July 13, 2019 — The USDA opened up the process for developing the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for inspection and input this week. It was the second of five public meetings. Also, it was the first of two chances for the public to deliver live comments to the committee. The committee seems to be taking its task for the 2020 […]
July 12, 2019 — Late yesterday, we received a jolt of good news. The Supreme Court for the State of Washington ruled that employers cannot discriminate against qualified job candidates on account of obesity. That’s right. We now have one more state where job discrimination on account of obesity is illegal. Job Offer Revoked Because of Six Pounds Twelve […]
June 20, 2019 — Confirmation bias is a potent motivator. Pollsters get fired when their polls don’t tell the right story. Industry scientists may do better when they find results to advance an employer’s interests. Academics can prosper when they produce evidence to support their hypotheses. And government researchers may feel more job security when their work aligns with […]
May 23, 2019 — Objectivity is tough. For a case in point, let’s look at how people are processing new data from Kevin Hall and colleagues on ultra-processed foods. It’s important. For the first time, we have good data to say that these foods can cause weight gain. Before we had speculation. Now we have good, experimental evidence. Some […]
May 20, 2019 — Today we’re at the WHO for the WHA learning all about NCDs and UHC. Alphabet soup for lunch. Obesity? It was hiding behind the chia seeds at the breakfast buffet. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and universal health coverage (UHC) are big priorities at the 72nd World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva today. But within the global […]
May 16, 2019 — Yep. We’re just about done here. Soda taxes are highly effective, and Philly has proved it. Classic economic price-demand curves work, especially in a city with a lot of poverty. If you tax soda and raise the price, sales go down. Philly obesity and diabetes rates will follow. A hot new publication in JAMA proves […]
May 14, 2019 — We’re making progress. Right? Explicit fat shaming is no longer cool. But then again, we see implicit weight bias on the rise. It’s subtle. It often comes in healthcare – “for your own good.” Yesterday, it smacked us in the face when we read this from a distinguished bariatric surgery program explaining about a new […]
May 8, 2019 — Identity is every bit as tricky as it is important. It gets even trickier when an identity is the target of bias. Another layer of complexity comes with the conviction that we can choose our own identities. Does a condition or physical characteristic define me? Is it an identity to claim or a challenge to […]
May 2, 2019 — At ECO 2019, we saw an important new movement emerge – an independent European patient advocacy organization. EASO provides some of the details on this important new organization, which we will know as ECPO: EASO is delighted to announce the launch of the new EASO ECPO – the European Coalition for People Living with Obesity. […]
May 1, 2019 — The World Health Organization is doing some great work on obesity in the European Region. For instance, they just published an outstanding new report at ECO2019 on the prevalence of severe childhood obesity in 21 countries. Unfortunately, though, they buried it in a press release that falsely promotes breastfeeding as a proven effective strategy to […]
