June 17, 2023 — “Nutrition policies are intended to improve diet quality and decrease rising obesity prevalence . . . Although obesity prevention policies can improve diet quality, they are not expected to decrease the prevalence of obesity.” These words, from a recent review, lead us to wonder what we really know about preventing obesity. Fortunately, on the closing […]
March 30, 2023 — Reuters reported yesterday that the World Health Association is considering, for the first time ever, adding a drug used for diabetes and obesity to the WHO essential medicines list. The specific drug under consideration is liraglutide. This would represent a step toward learning from public health mistakes of the past to make a course correction […]
March 3, 2023 — An interesting collision of stories is playing out in the media today. It comes at the end of Obesity Care Week and on the eve of World Obesity Day. On one hand, the Economist proclaims that “new drugs could spell an end to the world’s obesity epidemic.” On the other, hand the World Obesity Federation […]
March 1, 2023 — “The only way to reverse our obesity epidemic is by preventing obesity in the first place.” This perfect expression of a perfectly unreal approach to obesity appears in The Hill today. Optimism about obesity treatment is “not warranted,” write Anthony Biglan and Diana Fishbein. Instead, businesses must stop selling us food “with an irresistible taste.” […]
November 29, 2022 — Stigma serves as an anchor to policy for reducing obesity in Mexico and it renders those policies ineffective. That’s the view James René Jolin, Lauren Kim, Verónica Vázquez-Velázquez, and Fatima Cody Stanford eloquently present in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology this week. They write: “Recalibrating the prevailing approach to obesity is essential to counteract the stigma […]
November 25, 2022 — “Can’t never could.” This old bit of Southern American wisdom aptly describes one of the startling reactions to impressive progress in obesity treatment – “we can’t do this. It will cost too much.” This reaction has been part of the landscape of obesity care for some time, so it should not be startling. But when […]
November 13, 2022 — Analogies are a powerful tool to build a story and persuade people to adopt a preferred course of action. When it comes to policies to reduce obesity, one of the most frequent analogies employed is tobacco policy. Earlier this year, Sarah Hill and colleagues made the case for health policy to align the regulation of […]
September 26, 2022 — Something is up with our food supply that’s helping to drive the ever-rising prevalence of obesity. But the precise nature of the problem with the food supply is open for debate. People have many strong opinions. We’re too dependent on factory-farmed meat, say some people. Others are pushing for a food supply that promotes more […]
September 2, 2022 — It’s barely September. Labor Day isn’t here yet. But pumpkin spice is all around us already. It’s not just Starbucks, it’s more than sugary coffee drinks, it’s in everything and the marketing intent is clear. Consume it! Even though health policy folks are still pushing soda taxes to fight obesity, we’re here to tell you […]
September 1, 2022 — Just this week, the White House set its date for its big Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. It will be a full day on September 28. The agenda – as defined by conference pillars – sticks to safe concepts that should find broad support. But the same cannot be said for nutrition activists with […]
