Archive for April, 2016

The Scam of Veggie Chips

April 10, 2016 — One of the nutrition facts panels on the right is for Sensible Portions Veggie Chips with “sea salt and 30% less fat.” The other is for a small portion of McDonald’s French fries. Which do you think is for the veggie chips? If you guessed the one on top with 20% more fat, 285% more sodium, […]

The Cost of Ignoring Obesity in an Epidemic of Diabetes

April 9, 2016 — A long history of ignoring obesity has racked up considerable costs for chronic diseases. This history was presented Friday in a symposium sponsored by the American Journal of Managed Care at their annual conference on patient centered diabetes care. Janine Kyrillos of Thomas Jefferson University described the considerable impact of AMA recognizing in 2013 that […]

Surprise? Fat Letters Don’t Help Girls with Excess Weight

April 8, 2016 — In a finding that should surprise absolutely no one, a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences (PNAS) showed that “fat letters” sent home from school had little discernable effect. In New York City, they euphemistically call these letters – which notify parents if their child has excess weight or obesity […]

Loving Your Body When It’s Not Working Right

April 7, 2016 — There’s no denying it. We’re screwed up when the subject comes to health and body weight. That’s why body positivity — loving your body as it is — is an important concept gaining traction with the American public. But when you throw obesity into the mix, the conversation gets complicated. It gets complicated because people […]

Five-Year Bariatric Surgery Outcomes Impress

April 6, 2016 — Five-year bariatric surgery outcomes from the STAMPEDE randomized controlled trial are nothing short of impressive. Philip Schauer presented the results in a late-breaking session at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session in Chicago. Our findings show continued durability of glycemic control after metabolic surgery, as well as persistent weight loss, reduction in diabetes and […]

Who Cares Why Obesity Is Going Global?

April 5, 2016 — The new publication in Lancet presents a stark picture of obesity going global: If post-2000 trends continue, the probability of meeting the global obesity target is virtually zero. Rather, if these trends continue, by 2025, global obesity prevalence will reach 18% in men and surpass 21% in women; severe obesity will surpass 6% in men and 9% […]

Calming the Brain’s Response to Food

April 4, 2016 — Your brain’s response to food is one of the key tools that your body uses to protect you from starving or losing too much weight. Even bad food starts looking really good and thoughts about food crowd out everything else in the brain. In a featured presentation at ENDO 2016, Olivia Farr and colleagues demonstrated that […]

Evidence for Unhealthy Eating Behaviors That Matter

April 3, 2016 — Getting advice on how to eat isn’t hard. “Don’t eat that standing up – it will make you fat” is unsolicited advice you’ll hear a lot, especially abroad. Apparently, Americans have a bad reputation for eating on the run. What we don’t hear much is any evidence about how much or whether any of these unhealthy […]

Marketing Healthy Portions: Consumers, Biases, and Innovation

April 2, 2016 — Marketing healthy portions of food is a tricky business that offers important opportunities for better health and healthy profits for food marketers who get it right. Portion distortion has been proposed as a contributing factor in the growth of obesity rates over the last three decades. In a special issue of Appetite, a collection of five new […]

Soda Sales Down, Childhood Obesity Epidemic Over

April 1, 2016 — Following news that soda sales are down to levels not seen since the 1980s, First Lady Michelle Obama hosted a massive celebration at the White House last night, marking the end of the childhood obesity epidemic. With the President at her side, the First Lady told an assembled crowd of trim and fit youngsters: We’ve […]