December 23, 2023 — The approach of the big holiday of Christmas often conjures thoughts about sharing meals and festive food. Many tables are overflowing with excess and with that excess comes a certain amount of angst about holiday food, health, and personal happiness. This year, we have a new twist on how to cope. Popular media is serving […]
September 28, 2023 — “Conjecture is good, but knowing is better.” This bit of wisdom from the Indiana University School of Public Health came to mind yesterday at the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions, hosted by the National Academy of Sciences. The subject of the day was the relationship between culture and obesity – really quite a fascinating subject. Four […]
April 16, 2023 — The availability of advanced medicines for obesity presents a dilemma. On one hand, people are accustomed to both patronizing and disparaging a diverse industry devoted to helping people lose weight. It ranges from the obvious frauds of dietary supplements that promise to help people lose weight quickly and permanently to behavioral support programs like Weight […]
March 13, 2023 — It was nothing short of cathartic for many people toiling in the tricky space of advocacy for people living with obesity. Brendan Fraser last night won an Oscar, Best Actor, for his portrayal of Charlie in The Whale. His character, Charlie, is dying from complications of obesity and the movie depicts him as a very […]
January 14, 2023 — What exactly is a healthy lifestyle? If you dig into a certain corner of public health research, you are likely to come up with healthy patterns of eating, physical activity, sleep, and stress management as the answer. But Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, author of Fit Nation, has a different answer for you. Fitness culture defines a […]
December 1, 2022 — The Whale is premiering next week in theaters everywhere, after a New York premiere this week and a tour of film festivals that has many people suggesting Brendan Fraser will win an Oscar for his performance in the film. But why should we care? In a word, this film is already prompting discomfort with a […]
October 31, 2022 — One of the themes you will hear when ObesityWeek gets underway tomorrow in San Diego is the dramatic progress that’s coming into view with new obesity drugs. But the picture quickly becomes murky in the real world because of issues with supply and access to these new and improved obesity meds. The access to care […]
August 28, 2022 — It’s either depressing or enlightening. When the subject of body weight comes up in pop culture, it brings us into an evidence-free zone. Pop diets compete with anti-diets. Obsessive diet regimens compete with people telling us that we should fuggedaboutit and move on to intuitive eating. Eat whatever your body tells you it wants in […]
August 7, 2022 — Bill Maher has a full-time commitment to bigotry, says Eric Wemple at the Washington Post. Stereotypes about Asian women, gender, Islam, the N-word – at various times he finds a place for all of them in his dubious humor. But really, the talent he has is the talent of a bully and this is the […]
June 29, 2022 — Today in New York, the Media Empathy Foundation is unveiling an unusual report and, hopefully, starting a conversation. Both the report and the conversation are all about weight stigma in popular media. Because popular media has a way of shaping popular culture and right now, weight stigma is pervasive in all media channels: news, entertainment, […]
