January 18, 2025 — In the midst of lot of news about obesity this week came a pretty big announcement from FDA. The agency is proposing to require front-of-pack nutrition labels for most packaged foods in the U.S. FDA is optimistic. Food policy advocates are cheering. This will be a big opportunity to reduce obesity says FDA: The U.S. […]
December 19, 2024 — This was a pleasant surprise. For years, the World Health Association avoided the idea that obesity is an actual chronic disease. Today we have evidence for a big shift in thinking. Three senior officials from WHO published a viewpoint in JAMA yesterday to clearly say not only that obesity is a chronic disease, but also […]
September 15, 2024 — “Poor diet is the leading cause of mortality in the U.S. due to the direct relationship with diet-related chronic diseases.” Emily Matthews and Emma Kurnat-Thoma tell us this in a recent article for Frontiers in Public Health. Rationalizing this conclusion is easy enough. In Nutrients, Sareen Gropper defines diet-related disease to incorporate almost all of […]
February 19, 2024 — Global food systems are a slow-rolling disaster, gaining momentum, and costing the global economy $15 trillion per year. That’s the bad news from a new policy report of the Food System Economics Commission (FSEC). The good news is that we have options, they report, which could produce economic and health benefits adding up to as […]
October 6, 2022 — For the last two days we’ve been gathered with a small group of passionate advocates from all over the world, finding ways to collaborate for progress in health policy related to obesity. The change comes in increments. Obesity relates to cultures, food, and health systems that differ significantly all over the world. So finding a […]
June 13, 2022 — Though we hate to say it, we are entering into a time of increased food insecurity. Of course that will bring a toll of death from hunger. It also likely means a further rise will come in non-communicable diseases such as obesity. But why? Why is it that food insecurity has such a link to […]
March 22, 2022 — Very early in the pandemic, it was clear that diabetes and COVID had a deep relationship. Along with obesity, diabetes was a key risk factor for a rough ride with COVID. But as the pandemic unfolded, data started suggesting this was a two-way street. COVID could give patients a higher chance of developing diabetes. A […]
November 7, 2021 — Can we get a two-for-one deal on dietary and planetary health, please? The news has been full of dispatches from the climate summit in Scotland this week. Some folks are frustrated by too much talk and too little action. The costs of a warming planet are mounting. So the University of South Australia has a […]
October 24, 2021 — Two stories about very different industries – one very old and one very new – are demanding our attention right now. The new industry is social media. For weeks now, a litany of stories has made it plain that Facebook has made some bad choices to protect their profits while causing harm. The old industry […]
March 14, 2021 — Defining the disease of obesity is quite a struggle. Everybody is certain they know what it is. Thus, many people adopt definitions that suit their purposes. Feelings about obesity run so deep that facts are mere annoyances. But on World Obesity Day, the European Commission published a definition of obesity as a chronic relapsing disease. […]
