January 11, 2016 — The quest for the best diet seems inescapable right now. U.S. News and World Report has published its annual rankings and come up with not just one best diet, but nine. From a list of only 38 diets, that’s a pretty neat trick — almost fulfilling the promise to the millennial generation that everyone is […]
January 10, 2016 — Yet another study shows that employer threats and bribes have no impact on obesity. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania published a randomized controlled trial of employer incentives for weight loss in Health Affairs and concluded: In this yearlong randomized trial, we found that three different types of incentive programs using either health benefit premium adjustments or lottery-based […]
January 9, 2016 — In its first year, Mexico’s soda tax does appear to have caused a reduction in purchases of soda, according to a new study published in the BMJ. Researchers from Mexico and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found a six percent decline in 2014 for sugary beverages that were taxed and a four percent increase in […]
January 8, 2016 — In the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans unveiled yesterday, there’s a little something for everyone. From different perspectives, people are seeing a triumph for lobbying, virtue, or science. Lobbying. Some public health observers see a big win in these guidelines for the meat and soda industries. Harvard’s Walter Willet commented that “there are clear benefits […]
January 7, 2016 — A new review of advances in obesity care adds reasons to think that these advances are synergistic with advances in diabetes care. John Dixon highlights three major advances in obesity care from 2015 and all of them relate to diabetes as well. Liraglutide. Dixon cites impressive evidence that this drug, newly indicated for obesity treatment, is […]
January 6, 2016 — A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences reveals that scientists may be overlooking more than a quarter of obesity’s impact on death rates. The lead author, Andrew Stokes of Boston University, explains: The risks of obesity are obscured in prior research because most of the studies only incorporate information on […]
January 5, 2016 — Release of the 2015 edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans promises to be quite an event this month. Substantial reporting, analysis, and commentary on the subject is already dealing with the challenge of translating incomplete scientific evidence into guidelines that, in some cases, seem more like guestimates of what might be best. The video on […]
January 4, 2016 — It’s been hard to miss a steady stream of headlines for years now about vitamin D in obesity and bariatric surgery. “Vitamin D deficiency is the cause of common obesity” is one such headline, found in the journal, Medical Hypotheses. So what is all the fuss about vitamin D? To start, it’s reasonably clear that vitamin D deficiency […]
January 3, 2016 — In this season of New Year’s resolutions, improving health is a common goal that can be frustratingly difficult to reach. As we obsess over diets and nutrition, food can become even more an object of desire. People adopt exercise regimens that might seem more punishing than gratifying. Perhaps our resolutions would be more enduring if we start […]
January 2, 2016 — Weight Watchers passed a key milestone this week in a difficult makeover. They unveiled new advertising with Oprah Winfrey to support the complete re-design of their program for the critical New Year period. The company’s stock jumped more than 20% when the new advertising debuted. Responding to consumer preferences shifting away from diets, deprivation, and weight […]
