March 11, 2016 — The circular logic of healthy foods is something that surfaces in writing and research about obesity, nutrition, and health. A prime example can be found right now in hand-wringing about the place of “ultra-processed food” in American dietary habits. Eurídice Martínez Steele and colleagues analyzed self-reported dietary data from NHANES and found that: Ultra-processed foods comprised 57.9% of energy […]
March 10, 2016 — Mindfulness is an unmistakably hot topic, commanding public attention that has grown impressively over the last decade. Mindful eating, which applies principles of mindfulness, offers considerable promise as well as some challenges for researchers. A new randomized, controlled study of mindful eating published in Obesity offers tantalizing new insights. But it falls short of answering […]
March 9, 2016 — Is intermittent fasting on a fast track to become the next big dieting miracle? Writing for the New York Times, Anahad O’Connor seems to think so. And it has all the right ingredients for a hot new trend. Advocates can serve you sizzling tidbits of science from rodents, like an impact on sciencey-sounding stuff like insulin, […]
March 8, 2016 — Heath reporters want us to believe this week that peanuts and peanut butter may be the answer for obesity. Here’s a small sample of recent headlines: Peanut Butter May Prevent Childhood Obesity; Snacks with Peanuts Positively Affect BMI Study: Eating Peanuts May Help Prevent Obesity Researchers Link Peanut Butter to Weight Loss Want to Lose […]
March 7, 2016 — A major new study shows that people treated with liraglutide for type 2 diabetes have fewer strokes, heart attacks, and deaths from heart disease. Six years ago, cardiovascular outcomes had doctors scratching their heads about diabetes and obesity drugs. A hearing on a flawed outcome study with sibutramine resulted in its withdrawal from the market. […]
March 6, 2016 — The idea of your employer owning your health has been marching forward since the middle of the 20th century when employer-provided health insurance emerged as a response to labor unions and the fear of post-war inflation. By the mid-1960s, getting health insurance from your employer had become a standard benefit of employment that was nearly universal. […]
March 5, 2016 — How much weight loss, if any, is essential to good clinical care for obesity? This question consumes an incredible amount of energy, in our opinion, for relatively little in return. A pair of recent studies and a new commentary in Obesity add to the volumes that have been written on this subject. With a commentary in Obesity, Robert […]
March 4, 2016 — In a pair of point-counterpoint essays, the Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law is presenting two frank assessments of obesity policy: incomplete or completely off target. John Cawley offers the more optimistic assessment. He suggests that some of the present, incomplete efforts, if combined, could produce important changes. Malana Essington and Attila Hertelendy paint a picture […]
March 3, 2016 — Who knew that missing sleep had anything in common with marijuana? It turns out that sleep loss elevates the levels of substances called endocannabinoids circulating in your body. These endocannabinoids push some of the same buttons in your body and your brain (cannabinoid receptors) that marijuana (cannabis) does. And a new study published in Sleep […]
March 2, 2016 — We bump into quite a bit of moral outrage on the subject of obesity. In fact, Paul Campos and others contend that the language of the “obesity epidemic” is nothing more than an expression of moral panic serving to marginalize people who live at the high end of the normal diversity in body size. Elsewhere, as the […]
