January 5, 2022 — The concept of dieting – restrained eating for the express purpose of weight loss – has hit a well-deserved rough patch. For three decades the implicit answer to obesity has been simple and simplistic: eat less and move more. It doesn’t work well, so dieting has gained a bad reputation. And yet here we are. […]
December 20, 2021 — We found plenty of buzz words in this press release: mega-analysis, intermittent fasting, high-quality evidence. Who knew that “mega-analysis” was even a real thing? Well it is, but the use of it here to describe an umbrella review of meta-analyses deviates from the most common usage. Nonetheless, it sounds impressive. Setting all that buzz aside, […]
December 17, 2021 — We can’t believe it either. This weird, messy year is winding down and it’s time to figure out what just happened as we prepare to go into an new year of promise and uncertainty. In obesity and health, 2021 was full of change, confusion, and new insights. We started the year with a raging pandemic, […]
December 15, 2021 — With the new year on the way, no doubt many headlines will be urging readers to set resolutions to lose the weight they may have put on over the holidays. However, the way the British press talks about weight, obesity, and health has fluctuated markedly in recent years. To learn more about these changes, we […]
November 27, 2021 — “Feeding pet dogs just once a day might keep them healthier as they age,” says a headline in New Scientist this week. But when we look under the headline, it’s pretty clear that there’s not much support for this claim. It’s more of a hypothesis that dogs might benefit from intermittent fasting. After all, intermittent […]
November 22, 2021 — The PR for a new analysis of dietary strategies for weight management in diabetes certainly is an attention grabber. The only trouble is that the headlines don’t line up with the science and real world outcomes in diabetes. The press release says: Low energy diets and meal replacements appear best for kicking diabetes But in […]
October 30, 2021 — The Nutrition Source at Harvard makes one thing clear enough. Potatoes are a problem. They can give you obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Skip across town and you’ll get a very different story from Boston University. “Nutrient-rich potatoes can be part of a healthy diet in young girls.” This kind of whiplash tells us that, […]
August 26, 2021 — Remember when the pandemic was new and we were not allowed to laugh? They canceled April Fool’s Day in 2020. Well, today it’s back. We refuse to believe this press release from the University of Michigan School of Public Health is not a prank. Their environmental scientists are telling us that one hot dog will […]
August 5, 2021 — Taking dietary advice from headlines is an iffy proposition. Today many headlines are telling us to eat more foods from plants and we’ll have less heart disease. The basis for this claim is two new studies in JAHA. The American Heart Association is pretty clear about the message it wants to send. Its press release […]
July 9, 2021 — Familiarity can breed contempt or it can bring comfort. A new position statement about COVID-19 vaccines from the Obesity Society brings us comfort. In fact, the more we learn about these COVID vaccines, the more we like. They work well – even in people with obesity and other risk factors. What’s more, the effect on […]
