September 30, 2024 — The abrupt and immediate departure of Sima Sistani as CEO of Weight Watchers prompts us to ask: Is the diet industry dead? Weight Watchers grew from its origins in the early 1960s to become the iconic brand that dominated this field. For decades now, the popular impulse to reject diet culture has been growing. In […]
September 29, 2024 — Evidence is mounting linking ultra-processed foods (UPF) to risk of chronic disease. Typically, UPF are foods that are energy-dense, high in fat, sugar, and salt, low in fibre, and with a long shelf life. Examples include biscuits, chips, candy, instant noodles, mass-produced bread, sweetened breakfast cereals, ready-to-eat meals, and reconstituted meats. Dietary recommendations encourage people […]
September 28, 2024 — Since forever, health systems have been closed to the need for obesity care. While obesity prevalence tripled, care providers, health plans, and even government policy doubled down on a simple response. “Your obesity is not our problem. It’s yours. Go away, eat less, move more, and come back when you’ve lost 25, 50, or 100 […]
September 27, 2024 — After a day of a National Obesity Policy Forum at the Top of the Hill in Washington, it was plain that we have witnessed a profound shift in the conversation about policy to address obesity. No more lip service about nudging America to “eat healthy” as the answer to a high prevalence of this disease. […]
September 26, 2024 — It was an interesting day that we spent talking with health policy makers in the Senate yesterday. Refreshing in a way, because the conversations about obesity are so different from the conversations we were having just a few years ago. Not a single person raised the false issue of “personal responsibility” for “being obese.” Only […]
September 25, 2024 — This was definitely a textbook case of sitting in the hot seat. For more than two hours the CEO of Novo Nordisk, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, faced intense questions in the Senate HELP Committee about drug pricing for the company’s diabetes and obesity medicines. If you want a sense of the tone for the hearing, consider […]
September 24, 2024 — This is a milestone we’ve been anticipating. New NHANES data on obesity are out and they mark a shift in the dynamics of obesity rates. We now have data to suggest that the overall rate of obesity – which has been climbing relentlessly for four decades – appears to be leveling out at about 40%. […]
September 23, 2024 — FDA is working hard to push drug companies to get more diversity into the clinical trials that are the foundation for bringing new, safe, and effective drugs into the market. In June, the agency issued guidance for diversity action plans to improve the representation of marginalized populations. But unfortunately, it has nothing to say about […]
September 22, 2024 — The scientific understanding of obesity is progressing with impressive speed. But the translation of scientific insight into clinical benefits is slow by comparison. Most clinicians (along with the public) are stuck. We’re encumbered by an inadequate definition of obesity, overreliance on BMI, and medical groupthink. Straining for a Clinical Definition In an excellent essay for […]
September 21, 2024 — A new study this week gives us pause for concern about the chemicals entering our body from food packaging. Some of them are endocrine disrupting chemicals that can alter the way our body stores fat. Researchers inventoried a total of 14,000 chemicals in contact with food from packaging and found evidence for 3,601 of them […]
