August 19, 2021 — It’s hard to deny that yoga has put an imprint on popular culture – especially popular concepts about fitness and wellbeing. It had an outsized role in defining a now dominant fashion trend – athleisure. Prior to the pandemic, yoga was a roughly ten billion dollar industry. But of course, the pandemic put a dent […]
August 13, 2021 — An impressive new study published today in Science has researchers feeling a bit giddy. “Blown away” was the sentiment Rozalyn Anderson expressed to the New York Times about the study. “A pivotal paper,” said Leanne Redman, adding that it will shape textbooks for years to come. Herman Pontzer and a remarkable array of collaborators analyzed […]
June 11, 2021 — One of the simplistic models of obesity relies on the notion of a balance between calories a person consumes in foods and drinks and those burned in physical activity. Some people even go so far as suggesting food labels should tell us how much we’ll have to exercise to burn off the calories in that […]
December 17, 2020 — A furious debate rages on. Are we meant to get half of our food energy from carbs? So naturally, this was a key theme of debates about dietary guidelines due soon from the USDA and HHS. But a quieter debate persists in the background. This is an ongoing discussion about the merits of the carbohydrate […]
November 14, 2019 — Are we ready for another round on carbs, fat, and protein? It sure seems like it. Popular interest in low-carb diets keeps growing steadily. A more extreme version – keto – generates a lot of buzz right now. And yet, research keeps telling us that playing around with these macronutrients doesn’t make a huge difference. […]
November 7, 2019 — The role of intermittent fasting (IF) and circadian rhythms is a subject of intense interest for people focused on obesity. How can you tell? Just look at the packed hall yesterday at ObesityWeek 2019 for the Blackburn Symposium. In a cavernous room with seating for more than a thousand people you could not find a […]
July 24, 2019 — Are we doomed to complete the full cycle of macronutrient obsession? First it was fat. Starting in the 1980s fat was at the root of all our dietary woes. Next came carbs. Low carb and keto diets are still a hot topic of discussion and debate among folks who are certain they have the answer […]
April 24, 2019 — The opening of the Sixth Canadian Obesity Summit was a bit of a homecoming for Kevin Hall. It was his first visit to Ottawa in about three decades and Obesity Canada rewarded him with its Distinguished Lecturer Award. He used the occasion to review the evidence behind the diet wars wars that rage on Twitter. […]
December 23, 2018 — It’s that time of year when cookies, cakes, candy, and treats show up at work, home, and every place in between. As researchers who have investigated obesity, people’s body image, and fast food and other nutritional topics we often get questions from people concerned about their weight and how they can avoid eating too much. […]
December 8, 2018 — The award for the most annoying obesity story of the week goes to the Flinders University communications office. They win for issuing a press release to hype some genuinely interesting research. But the angle they chose made a joke of the research, spawning headlines about a new gene to cure obesity. Their headline: Gene that lets […]
