March 23, 2021 — Bias comes in many forms. People express bias when they hold to a partial perspective about a person, group, thing, or idea. With bias comes the refusal to consider different points of view. Feelings, not facts, drive our biases and we all have them. On the subject of COVID-19, vaccines, and vitamins, this is especially […]
February 1, 2021 — A long, long time ago, the FDA proposed voluntary goals for reducing salt in processed, packaged, and prepared foods. But that was 2016 and a new administration came the following year with less interest in this subject. So naturally, this went nowhere. It took little more than this idea coming from the Obama team to […]
January 19, 2021 — It’s hard to miss that we’re having a crisis of trust. That’s because it’s playing out very loudly in American politics. You might have heard about the riot in Washington, DC – a horrid spectacle fueled by mistrust. But the crisis of trust reaches much further than politics. In fact, trust is essential for science […]
January 5, 2021 — Dairy farming is cruel! Milk is racist! Such fighting words about dairy foods are nothing new. Hot passions about milk weave through 10,000 years of human history. So why should issues about dairy in the brand new dietary guidelines surprise anyone? Clearly, strong feelings about the first food we all consume will follow us into […]
January 1, 2021 — In a world of divisions, one sentiment seems to unite us: joy in being done with 2020. Thus we say that we look to this new year with a measure of hope for better days ahead. Even for a stern realist, hope is important. Monica Hesse explains: I am not a superstitious person and I […]
December 30, 2020 — This happens only once every five years. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, along with Health and Human Services, issued new dietary guidelines yesterday. This is big news, but the reporting on it is pretty slim. In the 2020 guidelines for eating, we have some gains and some gaps in translating science into policy. In keeping […]
December 23, 2020 — China is going to eliminate food waste and fight obesity in a single stroke of regulation. How, you ask? Operation Empty Plate will expand into law. China will make it a crime to promote food waste, including overeating. The hilarity of naive efforts to regulate food marketing never disappoints. Stiff Fines for Bad Marketing Right […]
November 26, 2020 — We have come to an odd relationship with food, because we are full of contradictions. This American Thanksgiving holiday brings those contradictions into sharp view. While an increasing number of Americans are going hungry, we’re celebrating a national feast day that is a time to give thanks for abundance. Hunger Soaring with the Pandemic At […]
November 19, 2020 — Bias about obesity is funny. Because some of the smartest people say the dumbest things when they aren’t thinking. That’s when implicit weight bias comes into view. For example, Governor Andrew Cuomo connected the dots yesterday between cheesecake, COVID, and obesity. But it’s pretty hard to figure out what in the world he was thinking. […]
October 29, 2020 — The New York Times seems to think that even our refrigerators are polarized. Let’s just say they have a bias that favors polarization. Political agitation is good for their business model – just as it is for Fox News. But seriously, the Times collected more than a thousand images of refrigerators through a mobile phone […]
