Archive for June, 2018

Urbanization Causes Obesity? Not Exactly

June 20, 2018 — It’s a familiar theme. Urbanization is spreading obesity around the world in low and middle income countries. And the implication is that urbanization has already done damage to higher income countries like the U.S. But like most familiar themes of obesity, this one doesn’t hold up to close scrutiny. Rural Obesity Soaring in the U.S. […]

Discovering Anew the Flaws in Self-Reports

June 19, 2018 — Sad but true, we often have to learn the same things over and over again. So it is with a basic fact of obesity prevalence. State health officials get comfortable with relying upon self-reports. Often, that’s all they have. It’s easier to do a telephone or online survey than to actually collect measurements of height […]

Myth-Busting, Confusion, and Deception

June 18, 2018 — Myth-busting is a popular approach for tackling controversial or misunderstood subjects. Certainly you’ll find a bit of that here at ConscienHealth. We’re not shy about dispelling myths. But Derek Powell and colleagues conclude that myth-busting can become deceptive. If the question at hand is subtle – not starkly true or false – then myth-busting can leave readers […]

A Double Dose of Discrimination

June 17, 2018 — A pair of presentations at the 31st Harvard Blackburn Course in Obesity Medicine reminds us of much work to do. We have an embarrassing gap in respectful and equitable care for people with obesity. Scott Kahan gave a compelling overview of weight bias and stigma. On top of that, Fatima Cody Stanford described the added heath […]

The Brain’s Control Center for Diabetes and Obesity

June 16, 2018 — Yesterday, Michael Schwartz delivered this year’s Blackburn Lecture in Obesity Medicine. The lecture series honors both the memory of George Blackburn and individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to the science of obesity. Schwartz painted a remarkably clear picture of some complex neuroscience. Evidence is accumulating to describe the brain’s control center for diabetes and […]

Linking Nutrition and Health Part 2: Obesity and Overeating

June 15, 2018 — Good nutrition brings good health. That much is easy. Overeating begets obesity? Not so fast, said Lee Kaplan as he opened the 31st Harvard Blackburn Course in Obesity Medicine yesterday. This is a case of an association that is so tight that many people take it for granted. But linking nutrition to health has many […]

Linking Nutrition to Health Part 1: The Mediterranean Diet

June 14, 2018 — What are we supposed to think now about our precious Mediterranean diet? Somebody took the randomized out of our favorite randomized controlled trial. Yesterday, authors of the landmark 2013 PREDIMED study retracted it from the New England Journal of Medicine. They did this because of problems with the randomization. In its place, they published a new […]

Twisting the Definition of Added Sugars

June 14, 2018 — You might think that “added” means just what it says. But we’re finding out that this might not be the case when we’re talking about added sugars. Cranberry, honey, and maple syrup makers are finding out that added is supposed to mean bad. So it seems like FDA may end up twisting the definition for […]

Chow Time at Work

June 13, 2018 — It turns out that advertising for Philadelphia Cream Cheese captures a slice of reality – chow time at work. In a new study presented at Nutrition 2018, CDC researchers found that many workers routinely get a big chunk of empty calories from office food. In fact, 22% of workers get nearly 1,300 calories from workplace […]

Like Magic: Eat Healthy, Save Billions

June 12, 2018 — Do we all have permission to deploy truthful hyperbole now? Judging from nutrition headlines today, the answer is unmistakable. Who needs healthcare? A small shift in eating patterns could save billions said Carolyn Scrafford of Exponent in a press release from Nutrition 2018: We found that increasing adherence to healthy dietary patterns by even 20 percent […]