November 23, 2025 — A new study suggests that, however painful it might be, a root canal might serve to improve a person’s metabolic health. The study appears in the Journal of Translational Medicine, authored by Yuchen Zhang and colleagues from King’s College London and the University of Helsinki. It is observational and thus cannot establish cause and effect […]
October 1, 2025 — A pair of new papers in the Journal of the American Heart Association serves up a fundamental challenge to assumptions about nutritional guidance in obesity. The science is complex, involving metabolomics and dietary quality. But the concept is simple. Obesity is not just a simple problem of excess body fat. Rather, it is a complex […]
October 10, 2024 — After a recent cascade of diverse studies yielding seemingly different answers about time-restricted eating, FNCE this week provided an excellent opportunity to gain perspective from researchers who are serious about this subject. Krista Varady, Shuhao Lin, and Vicky Pavlou brought a much needed focus on the science behind this pop nutrition phenomenon. A Helpful Alternative […]
March 22, 2024 — A profound shift in the understanding of medicines that help with excessive or abnormal fat is underway. A few years ago, everybody thought of these in only one frame of reference – weight loss drugs. But that is changing now. Discourse about them is moving from weight loss to obesity treatment and even further, to […]
February 22, 2024 — “Is the Atlantic diet the new Mediterranean miracle?” This headline (and a host of others like it) says a lot about the ultra-processing of nutrition research by consumer media. It takes a fascinating study about the health effects of a traditional pattern for eating called the Atlantic diet and removes all the nuance. The product […]
May 25, 2023 — Are we ready for a re-think of obesity and metabolic health? Ready to change the conversation about obesity medicines and bariatric surgery? Sergio Santoro, Scott Shikora, and Ricardo Cohen certainly think so. Writing in Obesity Surgery, they say it’s time to say goodbye to bariatric surgery and move on to the framework of metabolic surgery. […]
May 3, 2023 — We have received enough lectures for a lifetime from people who know just what the root cause of obesity is. The lecturers know the cause and they know the solution: tax, nudge, cajole, and educate people to follow a healthier diet. Eat less of that awful ultra-processed food. But the presumption that it’s all about […]
December 24, 2022 — For some of us, gaining weight (especially at this time of year) is a metabolic curse. But there are individuals for whom gaining weight is a metabolic gift and, in fact, essential for surviving in good health. In this case, we are thinking about grizzly bears. These animals gain tremendous amounts of weight every year […]
August 9, 2022 — We are not done with the notion of time-restricted eating. Two new studies tell us that it might be helpful. One is specifically about weight loss with early time restricted eating. The other is a simple test of the metabolic effects of limiting the window for eating to ten hours in the day – all […]
January 25, 2022 — Some people really don’t like low calorie sweeteners. So once again we have a wave of fear-mongering headlines. This time, they’re suggesting that pregnant women who consume these sweeteners may harm their babies. The proposed harm is a change in the baby’s microbiome and a higher risk of obesity. The evidence? A study of rats […]
