November 10, 2016 — In Tuesday’s election, Americans in four cities – Boulder, CO, and San Francisco, Oakland, and Albany, CA – approved soda tax proposals for their cities. In addition, Chicago’s Cook County Board of Commissioners will vote on a soda tax today. These taxes will add a penny or two for each ounce of soda. Economics professor Roland Sturm […]
November 9, 2016 — Recently in JAMA, Bill Dietz and colleagues outline a three-part recommendation to address the long-term consequences of preventable chronic health conditions. They focus, rightly, on smoking and tobacco, physical activity, and nutrition as components of the two leading causes of preventable suffering and premature death. These are important recommendations for healthier generations. We see strengths in […]
November 8, 2016 — It’s time for a vote, apparently. And the vote is not just about Trump and Clinton. We’re voting on a soda tax in four cities today: Boulder, CO, and Oakland, San Francisco, and Albany, CA. This question has turned into a stupid food fight, in our humble opinion. We’re talking about soda taxes, not the presidential […]
November 7, 2016 — When does a hypothesis become a bias? One answer can be found in a recent publication about nutrition research in JAMA Internal Medicine. The authors – Nicholas Chartres, Alice Fabbri, and Lisa Bero – surmised that food industry sponsorship of research might generate outcomes that favor the sponsors. They conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis and found “insufficient evidence” […]
November 6, 2016 — At ObesityWeek in New Orleans plenty of good research and insight could be found on the subject of weight bias. As we reported earlier, public attitudes seem to be shifting. For the first time, U.S. adults are accepting the idea that obesity is a medical condition that requires care, not blame. And multiple indicators of […]
November 5, 2016 — ObesityWeek in New Orleans was a feast of new information and perspectives for people who devote their careers to understanding and solving the challenge of obesity. The highlights were many and different for every attendee. Here are ten for your consideration. Sadaf Farooqi delivered a keynote address that mixed good humor with serious science about […]
November 4, 2016 — New research from two separate studies presented at ObesityWeek in New Orleans demonstrates that health plans often stand in the way of obesity care. In one study, researchers from Harvard, ConscienHealth, and the Obesity Action Coalition found that most Americans report they don’t have health insurance that will pay for obesity care recommended in evidence-based guidelines. […]
November 3, 2016 — From two separate studies presented in New Orleans at ObesityWeek, researchers find roughly half of obesity hidden from medical care. Starting with that fact, perhaps we should not be surprised that so few people receive evidence-based obesity care. On Wednesday, Barto Burguera and colleagues presented a study of more than 300,000 electronic health records at […]
November 2, 2016 — New research to be presented at ObesityWeek 2016 indicates that weight shaming may be easing a bit. At the same time, the public increasingly understands that obesity is a medical condition. Between 2013 and 2016, public perception of obesity as a “personal problem of bad choices” has dropped from 44% to 34%. On top of that, […]
November 1, 2016 — Among the top ten papers to be presented in the ASMBS portion of ObesityWeek 2016 on Wednesday is a case-control study of long-term mortality after bariatric surgery. We expect no big surprises in this study, just another set of compelling data affirming the survival benefit conferred by bariatric surgery documented in the landmark Swedish Obese […]
