July 31, 2021 — Mandates are very much in the news this week. We’re hearing a lot of angst about vaccine mandates and mask mandates. In some situations, it seems there’s not much room for debate about what to do. Yet we find that even when reality is unyielding, people still have choices to make. So in between the […]
July 30, 2021 — Improving health through nutrition is important. Relieving the considerable suffering that obesity causes is likewise important. But both of these tasks are difficult. That’s because clear evidence for cause and effect is hard to find in nutrition and obesity. Randomized studies are hard. Observational studies are more common, but they are subject to bias from […]
July 29, 2021 — Two years ago, intermittent fasting was a hot concept. The idea was that periods of fasting could have metabolic benefits and help with weight loss – better than simply restricting calories. Popular interest peaked in early 2020 and has since been declining. Now, a new RCT of intermittent fasting – small, but well controlled – […]
July 28, 2021 — Is it helpful to use shame for health promotion? The impulse is certainly strong. Shame and blame have been consistent threads through years of grappling with the health impact of obesity. Along the same line, we’re seeing shame and blame trotted out for the unvaccinated in the U.S. as a the Delta variant produces a […]
July 27, 2021 — The gap between facts and feelings about bariatric surgery never ceases to amaze. In 2016, we were presenting at a CDC conference in Atlanta, when a prominent family physician interrupted. He wanted to tell us that surgery usually leads to patients regaining all their weight. Or too often, he said, death. We responded by asking […]
July 26, 2021 — It’s been eight years since the American Medical Association resolved that obesity is a complex, chronic disease. But still, the argument endures. For different reasons, some people continue to resist what they see as medicalizing obesity. So with the closing session of the YWM2021 convention, it was quite interesting to hear a discussion from two […]
July 25, 2021 — Healthcare and policies on obesity serve people with wealth and privilege. The disparities are great in the U.S. But they exist everywhere. Just look at childhood obesity in the U.K. Consider the ten percent of children with the most social and economic deprivation. They have three times higher rates of obesity compared to the ten […]
July 24, 2021 — America has some of the cheapest food in the world. Out of pocket, we spend less for food than people in any other country in the world. Food beckons us to eat everywhere we turn. But the actual cost of cheap food can be quite high. A new report from the Rockefeller Foundation tells us […]
July 23, 2021 — The UK has a proposal for a new national food strategy, but it seems to be sailing in some very choppy waters. The most noted feature of this plan is its proposal to tax the sugar and salt that goes into processed, restaurant, and catered food to help overcome obesity. In addition, there’s a proposal […]
July 22, 2021 — “I remember just breaking down into tears,” says Safeera Hussainy about her diagnosis of gestational diabetes. This pharmacist and women’s health researcher from Melbourne eventually found empowerment. But new research suggests that this is not the usual case when pregnancy, diabetes, and stigma intersect. Weight stigma itself – even more than BMI – seems to […]
