Archive for April, 2022

Defining Goals for Regulating Food Marketing

April 30, 2022 — In food policy, there’s plenty that people are ready to fight about. Dairy and meat come to mind. Anyone who’s reading this will doubtless have their own list of hot topics. But one subject that gets most people nodding their heads is marketing junk food to children. So for more than a decade, the World […]

Racism and Segregation as a Factor in Obesity Risk

April 29, 2022 — What roles do racism and segregation play in the disparate obesity risk for children from some racial and ethnic groups face? Is it race or place that is driving these disparities? How concerned should we be about the trends toward increasing school segregation evident in many regions of the U.S.? These are questions for which […]

Tirzepatide Phase Three Obesity Results: Wow!

April 28, 2022 — Make no mistake. The competition to deliver better therapies for obesity is heating up in an impressive way. This morning, Eli Lilly released topline results for their first phase three trial of tirzepatide in obesity. One word sums up the reaction from top clinical scientists in obesity: “Wow!” Jeff Emmick is the vice president of […]

Getting to Work on a Global Obesity Knowledge Gap

April 27, 2022 — Around the world, we have a big obesity knowledge gap in medical schools. A few years ago, Marissa Mastrocola and colleagues documented this in the International Journal of Obesity. But the good news is that people are working on closing that gap. This week, a group of medical educators published a new set of obesity […]

A Flicker of Curiosity About Obesity

April 26, 2022 — “The etiology of obesity is multifactorial. However, the root cause is energy imbalance: more calories consumed than expended.” This was the explanation for obesity that Dariush Mozaffarian offered in 2008. Today, he writes in AJCN that obesity is “an unexplained epidemic.” We count this as a flicker of curiosity about obesity. If it spreads, perhaps […]

How Much Obesity Do Pesticides Cause?

April 25, 2022 — Why? This is the basic question that remains unanswered after four decades of rising obesity. Why do we see such a persistent rise in obesity prevalence – all over the world? Broadly, we can lump the suspects into four groups: food, stress, physical environment, and chemicals. Of course, the most common presumption is that it’s […]

As Ideologues Clash, Food Insecurity Becomes a Crisis

April 24, 2022 — We’re now two months into an utterly stupid war in Ukraine. Life in that country has been turned upside down. Global trade with Russia is grinding to a halt. As a result, 12 percent of the calories in the world’s food supply is at risk. Moving fertilizer into farms is becoming a challenge in this […]

Health Equity in Employer Health Plans for Obesity

April 23, 2022 — The buzzwords are flying. Diversity, equity, and inclusion is such a common theme that all you have to say is “DEI” and people will nod solemnly. The same goes for social determinants of health – SDOH. However, the Northeast Business Group on Health (NEBGH) has gone further to connect the two and identify some real […]

Obesity Care: Taking a Longer View of Weight History

April 22, 2022 — In obesity care, the longer view of a weight history is essential to understanding a person’s journey of health. It’s all about the trajectory of a lifetime. For example, on Reddit a person reflects on their own history: “My current weight is the most I’ve ever weighed. At the moment I’m at 174 lbs. Before I […]

Intermittent Fasting Strikes Out Again

April 21, 2022 — Somehow, we’re beginning to detect a pattern. Yet another hot concept in weight loss – intermittent fasting, a.k.a. time restricted eating – once again is showing no better results than simple calorie restriction. Could it be a safe bet that the diet du jour will always turn out to be a big yawn? Though hope […]