May 11, 2016 — Diet soda is definitely not fashionable these days. Millennials regards it as “chemicals in a can” and opt instead for artisanal soda with real cane sugar. Fine. But does fashion, plus a an observational study, add up to a sound basis for recommending what to drink in pregnancy? A pair of publications in JAMA Pediatrics […]
May 10, 2016 — Concerns with fat shaming and body positivity tend to be discussed as issues that affect only women. Big and tall departments have long been the place where larger men were banished to find what they could wear. But now it seems that a fashion icon for plus-size men is stepping forward in the person of […]
May 9, 2016 — If obesity is a disease simply defined by excess adiposity (body fat), then why is the puzzle of an obesity paradox so difficult to resolve? Why does it seem that some people with a high BMI might have better health outcomes in some situations that people with a lower BMI? The short answer is that BMI, […]
May 8, 2016 — Every one of us is formed in a family and obesity, more often than not, is shared in families across generations. A big part of this is because roughly 70% of obesity risk is inherited. Beyond that, two recent studies add to the understanding that a mother’s health before and during pregnancy plays a role […]
May 7, 2016 — The $3.4 trillion fitness industry has prospered because it has come to represent an identity for the people who participate. In an interview with Marketplace, Bloomberg’s Jason Kelly explains: What is so interesting about it, I think, is this idea that it has moved from activity to lifestyle. Once it moves to a lifestyle, then […]
May 6, 2016 — Bias hits people who live with the chronic disease of obesity, and the professionals who devote their careers to overcoming it, with a double dose – obesity bias squared. Intellectual bias that favors personal convictions in obesity and nutrition has a profound effect on research and the scientific literature in obesity. Writing in Clinical Obesity, Krista […]
May 5, 2016 — “To keep obesity at bay, exercise may trump diet.” This headline from the New York Times follows a longstanding theme: a false choice between exercise and diet. Simply framing the question this way offers up bad choices. The reason for the headline was a rat study. It showed health benefits for exercise in rats that were […]
May 4, 2016 — Mental health issues seem to be one more excuse for discrimination in obesity care. A new study of people with controlled but complex mental histories examines their outcomes in bariatric surgery. The outcomes, the study finds, can be entirely comparable to outcomes for people with other psychiatric disorders or even no psychiatric disorder. Lauren Thomson and […]
May 3, 2016 — The Biggest Loser is an easy target. It’s a slow-motion train wreck that NBC has exploited for 17 seasons of high intensity weight loss competitions. A new study published yesterday in Obesity explains why it is a train wreck for many, if not most, of the contestants. Fothergill and colleagues studied 14 of the 16 […]
May 2, 2016 — A recent headline in Wired shouted it out: “Diabetes drug that also treats obesity could make billions.” What followed was a mostly reasonable discussion of the risks and benefits of obesity treatment in the jocular tone typical of Wired. Alexa Kurzius explains her assessment of the potential for Saxenda (liraglutide) for obesity: Initially, weight loss was just […]
