November 30, 2021 — Following closely on a landmark study of bariatric surgery and liver fat, today we have a new RCT comparing the effects of gastric sleeve and gastric bypass. In short, these two procedures work equally well. After one year, patients with both procedures had about a 20 percent reduction in liver fat. The other endpoint was […]
November 29, 2021 — We have plenty of reasons to think that COVID might be a spark for growth in obesity care. First of all, untreated obesity leaves a person more vulnerable to bad outcomes with COVID. More data is suggesting that effective obesity care might reduce those risks. And then we have anecdotal reports telling us that uptake […]
November 28, 2021 — Medical terms can carry a lot of baggage. Leprosy, cancer, diabetes, autism, and obesity are just a few examples. What they all have in common is that they describe conditions that can cause a lot of trouble, but either don’t or didn’t have an easy resolution. So to greater or lesser degrees, people attached stigma […]
November 27, 2021 — “Feeding pet dogs just once a day might keep them healthier as they age,” says a headline in New Scientist this week. But when we look under the headline, it’s pretty clear that there’s not much support for this claim. It’s more of a hypothesis that dogs might benefit from intermittent fasting. After all, intermittent […]
November 26, 2021 — Vaccinating children against COVID-19 is on parents’ minds, now that Australia’s rollout is open to those aged 12 and over, and regulators are actively considering vaccination for five to 11 year olds.[Note: in the U.S., FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for children as young as five on October 29.] Many parents will be thinking about […]
November 25, 2021 — Axios has declared that we are having our most vegan Thanksgiving ever. It sounds like a good story. They made us look. But the story is not exactly true. In short, while we may be drifting toward more food from plants on the table, we are not making a headlong rush toward veganism. Has Peak […]
November 24, 2021 — New data this week in SOARD tells us once again that gastric bypass can produce impressive results over time for someone with severe obesity. After ten years, Su-Hsin Chang and colleagues found that their cohort of 1,104 patients had maintained an average 31 percent reduction in body weight. Best Results for White Women But it […]
November 23, 2021 — “The way that fat people and thin people experience this conversation is worlds apart,” says Michael Hobbes on a recent episode of his Maintenance Phase podcast with Aubrey Gordon. He’s describing a heated debate about catastrophizing obesity that has been smoldering for almost two decades. This is a conflict between two views of obesity. One […]
November 22, 2021 — The PR for a new analysis of dietary strategies for weight management in diabetes certainly is an attention grabber. The only trouble is that the headlines don’t line up with the science and real world outcomes in diabetes. The press release says: Low energy diets and meal replacements appear best for kicking diabetes But in […]
November 21, 2021 — In her new book, How the Other Half Eats, Priya Fielding-Singh tells us good nutrition comes in many forms. But the dominant culture often presents a narrow definition of a healthy diet. This happens because we often fix our attention on the merits and faults of specific foods or nutrients. She writes: “Certain items are […]
