January 12, 2026 — Justin Sung and Dana Small are two neurobiologists offering us some very basic wisdom. It is wisdom with roots in a sophisticated understanding of biology. We should take care not to lose the pleasure of food. In PLOS Biology, they offer a very cogent argument in defense of the pleasure of food. Their bottom line […]
November 2, 2025 — The headlines won’t stop. “Obesity rates are falling and it’s almost certainly because of Ozempic,” says the Futurism banner. Vox tells us “the Ozempic effect is finally showing up in obesity data.” So can it be true that use of GLP-1s is lowering obesity prevalence? The short answer is no. Not now. Probably not ever. […]
September 9, 2025 — The progress we have witnessed in 25 years of working on obesity care has been nothing short of remarkable. Especially in the last four years with the introduction of advanced new obesity medicines. But let’s step back from the minutia of research, clinical care, and policy, to look at the big challenges that remain. When […]
August 6, 2025 — We have a great privilege this week to spend time in Canberra (and Sydney), delivering two invited presentations and finally meeting up with quite a number of people we have known only virtually. Now in person. The occasion is the annual meeting of ANZMOSS – the Australian and New Zealand Metabolic and Obesity Surgery Society. […]
June 12, 2025 — It is undeniable that obesity is a complex, chronic disease. When we gather people from all over the world who understand obesity, this is the number one thing everyone can agree upon. And yet, when we sit down to talk about models for health systems delivering obesity care, it is more likely that folks who […]
May 17, 2025 — This should not be so hard. But apparently it is very hard for people to accept, in their hearts, that the disease of obesity is actually chronic. Yes, people will repeat the words that experts and thought leaders have fed them. “It is undeniable that obesity is a complex, chronic disease.” So says the International […]
May 14, 2025 — New studies released yesterday at ECO2025 remind us doctors and other health professionals often miss things that are quite obvious to people living with obesity. For one thing, there is the phenomenon of food noise. It’s very real for many people with obesity. For health professionals, it can seem a bit abstract. Then there is […]
April 24, 2025 — Can obesity prevention be as simple as telling people to chew more slowly? That’s what the principal investigator of a new study published in Nutrients, Professor Katsumi Iizuka, says: “These are easy, money-saving measures that can be started right away to help prevent obesity. “Incorporating the proposed eating behavior into school lunches and other programs […]
November 19, 2024 — Fat cells don’t forget. That simple fact comes from new research published in Nature yesterday which explains a fundamental truth about obesity that eludes most people in their thinking about this condition. It is a chronic disease. Fat cells have an epigenetic memory for obesity they retain even when people lose a lot of weight. […]
September 8, 2024 — What’s the harm? For many “interventions” to reduce obesity prevalence, this rationale seems to be good enough to spur implementation. Menu labeling is a good example. Restaurants in the U.S. and in numerous other places must publish the number of calories in food portions they sell. This went into effect based upon suppositions. Policy makers […]
