October 31, 2023 — “If you want to improve your resistance to pain, lose weight, and just scream very loudly, take a trip to a cinema near you.” This soundbite from the BBC World Service at the end of sober news reports mainly about the war in Gaza came from a credible source. But it seemed more like something […]
October 30, 2023 — It leaves our heads spinning. Normal healthcare systems cannot keep up with the demand for a breakthrough in obesity treatment. The company, Novo Nordisk, which developed semaglutide for obesity treatment, has invested billions and now is reaping many billions of dollars in sales. But despite more than a decade of preparation, they can’t keep up. […]
October 29, 2023 — Unassailable definitions of healthy food and healthy eating are elusive. Is whole milk a healthy beverage? Or one that should be banned from school lunches? We have great sympathy for the task that the scientific advisory committee for the 2025 edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans has taken on. But what if perceptions of healthy […]
October 28, 2023 — Oh my goodness. Wall Street is having waves of panic about the possibility that big food, big burrito, or big dialysis might not be able to keep selling us ever more of their services and stuff. For the last month we’ve been seeing ripples run through the stock market when investors started thinking maybe consumers […]
October 27, 2023 — This week’s unexpected result in diet and health comes from PLOS One. In a study of mortality and diabetes risk from added sugar in coffee or tea researchers found nothing. No incremental risk attributable to sugar in coffee or tea. But if you check with CDC, there’s no distinction for those packets of sugar people […]
October 26, 2023 — It’s like some kind of holy grail. Obesity prevalence keeps rising and everyone (including ourselves) wants to know why. So headlines saying “major study claims to identify the root cause of obesity” really do grab our attention. News reports are pelting us with headlines saying fructose drives obesity. The only trouble is, the headlines are […]
October 25, 2023 — It’s a popular cause. Red meat production is a problem for the climate. Add that to ethical concerns some people have about consuming meat, and the push to reduce red meat consumption makes total sense. But when people start spinning misleading narratives about observational research and using them to promote this otherwise worthy idea, they’re […]
October 24, 2023 — We have grown tired of the mindless repetition of a $1,350 monthly list price for Wegovy in endless news reports about the great expense of this very important new drug for obesity. Not because the drug isn’t expensive. But because that list price is not an accurate representation of what the drug really costs. So […]
October 23, 2023 — It’s a “deficit of information” we should correct, says FDA Commissioner Robert Califf. He is speaking about the gap in information about how to correctly dose drugs for people living with obesity. Karen Weintraub, reporting for USA Today, tells us this gap might mean that doctors are prescribing the right drug at the wrong dose […]
October 22, 2023 — “Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?” It is an ancient but fair question. It comes to mind as we read mind-numbing headlines asserting that the scientific advisory committee for the 2025 dietary guidelines is “rife with” and “plagued” by conflict of […]
