Archive for February, 2017

Obesity Policies: Punishment, Care, or Neglect?

February 9, 2017 — We now have four decades of dramatic growth in obesity prevalence behind us. We have spent two of those decades bemoaning the problem and calling for urgent action. But obesity policies to date – however well-intended – have not even stopped the upward trend. Reversing the trend seems like a fantasy. Perhaps part of the problem is […]

The Way, the Truth, and the Perfect Diet

February 8, 2017 — Pew Research tells us that the public is becoming more spiritual at the same time that we are drifting away from organized religion. So people are seeking spirituality in other ways. Coming to terms with life and death has always been a focus of religion. And so it is that vaguely spiritual concepts of clean […]

Childhood Obesity Treatment Programs: A Few to Serve Many

February 7, 2017 — Approximately five million children and adolescents in the U.S. now suffer with severe obesity, and the prevalence is continuing to grow. To the best of our knowledge, fewer than 50 comprehensive childhood obesity treatment programs exist in the U.S. That’s one program for every 100,000 kids with severe obesity. Click the image on the left for a list […]

Growing Gaps in Pediatric Obesity Care

February 7, 2017 — As the prevalence of severe childhood obesity continues to grow, the gap in resources and guidelines for pediatric obesity care is reaching a crisis. In Clinical Obesity this month, Timothy Nissen and colleagues published an analysis of the evidence for current pediatric obesity guidelines. They found existing guidelines are out of date. The evidence supporting them is […]

Sensible Public Health or Sugar Shaming?

February 6, 2017 — A new solution for obesity, proposed by Michael Goran and Emily Ventura, is floating through the opinion pages of newspapers all over the world. They say that we should wake up to risks of “secondhand sugars” for infants and young children. If we see a pregnant woman drink a soda, we should worry for the unborn […]

Fury from the Sound of Eating? It’s in Your Brain

February 5, 2017 — It often starts at about the age of 12. A particular sound – the sound of eating, chewing popcorn, having soup, breathing – triggers anxiety or anger, perhaps to the point of rage. This is not the mild annoyance that anyone might experience from time to time. It’s a condition called misophonia than can turn a person’s […]

Neglecting Social Rank in Obesity Prevention Strategies

February 4, 2017 — By any objective measure, our current obesity prevention strategies are failing. Former CDC Director Tom Frieden said it bluntly in JAMA this week. “There has been no progress in reducing childhood obesity.” The latest obesity statistics in Mexico show the problem is still growing. That’s true even though Mexico passed a tax on sugary drinks and highly […]

Clean Eating, Dirty Reputation

February 3, 2017 — Clean eating, it seems, is earning a bit of a dirty reputation. This popular meme has grown out of the even more popular idea of healthy eating. Cambridge scientist Giles Yeo examined a range of clean eating fads for a BBC Horizons film. With the gentle persistence of a real scientist, Yeo takes apart inflated […]

Big Soda: Carnage or Engagement?

February 2, 2017 — This week,  CDC released data showing that the steady decline in sugar-sweetened beverages, ongoing since 1999, has slowed. The reaction from some public health folks was hyperbolic. Big soda “causes carnage” and “cares nothing” about it, says Walter Willett. Comparisons to alcohol, tobacco, and guns flowed freely. Oddly enough, folks sounding these alarms did not acknowledge declining sugary […]

Three Catchphrases for Gently Dismissing People with Obesity

February 1, 2017 — Solving a problem is tough when you’ve been dismissed. And routinely, in conversations about obesity, we hear the people with obesity dismissed. Here are three popular catchphrases for gently dismissing people with obesity. 1. We can’t treat our way out of the obesity epidemic. The false choice between treatment and prevention surfaces again and again. The […]