August 19, 2018 — We don’t recommend learning nutrition from headlines. However, if you did, you might certainly think that we can live better without eating sugar. For that matter, why just stop with cutting sugar? Healthline offers you 15 ways to cut carbs for major health benefits. But now, some very clickable headlines are telling us that cutting carbs […]
August 16, 2018 — By their very nature, dietary guidelines have a shaky relationship with the reality of what we eat. Before 1977, Americans had no guidelines for what they should eat. But then, a senate select committee published dietary goals for Americans. In 1980, those “goals” became the first edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans Controversial from the […]
August 15, 2018 — It’s an easy mistake to make. “It’s poverty, not individual choice that is driving extraordinary obesity levels,” writes Martin Cohen in The Conversation. That seems like a reasonable sentiment. But it’s not quite true. A Messy Correlation The truth is that poverty can predict a higher risk of obesity – in some cases. But not all. […]
August 14, 2018 — Scientists in Minnesota are busy taking trans and saturated fats out of soybean oil. Of course, that’s a good thing. Right? Editing Your Food’s Genes with CRISPR and TALEN The first generation of genetically-modified foods was a bit clumsy. That started in the 1980s with “genetic engineering” that used bacteria and viruses used to modify […]
August 10, 2018 — Five months ago, we wrote about inflated claims of effectiveness from a pilot study of obesity prevention by Scherr et al. An independent group of researchers had written to the journal with concerns about the flawed analysis of the study. The flaws effectively canceled out the claims of effectiveness for the program. But Scherr et […]
August 9, 2018 — Journals are bursting with studies of childhood obesity this week. One appeared in Pediatrics. JAMA published two of them. Furthermore, all of these studies were randomized and controlled. On top of all that, JAMA published an editorial, describing “a glimmer of hope” for preventing childhood obesity. A Glimmer or a Wish? Unfortunately, we’re not seeing a lot […]
August 8, 2018 — At the National Academy of Sciences yesterday, the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions got a bit of a jolt. It came in the form of an afternoon spent reflecting on the counterintuitive physiology of obesity. One roundtable member summed it up nicely. “This way of thinking about obesity just smashes our old models for solving the […]
August 6, 2018 — Every day, our news feeds fill up with sensational headlines about obesity and health. Somewhere in those headlines, important new truths are buried. But mostly, you’ll find hype. When we all have so many things competing for our attention, how can we filter through all this noise? Here are five clues for doing just that. […]
August 5, 2018 — No snickering, because this is already a thing. Forget about beef and chicken. Crickets are on the way to becoming the sustainable future of dietary protein. As a bonus, we even have a randomized, controlled trial to tell us cricket powder might make a healthful breakfast. Probiotic Effects Valerie Stull and colleagues conducted a blinded, […]
August 2, 2018 — “Have We Lost Our Food Skills and How to Get Them Back” was the bait-clicky headline of a recent piece in the Sydney Morning Herald. The article by Paula Goodyer with contributions from dietitians including Profs. Clare Collins and Margaret Allman-Farinelli makes the point that “a host of factors have led to a generation who […]
