Archive for January, 2020

Warning People About What Not to Eat in Mexico

January 31, 2020 — The Associated Press calls it a win for anti-obesity activists in Mexico. A decade of fighting about food warning labels has brought a victory. Front of pack labels in Mexico will put big black stop signs on products with too much sugar, salt, or saturated fat. Finally, people will learn what not to eat. But […]

A Pause in Dropping U.S. Life Expectancy

January 30, 2020 — U.S. life expectancy had been dropping for three years in a row. But new data from CDC tells us that the decline has taken a pause this year. CDC issued a pair of data briefs today that showed a pause in two troubling trends. Life expectancy ticked up slightly in 2018 after three years of […]

Can We Quit the Angst About Dietary Recommendations?

January 29, 2020 — It seems we can’t quit bickering about dietary recommendations. Especially about red meat. The squabbling continues this week as Frank Hu and colleagues fire back on the subject, publishing a new commentary in Diabetes Care. With appreciation to the Fred Hutch News Service for sharing, we offer the following perspective on where we’ve gone wrong, […]

Will Smarter Sweeteners Improve the Food Supply?

January 28, 2020 — Editorial Note: After this post was published, we learned from sharp-eyed scientists that the analysis in the study referenced below suffers from a Difference in Nominal Significance error. For more on this issue with this study, we refer you to this explanation of the problem, which includes links to other publications about this issue. To […]

The Significance of Declining Human Body Temperatures

January 27, 2020 — While the planet warms up, our bodies are cooling down. That’s right. Declining human body temperatures are a fact of the last 200 years. A new study in eLife tells us that average body temperatures have cooled by 1.6% over the last 200 birth years. If you thought that 37°C or 98.6°F is the norm […]

Getting Real About Teen Bariatric Surgery Outcomes

January 26, 2020 — Back in October, the American Academy of Pediatrics made a bold statement. Teen bariatric surgery is an important, safe, and effective option for youth with severe obesity. Thus, we must solve problems with access to this care for many young people who need it. But a new study tells us that mere access to the […]

Relentlessly Chasing Macronutrient Magic

January 25, 2020 — Some people call it the macronutrient wars. We call it a relentless pursuit of macronutrient magic. Consumers want to eat healthy, whatever that is. In the 1980s and 90s, it was low fat. In this millennium, that’s shifted to low-carb and keto approaches. But a new study in JAMA Internal Medicine offers a clue that […]

Massive Meat Mayhem, Part 3

January 24, 2020 — We didn’t think the meat mayhem reported last week could get any nastier. We were wrong. That’s because John Sharp, Chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, is now requesting an investigation of actions by Walter Willett, Frank Hu, David Katz, and the True Health Initiative related to this big mess. He calls their reported […]

What About the Link Between Antibiotics and Childhood Obesity?

January 23, 2020 — People with a cause like to hook it up with childhood obesity. Breastfeeding is good for both mother and child. But it doesn’t magically prevent childhood obesity – no matter how many times advocates try to suggest it does. Likewise, overusing antibiotics is a huge problem – mainly because it leads to huge problems with […]

Do We Value the Food That Sustains Us?

January 22, 2020 — Spending five days with some of the most influential nutrition communication professionals in America has made us think. Do we value the food that sustains us? Is the low cost of food in America entirely a good thing? Why, despite that low cost, do we still have so much food insecurity? Cheap Calories Make no […]