December 2, 2024 — The drumbeat is growing louder. “Public health policies to reduce ultra-processed food intake cannot wait.” These words from Mathilde Touvier summed up her presentation of evidence on these foods from epidemiologic and public health studies at Imperial College London last week. She opened six hours of scholars, politicians, and advocates presenting a compelling case. Clearly, […]
July 6, 2023 — “Whose fault is obesity? Most of the blame rests with one culprit.” In the Washington Post, Tamar Haspel perfectly captures the overwhelming compulsion to assign moral responsibility for obesity. She espouses a popular view: “The lion’s share – I’ll go with 61 percent (and, yes, of course I’m totally making this up to give some […]
September 26, 2021 — Some learning comes only the hard way. In this pandemic, we see some countries cope well while others struggle. In the process, we can learn a great deal on many fronts. But the case study of Denmark is offering an especially vivid lesson in the value of avoiding blame and shame while building of trust […]
July 4, 2021 — This is a day for Americans to celebrate independence. Though the holiday marks independence from a colonial power, Americans invest a lot in a broader concept of independence. Dependence on others for many things – including care for health – is essential for strong communities, and yet Americans celebrate a spirit of independence. It wasn’t […]
June 21, 2020 — We’ve seen quite a range of responses to the observation that obesity leads to worse outcomes with COVID-19. But most of them are unhelpful. First, of course, was denial. Now we have the anger phase. Over in the U.K., folks are murmuring that we should blame the food industry. Writing in the BMJ, Monique Tan, […]
April 4, 2017 — Affixing blame is an ancient human ritual. Affixing blame helps people make sense of a situation and move on to solving a problem. In the ancient scripture of Leviticus, the community places its sins upon a goat and casts the goat into the desert. It’s the original scapegoat. With sins removed, everyone can get on with […]
