August 4, 2023 — We say it over and over again. Obesity is a very heterogeneous disease. This simply means that different people can have very different experiences with it and face very different risks. At a time when treatment options are multiplying, some with a very high price tag, it’s important to know who has the most urgent […]
February 14, 2023 — It’s official. Food Is Medicine can now take chocolate under its wings. It only took five years, but the FDA has rendered regulatory judgment to officially permit the following claim for the health benefits of chocolate: “Cocoa flavanols in high flavanol cocoa powder may reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, although FDA has concluded that […]
February 21, 2022 — In this moment, food policy advocates are in love with plant-based diets. Many reasons do favor plant-based diets. In fact, the advice to eat more vegetables has been dispensed at family tables for generations. The American Heart Association promotes eating more veggies for cutting heart disease risk with great enthusiasm. But today, a new study […]
October 12, 2020 — At first glance, it’s a fascinating study. An intermittent fast, gut microbiota, and an effect on the risk for heart disease – the title of this new study in JCEM pushes all the right buttons. But a look under the surface tells a different story. The primary outcome measures for this study were BMI and […]
February 4, 2020 — A red meat issue is inflammatory and political. This particular definition doesn’t have a separate entry in Merriam-Webster yet, though they are thinking about it. But on the subject of red meat, medical journals just can’t let it go. So today we have a new paper in JAMA Internal Medicine to revisit the question – […]
January 24, 2020 — We didn’t think the meat mayhem reported last week could get any nastier. We were wrong. That’s because John Sharp, Chancellor of the Texas A&M University System, is now requesting an investigation of actions by Walter Willett, Frank Hu, David Katz, and the True Health Initiative related to this big mess. He calls their reported […]
July 28, 2019 — We all love to beat up on BMI. That measure may be good for epidemiologists who need a way to define obesity in a population. But it’s not so good for defining obesity in an individual. For that matter, it’s not the definition for obesity itself. Obesity is excess adiposity that harms health. And a […]
June 5, 2019 — For nearly five decades now, beef consumption has been dropping. Poultry has risen. Why? Because of a steady stream of warnings that red meat raises the risk of heart disease. But a new study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition raises questions about this conventional wisdom. In a randomized, controlled study, researchers found no […]
December 4, 2017 — The BBC says early baldness is a bigger risk for heart disease than obesity. And don’t forget gray hair. The LA Times says that gray’s the way that beats obesity for giving us a heart attack. All this and more is simply dutiful reporting on a press release from the European Society of Cardiology. Health […]
March 12, 2015 — Dangerous crosscurrents remain in the regulatory environment for obesity medicines, even though progress has been considerable over the last five years. You need look no further than headlines of the last week. In just one news cycle Orexigen — the originators of Contrave — made both good and bad news for themselves when they disclosed […]
