April 12, 2025 — A fascinating new study in Nature Metabolism suggests how climate temperatures might affect obesity risk in a surprising way – at conception. Takeshi Yoneshiro and colleagues conducted a careful study of the potential effects of climate on obesity risk. They found that obesity is less likely when conception occurs during cold seasons. In a commentary […]
April 10, 2025 — It’s a fact. We are eating, drinking, and breathing microplastics. They are accumulating in our bodies – even in our brains. It took painstaking work to figure that out, but even more challenging is the task of nailing down the health effects of all those microplastics. Researchers are doing their best to figure this out. […]
March 29, 2024 — A fascinating new study is prompting some very clickable headlines this week. It is all about the interaction of genetic risk for obesity and physical activity. It shows that in people with higher genetic risk scores for obesity, the association between physical activity (using daily step counts as a surrogate) and BMI is different than […]
June 16, 2022 — Genes are not destiny. We tire of people who cling to this one side of the false nature versus nurture dichotomy. They’re stuck on the fallacy of thinking that genetic and environmental influences on health must sum to 100 percent. One or the other must be dominant, they seemingly assume. But the truth is that […]
January 4, 2020 — Research, nutrition, and politics. It’s a formula for seemingly unending debates. Now, a recent analysis of data on whole-fat and low-fat milk is adding fuel to the fire. Even before this, dairy farmers were agitating to end the ban on whole-fat milk in schools. Now, this new data adds one more reason to suspect that […]
August 25, 2019 — For African American men, a new study tells us frequent church attendance predicts double the risk of obesity. That’s versus men who seldom attend. But in these data, researchers found no such link for women. Health in Faith-Based Settings Keisha Bentley‑Edwards used data from the National Survey of American Life. It’s a fascinating study with […]
April 29, 2013 — Simplistic — and false — notions of obesity as a lifestyle disease might lead one to think that occupational obesity risk for police officers is simply a function of what police officers eat and their physical activity. Dig a little deeper and you’ll find studies that suggest a more complex picture. Recent studies suggest that […]
