Archive for October, 2021

Celebrating and Vanquishing Fear on Halloween

October 31, 2021 — Many fears are plaguing us right now. A virus is still killing more than five thousand people every day around the world – more than a thousand daily in the U.S. Some people are fearful of spending time indoors with others who are unmasked or unvaccinated. Others are fearful of the masks and the vaccines. […]

Nutritional Epidemiology: No Longer Good Enough?

October 30, 2021 — The Nutrition Source at Harvard makes one thing clear enough. Potatoes are a problem. They can give you obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Skip across town and you’ll get a very different story from Boston University. “Nutrient-rich potatoes can be part of a healthy diet in young girls.” This kind of whiplash tells us that, […]

ObesityWeek: Scoping Out the Virtual Excitement Ahead

October 29, 2021 — Who would have thought that two years could change so many things? But here we are on the cusp of our second virtual ObesityWeek® since we were all together in Las Vegas in 2019. We’ve seen a lot since then and we have a lot to look forward to in the week ahead, starting Monday. […]

Can Europe Bridge the Gap in Obesity Research?

October 28, 2021 — The European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO) sees a big gap to bridge in obesity research. Earlier this year, the European Union defined obesity as a chronic, relapsing disease. But a gap remains in policies to actually reduce the impact of this disease. EASO President Jason Halford explained: “The current EU research agenda […]

Ultra-Processed Foods: More Today Than Yesterday

October 27, 2021 — Clearly, the public has a very mixed-up approach to ultra-processed foods. On one hand, nutrition experts and foodies will solemnly nod and agree that we all need to eat less of them. But on the other hand, ultra-processed plant-based foods that might induce people to eat less meat are a hot trend of 2021. On […]

Decades of Hype for Protein-Rich Diets and “Superfoods”

October 26, 2021 — Do you ever blend up a protein smoothie for breakfast, or grab a protein bar following an afternoon workout? If so, you are likely among the millions of people in search of more protein-rich diets. Protein-enriched products are ubiquitous, and these days it seems protein can be infused into anything – even water. But the […]

The Control of Physiology Over Eating

October 25, 2021 — Most of us attach some importance to what we choose to eat. But in fact, eating is not entirely a matter of conscious choice. Like breathing, it is a physiological necessity for life. So if you dig a little, it becomes clear that physiology exerts considerable control over our eating behaviors. Over the last three […]

Feeding Impulses That Harm People

October 24, 2021 — Two stories about very different industries – one very old and one very new – are demanding our attention right now. The new industry is social media. For weeks now, a litany of stories has made it plain that Facebook has made some bad choices to protect their profits while causing harm. The old industry […]

Reaching for an End to Bias

October 23, 2021 — Jessica Nordell describes something like a quest in her new book, The End of Bias. “When I began this book, I thought I was writing a work of science. My plan was to read, study, synthesize the best evidence, and share what I found. The journey would be straightforward; it would be scientific and outward-facing […]

How Hard and Helpful Is It to Admit We Don’t Know?

October 22, 2021 — “What happens when health officials tell the full truth?” asked David Leonhardt in the New York Times recently. He was writing about the value of admitting to uncertainty in public health. In a similar vein, Paul Krugman wrote recently about the power of admitting that nobody knows the right answer to a thorny problem. And […]