February 11, 2026 — As the exuberance for Wegovy tablets has bubbled up this year, we confess to wondering: Are people losing perspective? Apparently the same question occurred to FDA when they saw the television advertising for the product. The agency sent a warning to the company last week, saying: “FDA has determined that the TV ad is false […]
February 10, 2026 — A new study in JAMA yesterday gave us a smug feeling about our coffee habit. Researchers found that drinking two to three cups of caffeinated coffee daily has an association with an 18% lower risk of dementia and a 15% lower risk of subjective cognitive. But decaffeinated coffee had no such association. This does not […]
February 9, 2026 — An unfortunate idea is gaining traction in food policy circles: to equate food – specifically ultra-processed food – with tobacco. Borrowing the rhetoric, litigation strategies, and moral framing of the anti-smoking movement, activists, influencers, and even policymakers now speak of “Big Food” as the new “Big Tobacco.” Last night, this idea even reached into the […]
February 8, 2026 — When public figures talk about science, the stakes are high. So when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently asserted that research shows a ketogenic diet can “cure” schizophrenia, it was more than a casual misstatement. It was a distortion that risks misleading patients, families, and clinicians confronting one of the most serious mental illnesses in medicine. […]
February 7, 2026 — Recent news from Hims & Hers adds to our discomforting thought that compounded GLP-1s have become little more than a ploy to grab quick money from vulnerable consumers. Thursday, the company announced they are launching a compounded semaglutide tablet to compete with Wegovy. Reporting from Reuters suggests this announcement aimed to spark gains in their […]
February 6, 2026 — Metabolic and bariatric surgery in 2026 faces a strategic fork in the road. On one path we insist that surgery as the best option for weight loss – full stop. The other positions surgery as an essential tool for achieving optimal health in people living with obesity. How we choose to frame the value of […]
February 5, 2026 — It would be hard to find a sharper contrast than the one displayed yesterday in the report of fourth quarter 2025 business results for Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Lilly is enjoying the best of times. Novo is suffering the worst. “Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 growth is only getting started,” says CNBC, “as Novo Nordisk braces […]
February 4, 2026 — At the same time a daily tablet of an advanced obesity medicine is capturing much attention, two new monthly obesity medicines are advancing. The first, Maritide, is something we’ve been following for a while now. Amgen provided an update yesterday with their latest quarterly briefing on business results. The second is the fruit of a […]
February 3, 2026 — Right now, we are witnessing a great withdrawal from healthcare, especially for people living with obesity. Many people are losing health insurance coverage altogether because it has become unaffordable. Many others are finding that their insurance will no longer pay for the care they need – if they want the care, they must have the […]
February 2, 2026 — Who knew? The vaguely wholesome but ultra-processed graham crackers we use to make s’mores and pie crusts had their beginnings in the righteous temperance movement of the 19th century. Sylvester Graham was a Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer. In his powerful preaching, he explained that God intended for us to be vegetarians and that coarsely […]
