December 13, 2016 — Please, someone hit the pause button on all the fake news headlines about saturated fat. They’ve been burying us all year long, with no sign of a respite. Presently, you can find a fresh batch of such headlines telling you: Saturated Fat Could Be Good for You Saturated Fat Is Actually Good for You Fat […]
December 12, 2016 — Ever watch a movie and wonder: what did it take for an actor or actress to get rock hard, 6-pack abs? Certainly, special effects have their role. But if you were to believe the magazines in the grocery store checkout line, you would find the secret to Hugh Jackman’s “Wolverine” look is hydration, Gingko, and […]
December 11, 2016 — It’s been a long slog, but this year brought at least five doses of good news on the subject of type 2 diabetes. Here’s our take. Preventing Cardiovascular Deaths. This year brought windfall of good news on cardiovascular outcomes with three of the newest drugs for type 2 diabetes. Just last week, empagliflozin (Jardiance) was […]
December 10, 2016 — Finding good news in the story of a bad Santa in Forest City, NC, is pretty hard. When this small town’s Santa helper told a nine-year-old boy to “lay off the hamburgers and fries,” the boy burst into tears and his mother became hopping mad. She demanded that the town of Forest City, this Santa […]
December 9, 2016 — For the first time in more than 20 years, life expectancy dropped in the U.S. last year. New data from the CDC shows an increase in deaths from eight of its top ten causes. CDC Director Tom Frieden was blunt in his assessment: We’re seeing the ramifications of the increase in obesity. And we’re seeing that […]
December 8, 2016 — The noise coming at a person considering metabolic and bariatric surgery can be deafening. Intense emotions about these procedures can influence personal decision making and even the scientific literature. The best antidote is to focus on the facts. A new study in PLOS Medicine provides a well-validated set of nine key outcomes for metabolic surgery. The […]
December 7, 2016 — A pair of new publications today in Obesity addresses medical care for children with obesity, leaving us both encouraged and profoundly discouraged. Encouragement comes from the fact that smart people from many different disciplines are finally coming together to solve a serious problem that destroys the lives of millions of children, starting at an early […]
December 6, 2016 — When Tom Frieden took over CDC, obesity goals took center stage with six other “winnable battles” in public health. On smoking, teen pregnancy, healthcare infections, and HIV, progress was notable. Progress on obesity goals fell short. The same was true for motor vehicle injuries and food safety. Frieden was frank about the poor progress on […]
December 5, 2016 — A new study in Obesity debunks the notion that people can’t handle the truth of genetic obesity risks. Catharine Wang and colleagues conducted a randomized, controlled trial of telling people about their genetic and lifestyle risks for obesity. They found that: Those who received genetic risk alone had greater intentions [to lose weight] at follow-up, compared […]
December 4, 2016 — The Hollywood body positivity story for today has it that Amy Schumer may be coming to the big screen as a real life Barbie. It’s a perfect intersection of a minor hero for body positivity with a historical villain. Under a Washington Post headline declaring that “Schumer will be the most perfect (imperfect) Barbie ever,” […]
