May 11, 2016 — Diet soda is definitely not fashionable these days. Millennials regards it as “chemicals in a can” and opt instead for artisanal soda with real cane sugar. Fine. But does fashion, plus a an observational study, add up to a sound basis for recommending what to drink in pregnancy? A pair of publications in JAMA Pediatrics […]
September 27, 2015 — The mythology of sweeteners seems impervious to facts. Once more, a systematic review of the available evidence — this one just published in the International Journal of Obesity — concludes that: The balance of evidence indicates that use of low energy sweeteners in place of sugar, in children and adults, leads to reduced energy intake and […]
September 14, 2015 — Hiding behind headlines about how diet sodas are linked to eating more junk food is a huge pink elephant that health reporters are ignoring. Though the notion of diet sodas being some sort of gateway to junk food had more zing, that same study found a five-fold bigger increase in daily calories linked to alcohol consumption. That’s […]
September 19, 2014 — We’re getting a series of headlines this week about saccharin and other low-calorie sweeteners, declaring: “Zero-Calorie Sweeteners Can Raise Blood Sugar” “Artificial Sweeteners May Lead to Diabetes” “Artificial Sweeteners Could Cause Spikes in Blood Sugar” “Low-calorie Sweeteners Found in Diet Drinks RAISE the Risk of Obesity and Diabetes” What is this ground-breaking research that has […]
July 23, 2014 — Nutrition and dietary advice is a realm where a contest of data v dogma plays out repeatedly. Low-calorie sweetened beverages lie at the center of one such contest. A new study just published in Obesity provides further evidence that low-calorie sweetened beverages can be useful for people who want to achieve and maintain a lower weight. […]
May 19, 2014 — The list of potential obesity causes seems to grow like kudzu. Why? Well, obesity develops slowly and improves slowly, if at all. Epidemiological studies provide ever more information about associations and some of these analyses are repeated so often that otherwise smart people start equating the link to a causal relationship. Familiarity bias exerts even […]
December 31, 2013 — Our top 10 most read obesity and nutrition stories in 2013 have two things in common. Many of them deal with distinction between evidence-based findings and suppositions presented as facts. And many of them provide a concise distillation of observations. Here are the stories that more people read than any others on ConscienHealth in 2013. Hot […]
December 11, 2013 — Aspartame is safe. That’s the conclusion of an exhaustive evidence review by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Safe is a four-letter word that regulators are pretty shy about tossing around, so we’re taking this seriously. The EFSA affirmed that an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for aspartame represents 16 cans of diet drinks per day. […]
