November 24, 2023 — What is the difference between exercise and physical activity? Does it really matter? A recent review in Current Nutrition Reports suggests that this is a distinction that makes a difference. Oxford tells us that exercise is “activity requiring physical effort, carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness.” But physical activity is “any form […]
March 11, 2023 — Belief in the power of food stores and markets to shape outcomes in obesity runs deep. Perhaps it’s unshakable. But still, recent PR spin claiming that food stores “drive” bariatric surgery outcomes takes confusion of correlation with causality to new heights. In a press release from Ohio State University, the lead author of two new […]
August 20, 2022 — Fast food and junk food are slippery and pejorative terms that many people equate with a risk of obesity. Most people – even people who routinely consume it – presume that fast food is not good for health. With the release of Super Size Me in 2004, we seemed to hit a peak in the […]
January 29, 2022 — For decades now, public health figures have been talking about an urgent need to prevent and reverse the rise of obesity. A number of U.S. presidents – notably George W. Bush and Barack Obama – have embraced this goal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a whole division devoted to this goal. […]
May 25, 2020 — Play deserts, food deserts, food swamps. These are elegant metaphors to sell an appealing narrative. The story they tell is simple. Certain types of neighborhoods might cause obesity. Some researchers have found correlations between fast food outlets and obesity prevalence in some studies. Others have found that neighborhoods with more resources for physical activity have […]
September 1, 2018 — Yes, you can spot neighborhoods with high obesity rates from outer space. But it’s not about the people you can see. It’s about the physical features of neighborhoods that provide clues about where obesity lives. A new paper in JAMA Network Open explains. Spotting Features That Predict More Obesity Adyasha Maharana and Elaine Okanyene Nsoesie […]
January 26, 2018 — It’s an uncomfortable notion sparking intense interest. Are people catching obesity from others in their social networks? A new study in JAMA Pediatrics lends further credibility to this idea. But the big question remains a puzzle. Exactly how does that work? A Natural Experiment Ashlesha Datar and Nancy Nicosia used data from the Military Teenagers’ […]
January 3, 2018 — “Having a gym nearby does help us to lose weight, suggests new research.” So says Medical News Today. This bit of classic click bait for weight loss season comes from Lancet Public Health. It’s an observational study of the correlation between a person’s risk of obesity and their home address. The authors found that people […]
July 28, 2017 — Sometimes, objective evidence hits the wall against a very popular idea. Bam. Publication bias means that even a careful study might not see the light of day. Consider the case of public parks and obesity. The Indisputable Value of Public Parks Who can dispute the value that parks bring to our lives? They might prompt […]
