December 27, 2023 — Food as medicine programs can yield a fantastic medical benefit, say the promoters of this currently trendy concept in nutrition policy. If implemented broadly, they “would save lives and billions of dollars.” That’s the word from Tufts, where Dariush Mozaffarian is selling this concept with great enthusiasm. The whole idea behind these claims is that […]
July 31, 2023 — The subject of sweeteners stirs emotions almost constantly. The World Health organization has been on a tear lately, suggesting the the sweetener aspartame might be carcinogenic and that non-sugar sweeteners have “deadly long-term consequences.” Some experts will even suggest non-nutritive sweeteners can cause weight gain. So we welcome the appearance of a more balanced view, […]
July 19, 2023 — New research today in the New England Journal of Medicine offers an important lesson – for anyone with an open mind. Finding an association of a dietary pattern with a better health outcome is not the same as showing that a dietary pattern has that effect. Eight years ago, Martha Clare Morris and colleagues told […]
May 24, 2023 — The logic of trying to turn food into medicine simply escapes us. The week, the Washington Post has a new twist on food as medicine – telling us to eat our greens if we want better mental health. It leaves us with mixed feelings. On one hand, we’re all in on the concept of finding […]
January 24, 2023 — These are three problems that often travel together. But each one by itself is a problem – stigma, obesity, and heart disease. Now, a new study from the University of Connecticut gives us some of the best empiric evidence yet for the distinct harm that weight stigma adds to obesity and heart disease. Randomized and […]
January 7, 2023 — Who knew that FTC could be a source of support for scientific rigor? Well, late in December the agency issued new guidance – its first in 25 years – clarifying the standards it requires for businesses making health claims about their products. In this new guidance, FTC makes a clear call for RCTs (randomized controlled […]
January 6, 2023 — Intermittent fasting has some enthusiastic fans. While some studies have shown impressive benefits, others have found little benefit. On top of that, virtually all of the research on this type of dietary intervention has been of a short duration. Compliance with intermittent fasting can be a challenge over time. So the fan base will surely […]
December 21, 2022 — Clinical research is hard to do right – especially if the goal is to discover the true answer to a scientific question. Because scientists are human, they bring passion to their work. But they have to set aside those passions in designing and conducting research so that their research will hold up to scrutiny. Along […]
August 9, 2022 — We are not done with the notion of time-restricted eating. Two new studies tell us that it might be helpful. One is specifically about weight loss with early time restricted eating. The other is a simple test of the metabolic effects of limiting the window for eating to ten hours in the day – all […]
July 30, 2021 — Improving health through nutrition is important. Relieving the considerable suffering that obesity causes is likewise important. But both of these tasks are difficult. That’s because clear evidence for cause and effect is hard to find in nutrition and obesity. Randomized studies are hard. Observational studies are more common, but they are subject to bias from […]
