July 4, 2024 — “I don’t eat like an American,” says our good friend and wise dietitian Linn Steward. “I spend more on food than the average American, but I economize in other areas, like clothing, travel, and entertainment. So I figure that in the long run, it all evens out.” But as we contemplate the quintessential American holiday, […]
July 3, 2024 — Nope, says Dr. Alissa Chen. Medicare shouldn’t start covering obesity medicines. Her dad, 72, has obesity that began when he was in grad school and has persisted throughout his life. Now he has the cardiovascular disease that often results from untreated obesity. But no, she doesn’t want him to receive treatment with advanced medicines proven […]
August 21, 2023 — If you are paying attention to the disparities in wealth, poverty, health, and obesity, you might note that there’s good news and bad news to be found right now. On the good news side of things, the global inequality of wealth shrank in 2022. That happened for two reasons. People in some of the poorest […]
September 30, 2022 — With the benefit of a few days to reflect, we can find value in the big White House Conference on Nutrition, Hunger, and Health. Admittedly, it was nice to see obesity clearly identified as one of the diseases – just like hypertension and diabetes – that can result from poor nutrition. But this was never […]
December 28, 2021 — The COVID-19 pandemic has caused price spikes for corn, milk, beans, and other commodities, but even before the pandemic about 3 billion people could not afford even the cheapest options for a healthy diet. Recent analysis of global food price data reveals that as of 2017, the latest available year, around 40% of the world’s […]
December 11, 2021 — Increasingly, the world has two problems that should not go together: persistent high levels of food insecurity and growing rates of obesity. How can this be? The short answer is that there’s no short answer. Food insecurity is largely a function of income and, in wealthier countries, poverty can mean a higher risk for obesity. […]
October 17, 2021 — FNCE 20201 opens today online. But pre-meeting symposia yesterday set the table for four days of rich information flowing about food and nutrition. COVID is still with us, so the meeting is virtual. Thus an outstanding session on nutrition, equity, and COVID-19 hit the mark especially well. In particular, it drew us into thinking more […]
March 20, 2021 — Some time ago, the Beatles told us that money can’t buy us love. Now a new study from Molly Martin at Penn State suggests that it also may not buy a community less obesity. Martin is a researcher with a keen interest in social inequality, families, and child well-being. Her research examines data from a […]
December 21, 2020 — We started this new decade “pretty sure” about stories that would grab headlines this year. But we also said we should be “ready for surprises.” That was probably our most accurate prediction. Little did we know then, a new coronavirus was already at work. Thus it turned out that, more than anything, a pandemic made […]
May 3, 2019 — Has the England’s city of Leeds cracked the code for reducing childhood obesity? A new study presented at ECO 2019 and published in Pediatric Obesity certainly has some people trumpeting success. Says senior author Susan Jebb: It is sometimes too easy to think nothing is working, this shows something can be done. What we need […]
