May 10, 2021 — As the European Congress on Obesity starts this morning, a pair of analyses are casting a harsh light on herbals and dietary supplements for weight loss. In fact, the science for these products is thin. The lead author of this work, Erica Bessell, explains: “Very few high-quality studies have been done on some supplements, with […]
May 10, 2021 — Brace yourself for sugar 2.0. Processed food makers are loading up on sugar that’s not sugar. The push to drive added sugar out of the food supply means that allulose – a rare, but natural form of sugar – is suddenly popular with the industry. It helps that food companies can add this sugar to […]
May 9, 2021 — It sounds apocryphal. Yet it’s fresh and real. Da’Shaun Harrison, an author and activist, had just arrived at an Atlanta hospital with COVID-19, was lying on a stretcher, and terrified of dying. A male nurse approached and said, “Wow, you’re big. The first thing we need to do is get this weight off you.” Neither […]
May 8, 2021 — It’s 2021 and the medical world has mostly moved on from the archaic view of bariatric surgery as a treatment of last resort for obesity. For many patients, delaying bariatric surgery harms their health. The rest of the world is still struggling to catch up. But healthcare providers who care for people living with obesity […]
May 7, 2021 — Late last week, the FDA announced that it intends to ban menthol cigarettes. This is in part because these are the cigarettes that Black smokers prefer. Smoking takes a bigger toll on Blacks than Whites, so maybe this will help reduce a source of health disparities. Indeed it sounds like a good idea. Except that […]
May 6, 2021 — Weight loss is a minor part of obesity care. It’s blindingly obvious, but most people have a tough time wrapping their heads around this basic fact. A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine today tells this story in a very elegant way. It’s all about controlling weight over time. Getting Weight Loss […]
May 5, 2021 — Weight bias envelopes us. But especially in healthcare systems it is jarring at times. Pervasively, weight bias is coded into health systems. Sometimes it’s subtle. Other times it smacks a patient right in the face. Change is slow because systems evolve slowly. Electronic medical records systems, for example, take years to design and implement. So […]
May 4, 2021 — Patterns of disparities surround us so completely that we become immune to them. In fact, disparities even extend to the air we breathe. People of color have dirtier air to breathe and that contributes to disparities in health in countless ways. New research offers evidence that air pollution contributes to the risk of childhood obesity. […]
May 3, 2021 — Obesity is a highly heritable condition. But in the general population, genes only explain about 40 to 50 percent of the variability in BMI. How can both of these things be true? Work to understand the causes of obesity spans a century. So scientists have learned a great deal about the genetic inheritance of obesity […]
May 2, 2021 — Dialing up emotions about health can be very unhelpful. Especially if the goal is to make good decisions and good policy. But today, we have many examples of strong emotions getting in the way of clear thinking about public health. Face masks and vaccination come to mind. Nicotine, tobacco, and obesity are also subjects that […]
