February 23, 2021 — SF Eater tells us that 13 bakeries in San Francisco have “killer croissants.” The Atlanta Journal Constitution tells us that croissants, along with white bread, tie us to an early death. Their source for this epidemiological wisdom is the BMJ. That treasure trove of epidemiology – the PURE study – has yielded another publication. This […]
February 18, 2021 — The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us many things, big and small. One of the unexpected insights is the fervor that exists for vitamin D. It’s a potent vitamin with many effects. Too little of it in a person’s body can cause any number of problems. Too much can be a serious problem as well. It […]
February 12, 2021 — Once again, we see the impulse rise to catastrophize obesity. A new study in BMC Public Health offers up a comparison of deaths due to smoking and adiposity. So naturally, this sparks splashy headlines. Obesity kills more than smoking! Scary stuff. But not terribly helpful. Because the subtext of this sort of hype is finger […]
February 9, 2021 — Can a taste for sweetness predict how well someone will do after bariatric surgery? A new study in AJCN suggests that this may be so. In fact, this prospective observational study found two predictors of weight loss in a cohort of 96 bariatric surgery patients. One was an intense taste for sweetness. The other was […]
February 7, 2021 — COVID-19 has rearranged lives all over the world, but today, Americans are having a football game. Urgent pleas from public health folks are putting a lid on big parties. So the emphasis seems to be shifting to far-flung snacking. Social distance, small crowds, or preferably no crowds – people still want their Super Bowl snacks. […]
February 1, 2021 — A long, long time ago, the FDA proposed voluntary goals for reducing salt in processed, packaged, and prepared foods. But that was 2016 and a new administration came the following year with less interest in this subject. So naturally, this went nowhere. It took little more than this idea coming from the Obama team to […]
January 30, 2021 — Nevermind. As far as we can tell, that’s the bottom line on a convoluted story about data thugs, pajamas, and a provocative study of ultra-processed food. It starts with the study by Kevin Hall et al that found ultra-processed food can cause people to eat more and gain weight. All by itself, that finding was […]
January 24, 2021 — Ultra-processed foods seem to be a problem for human health. For one thing, the link between consuming them and bad health outcomes seems strong. We have a steady stream of new studies to confirm this. For another, we have some pretty compelling experimental evidence from well-controlled studies to tell us that there may be a […]
January 22, 2021 — When it comes to dietary patterns, one size doesn’t fit all. But when it comes to magical diet thinking, the masses wish for something different. The wish is for a “best” diet – something that will let me lose weight without feeling hungry. For several years now, pop culture assigned that magic to keto diets. […]
January 21, 2021 — In Australia and around the world, research is showing changes in body weight, cooking, eating and drinking patterns associated with COVID pandemic lockdowns. Some changes have been positive, such as people cooking at home more, and eating more vegetables. But many people have also reported snacking more, and eating and drinking in response to stress. […]
