Follow the accumulating evidence and observations that shape our view of health policy and obesity
November 18, 2025 — An important new study in Nature Medicine yesterday gave us a unique view of food noise at a source deep within the brain. Researchers implanted electrodes in the nucleus accumbens of a single subject to monitor brain activity in that region of the brain. The subject had a history of severe obesity and distressing preoccupation […]
November 17, 2025 — Marion Nestle has a new book that reflects decades of insights gleaned from navigating the perverse economy of food. It is well worth your time. Not because we agree with every word. But precisely because we do not and you may not either – yet her words reflect careful thought and consideration of how our […]
November 16, 2025 — “Studies show food is medicine” says WBUR, with Allison Aubrey quoting studies that suggest a benefit from prescribing healthy food to people at risk for metabolic and diet-related diseases. Under the Food Is Medicine banner, hyperbole is easy to find. The people who have taken up this cause are selling hard. So the headlines that […]
November 15, 2025 — Anyone who thought this would be a passing thing was way off the mark. As prices of GLP-1 medicines are falling, their use is rising. As Stat News notes, we now have more people using these medicines than the entire population of Texas. This rising trend occurs against a background of costs that are still […]
November 14, 2025 — Tired, poor, huddled masses, yearning to breathe free? Those words are “inoperative” now in the U.S. State Department. New guidance from the top suggests America doesn’t want people with obesity getting a visa enter the country. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has issued a directive to U.S. embassy and consular officials all over the world, […]
November 13, 2025 — It would be odd to think that medical schools would stigmatize the most prevalent chronic disease that medical students will encounter. But stigmatizing obesity in medical schools is all too common, even today. Kofi Essel and colleagues published a study of the obesity bias observed by third year medical students at George Washington University School […]
November 12, 2025 — This is a perilous and exciting time for investing in obesity innovation as the market for treating this disease advances dramatically. On the side of excitement, we note that the David Wainer in the Wall Street Journal predicts that “obesity drugs are about to go mass market.” Perilous for Novo On the side of peril, […]
November 11, 2025 — Just skimming headlines about new medicines for obesity and surgery, comparisons seem to be a dominant theme. Some of these headlines tell us surgery is more cost-effective or delivers more durable results. Some of that is certainly true. But the deeper truth surfaces this week in JAMA and JAMA Network Open. Clinical experience and, increasingly, […]
November 10, 2025 — At a press event last week, announcing a deal to make obesity medicines more affordable, CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz told us “Americans will lose 135 billion pounds by the midterms” because of this. Comedian Stephen Colbert pointed out a problem with the numbers. They imply that every single American will be losing 393 pounds. It […]
November 9, 2025 — Today is a day to stop and think about more than a decade of working with an exceptional leader in obesity medicine: Fatima Cody Stanford. A new PBS feature brings us to reflect upon this. In a quarter century of working in obesity, we have had the privilege of knowing and working with many […]
