December 14, 2023 — New research from the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation offers a pretty clear picture. The research team sums it up succinctly. “Medicare doesn’t cover obesity drugs, but 76% of older adults think it should.” Yes, public pressure is building for access to obesity medicines. Survey Research of Adults 50 to 80 […]
April 26, 2023 — Insights surface when we take the time to listen to people living with obesity. Yesterday, Ro and the Obesity Action Coalition released results from a study of the thoughts and feelings people are having about obesity, weight loss, and the new GLP-1 medicines. There’s a lot to think about in these results – about motivations […]
May 27, 2022 — The Mayo Clinic has surveyed a large number of consumers in their online diet assessment. From more than 200,000 individuals completing this survey of mindset and motivation, they’ve come to a simple and unsurprising conclusion. It’s all about health. In fact, 83 percent of people in this survey are motivated by health in seeking to […]
May 19, 2022 — It’s always interesting to see what surfaces in the annual Food Insight survey on food and health. The latest edition came out yesterday. For years now, the whole idea of following diets has been at a low ebb. Diets were supposed to be dead and buried years ago. Anti-diet dietitians are still dancing on that […]
December 22, 2021 — It’s an odd intersection. On one hand, people are totally done with diets right now. And yet, here comes the news that people are reading about weight loss more than any other health topic online. More than COVID, which came in second. How can it be that anti-diet sentiment is so strong at the same […]
June 15, 2020 — Now, there can be no doubt. This new coronavirus is indeed a cruel one. It is radically reshaping our dietary habits. Many of us are having to cook at home. But it’s worse than that. As a few of us start venturing out and staying at newly sanitized hotels, something is missing. No more DIY […]
February 22, 2020 — Food and health fashion never ceases to amaze. Remember Slim Jims? Those processed meat sticks, shelf-stable forever, that people used to buy out of desperation at a convenience store? Well, suddenly they’re trendy and you can even buy upscale, grass-fed versions. We never would have guessed that processed meat sticks could become health food. A […]
April 13, 2019 — Beware. Gendered generalizations will almost always get you into trouble. But they surround us. And in the Washington Post, Monica Hesse points out Twitter founder Jack Dorsey can utter meaningless drivel about what to eat and it’s a “biohack.” However, from a female opportunist – say, Gwyneth Paltrow – it’s simply whacky. Hack or whack? […]
December 19, 2018 — We are in the midst of a secular holiday season that primes us to fill up on purchases. Stimulate the economy. Seasonal feasts and gift exchanges empty our bank accounts while stuffing our bodies and our lives. But advocates for minimalism emphasize filling up on experiences rather than stuff. Stuffocation In his book Stuffocation, James Wallman […]
August 4, 2018 — The booming wellness industry is having quite a run in the news this week. It started with a lengthy examination of Gwyneth Paltrow’s business of monetizing empty wellness claims. Then, we learned that UNC is teaching some startling wellness concepts to all of its undergraduates. Cancer, dementia, and obesity (of course) are simply diseases of […]
