July 20, 2020 — Anticipation is growing. A UK obesity plan is coming soon from Boris Johnson’s administration. Johnson has latched onto a conviction that Britain must slim down to fare better in the next wave of the coronavirus pandemic. It’s not a bad idea. But will it be all about inspiration and exhortation? Or instead, will it bring […]
June 18, 2020 — In ordinary times, yesterday’s meeting of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee would have been big news. They were supposed to unveil their draft report. But instead, the meeting came and went with a small thud. That’s because everyone has already staked out a position and they’re digging in. Also, it’s fair to say that […]
June 9, 2020 — The expectations are low, so it’s not getting much attention. The 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is trying to wrap up its work on a report. That report goes into a black box at FDA and USDA. Then sometime around the end of the year, the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans will pop out from […]
May 28, 2020 — It’s an odd irony. New data, released yesterday from the Kaiser Family Foundation, tells us that people are skipping healthcare because of the COVID-19 health crisis. In fact, roughly half (48 percent) of Americans say they or someone in their household have postponed healthcare due to the pandemic. One in five (23 percent) of those […]
May 20, 2020 — It seems like conspiracy theories are enveloping us. The new coronavirus was hatched in a lab and foisted on us by China! The one percent is manipulating the economy! Oh, my. It’s a long list that we can read and smugly think, we’re too smart to fall for that. Right? But on the other hand, […]
May 19, 2020 — Common ground is awfully hard to find right now. But here’s an easy one. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a D or an R or anything else. Fat shaming is never cool. It just happened last night when Speaker Nancy Pelosi made an off-handed remark about President Donald Trump being “morbidly obese.” Please, people. This […]
May 16, 2020 — A near death experience with COVID-19 has made Boris Johnson a sudden believer in policies to address obesity. “It’s all right for you thinnies,” says Johnson in discussing the matter. Apparently, he attributes the seriousness of his encounter with the coronavirus to his own obesity. (His BMI was approximately 36 at the time.) So now, […]
May 13, 2020 — Two new papers give us a mixed picture of results from the holy war to drive sweet drinks from the American diet. On the front lines in Oakland, California, economists tell us that a beverage tax has had negligible effects. But the good news is that perhaps that doesn’t matter. Researchers have discovered that sweetened […]
April 29, 2020 — We have the meats! So says Arby’s in its advertising. Likewise, the U.S. government is stepping up to make sure we can all say this. Last night, President Trump signed an executive order for meat packing plants to stay open during the pandemic. Some have been closing because of rising deaths among workers due to […]
April 15, 2020 — With Sonny Perdue at the helm of the USDA, the Trump administration was ready for white bread and salt to make a comeback in school lunches. Back in 2018, the agency issued rules to roll back school nutrition standards for whole grains and sodium. But yesterday, a federal court nixed it. Apparently, the agency broke […]
