November 11, 2024 — It turns out that obesity researchers may be wasting their time. Business professors have discovered a simple explanation for the rise of obesity. High speed internet is fattening. Pouring over the physiology of obesity and data on potential contributors to its prevalence may be unnecessary. A new economic analysis by Lin, Churchill, and Ackermann constructs […]
July 19, 2022 — We’ve all spent well more than two years in a weird state of being intensely connected through technology, yet feeling disconnected from people. Zoom is a great tool, but it has its limits. Research on mental health and technology can support just about any bias you bring to the subject. Maybe it’s connecting us while […]
May 28, 2022 — Worldwide sales of fitness trackers increased from US$14 billion in 2017 to over $36 billion in 2020. The skyrocketing success of these gadgets suggests that more people than ever see some value in keeping tabs on the number of steps they take, flights of stairs they climb, time they spend sitting, and calories they burn. […]
March 21, 2022 — It seems pretty clear. Increased screen time correlates with a higher risk of obesity. In children and teens, for example, a recent systematic review and meta-analysis told us the risk goes up by two thirds with more than two hours daily. Recent prospective research links high screen time with BMI going higher a year later. […]
January 29, 2022 — For decades now, public health figures have been talking about an urgent need to prevent and reverse the rise of obesity. A number of U.S. presidents – notably George W. Bush and Barack Obama – have embraced this goal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a whole division devoted to this goal. […]
May 7, 2019 — In case you missed it, the World Health Organization just came out with a bold new recommendation. Kids should sit less and play more. Glowing rectangles? Before they’re two, kids simply don’t need them. Over two, more than an hour per day is too much and less is best. Kids need plenty of time for […]
April 7, 2019 — Is it mere coincidence that the rise of digital screen time has moved in parallel with the rise in obesity? A new paper points to a possible explanation. Researchers studied the effects of multitasking on digital screens by college students. They found a close relationship between heavy multitasking and and a stronger brain response to […]
November 25, 2017 — Jean Twenge and her colleagues have a pretty dire story to tell you. It’s all about the toxic effects of screen time on our youth: In just the five years between 2010 and 2015, the number of U.S. teens who felt useless and joyless – classic symptoms of depression – surged 33 percent in large […]
July 8, 2017 — Here’s a bit of simple advice for eating healthy. Don’t eat in front of the TV. The advice is simple enough. But reality is not so simple. In a new study, Holly Raynor and Rachel Rosenthal found – to their surprise – that watching TV during a meal did not lead people to eat more. […]
October 23, 2016 — With so many suspects for the cause of growing obesity prevalence, satisfying answers are rare. But new research from the State University of New York at Binghamton provides some fascinating insight on the possible contribution of consumer electronics – such as our glowing rectangles – to obesity risk. After controlling for demographics, diet, and activity, they […]
