Follow the accumulating evidence and observations that shape our view of health policy and obesity
March 23, 2023 — We face a pivot point for public health strategies to prevent obesity. The advent of advanced medicines for obesity treatment brings critical questions. Can we find better strategies for preventing obesity at the entrance to causal pathways for it? Or will we instead depend solely on medical interventions to reduce the harm it causes? These […]
March 21, 2023 — Both colon cancer and obesity are rising in young people. In fact, a new report in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians suggests colorectal cancer is on the way to becoming the deadliest cancer for people under 50. While colon cancer death rates are dropping for older persons, they are headed in the opposite direction […]
March 21, 2023 — For years, many health experts have been raising alarms about the rising prevalence of obesity. It’s an epidemic – no, a pandemic. In the absence of a good solution, though, most people move on to worrying about problems they can solve. So the idea of body positivity and acceptance has gained traction. “Diet culture” became […]
March 19, 2023 — People want to be seen and heard. To feel like they matter. But in research and policy related to obesity, this fact was long neglected for many reasons. The principal reasons have much to do with stigma and the explicit dehumanization of people with this disease. With explicit efforts to overcome these issues, we see […]
March 18, 2023 — The search for effective prevention strategies in obesity is daunting. For decades now, researchers have been casting about for effective ways to educate, nudge, or cajole groups of people into moving more and eating less or better. Trying to influence a group of people means that controlled studies of interventions can wind up being cluster-randomized […]
March 17, 2023 — Politicians, activists, and courts are busy fighting about when and whether to permit a woman to have an abortion. But while that tussle continues, very little energy goes into the problem of an extraordinary number of pregnant women who die in America. A new report from the CDC tells us that maternal death rates soared […]
March 17, 2023 — “Coffee could slash obesity,” says the New York Post. Now you might think that cynical folks at the Post just make this stuff up because it’s so obviously false. But in fact, they have help from PR by the BMJ, and they’re not alone. The BMJ managed to induce quite a few news outlets last […]
March 16, 2023 — We are living in an age of amplified contention. Anger can be like a muscle that gets stronger when we exercise it. If you doubt that, take a long look at what social media amplifies. So seeing passionate contention at the intersection of obesity and eating disorders might be unsurprising. But it’s not especially helpful […]
March 15, 2023 — One of the most disappointing responses to the new guideline for obesity care in children and adolescents came from the Academy of Eating Disorders. Shortly after AAP published its evidence-based guideline for obesity care, the Academy for Eating Disorders issued a press release to criticize it. But their criticism used speculation rather than data to […]
March 14, 2023 — Recently, we have written much about the high cost of obesity medicines, limited coverage under health plans, and the need for change. This is a very real problem and glaciers melt faster (sad to say) than policy makers make progress on this. But absurd arguments about the cost of obesity care do not help. In […]
