Archive for August, 2019

Will 2020 Guidelines Skip Tough Questions?

August 31, 2019 — Tough to solve an issue if we don’t talk about it. But a number of dietary issues appear to be off the table for the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Red meat? Too hot to handle. Ultra-processed foods? Nope. Sodium? Not on the issue list. The 2020 Guidelines may just skip over some of the […]

Moralizing Obesity Builds Stigma Three Ways

August 30, 2019 — Almost 30 years ago, David Allison, Vincent Basile, and Harold Yuker were studying how to measure weight stigma. Among other things, they found belief in personal control over obesity is a key factor in bias against people with obesity. Likewise, disgust is a key factor. Together, these factors provide the basis for moralizing obesity. They […]

Thanks for All the Likes!

August 29, 2019 — With deep gratitude, we note a milestone this morning for ConscienHealth. We just hit the mark of 40,000 fans on our Facebook page. Since we offer these updates and commentaries pro bono, it’s always nice to know that someone is finding the bono in our prose. To our dear readers, we say thanks. Emphatically. Thanks […]

Junk Food Kills, Protective Food Saves, Hallelujah!

August 29, 2019 — Our food is killing too many of us. Healthcare is expensive and Americans are sick. Much sicker than many realize. Ten dietary factors are killing a thousand people every day in America. What shall we do? Count on protective food to save us. Out with the junk. In with protective nutrition. This gospel of dietary […]

Will a Bad Trend in Heart Deaths Make People Think?

August 28, 2019 — JAMA has a new paper describing in detail how the progress in reducing deaths from heart disease is grinding to a halt. Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Liverpool found disturbing trends in heart deaths. The decline in overall deaths from heart disease is slowing. Deaths from stroke and diabetes are no longer […]

Childhood Obesity: Lose Weight, Gain Health, or Evade?

August 27, 2019 — The Kurbo kerfuffle has revealed a lot about how grownups are dealing with childhood obesity. Because mostly, they’re not. In fact, most of them are totally out of touch with the reality of childhood. But in sharp contrast, Michelle Cardel and Elsie Taveras bring a refreshing dose of reality and balance with a new commentary […]

How Your Body’s Heater – Brown Fat – Works

August 26, 2019 — Believe it or not, your body has an organ that serves as an efficient little heater. It’s brown fat. Obesity geeks might call it brown adipose tissue. Or BAT for short. For some time now, BAT has fascinated obesity scientists. Adding to their excitement is a new study last week in Nature. The research documents […]

Church Feeds the Soul, But What About the Waist?

August 25, 2019 — For African American men, a new study tells us frequent church attendance predicts double the risk of obesity. That’s versus men who seldom attend. But in these data, researchers found no such link for women. Health in Faith-Based Settings Keisha Bentley‑Edwards used data from the National Survey of American Life. It’s a fascinating study with […]

Looking at the Big Picture of Vegan Food and Sustainability

August 24, 2019 — The IPCC special report, Climate Change and Land, released recently, has found a third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the land: largely farming, food production, land clearing, and deforestation. Sustainable farming is a major focus of the report, as plants and soil can potentially hold huge amounts of carbon. But it’s incredibly […]

Untreated Obesity Means More Cancer Costs

August 23, 2019 — The total cost of cancer care is daunting. It  will add up to $157 billion in 2020, says the NCI. But big numbers can leave us numb. So if you look at what a cancer diagnosis costs a person, it’s devastating. Cancer more than doubles the odds of bankruptcy. Against that dismal backdrop, we have […]