can be quite a challenge to track. Presenting yesterday to the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions of the Institute of Medicine, Gary Bennett of Duke University and Kimberly Warner of Fitbit presented a compelling picture for the potential of this technology. Despite the fact that the data on […]