April 20, 2019 — We are in the midst of a great change in how our food is labeled for nutrition. The Nutrition Facts label goes back to 1993, with no changes since 1999. That’s when trans fats gained a place on the label. Now, starting in 2020, the label will call out added sugar. That should be simple, […]
April 19, 2019 — Facts are stubborn because they’re real. Two new studies in Cell today shine a light on a basic fact about obesity that we’ve known for decades. Obesity is a highly heritable condition. Roughly 70 percent of a person’s risk of obesity is driven by the genes they inherit. But some people work awfully hard to […]
April 18, 2019 — The data are stubbornly refusing to cooperate with the wizards of workplace wellness. A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds no effect on health or economic outcomes. Professor Eric Topol aptly sums it up in a tweet: The folly of “workplace wellness” programs: no clinical outcome improvements despite billions of […]
April 17, 2019 — Noom is an app and a program that climbed into the top trends for diet and nutrition searches on Google in 2018. So now it’s putting considerable pressure on the old guard of the diet industry at a time when consumers have very mixed feelings about that business. Weight Watchers is now WW – Wellness […]
April 16, 2019 — FDA has just cleared a new capsule for obesity care that doesn’t fit neatly into any of the sorting boxes for obesity treatment. It’s not a drug, even though it looks like one. Instead, it’s a device. It’s a capsule full of hydrogel particles that swell into a mass to help your stomach feel full […]
April 15, 2019 — We’re not especially fond of rankings for obesity. They can spark sensationalism. Back in 2008, journalists had great fun with a CDC report that identified Huntington, WV, as “America’s fattest city.” Jamie Oliver swooped in to offer an enlightened diet to the city and its children. He sobbed for the cameras when the city didn’t […]
April 14, 2019 — Tomorrow is tax day in the U.S. Maybe you have it all squared away or maybe it’s not a worry for you. Whatever the case may be, it’s worth taking this moment to think about a tax we could all live without. Writing in Diabetes Care, Timothy Dall tells us that we’re all paying what […]
April 13, 2019 — Beware. Gendered generalizations will almost always get you into trouble. But they surround us. And in the Washington Post, Monica Hesse points out Twitter founder Jack Dorsey can utter meaningless drivel about what to eat and it’s a “biohack.” However, from a female opportunist – say, Gwyneth Paltrow – it’s simply whacky. Hack or whack? […]
April 12, 2019 — It’s been a long road for Intercept Pharmaceuticals to develop an important advance for treating NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis). Five years ago this little startup company shocked the world when a monitoring board stopped a placebo-controlled study because their drug (obeticholic acid or OCA) had worked so well. A final round of 64 liver biopsies were […]
April 11, 2019 — “I am ashamed to work in a healthcare profession that treats people in such a manner,” says Rachel Batterham. Batterham is a brilliant researcher and professor of obesity, diabetes, and endocrinology. But on Wednesday at the fourth World Congress on Interventional Therapies for Type 2 Diabetes, she reached outside of her comfort zone to talk […]
