March 13, 2022 — We are getting an eyeful of injustice, cruelty, hubris, and selfishness. It comes to us in examples large and small. On a catastrophic scale, it’s unfolding in Ukraine. In subtler but relentless increments, we see it in pervasive bias against people living with obesity. Dispiriting as all of this is, an antidote is available to […]
February 20, 2022 — The hate crimes trial of three White men in Georgia who chased down and killed a Black man when he ran through their neighborhood is coming to an end. Mercifully, we have not had to listen to any of them testify that they don’t have a racist or hateful bone in their body. But let’s […]
October 3, 2021 — “Child abuse.” When we wrote earlier this week about new data on bariatric surgery in children with severe obesity, that was one visceral response. Ten years ago, Lindsey Murtagh and David Ludwig trotted out the child abuse label with precisely opposite reasoning. They suggested that parents of children with obesity might be guilty of abuse […]
September 6, 2021 — In a 2015 review now cited more than a thousand times, Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson do not equivocate. The relationship between income inequality and poor health meets criteria for causality. The causal path involves violence and other problems with social structures. So reducing inequality will improve public health and wellbeing. Predicting COVID-19 Deaths In […]
July 25, 2021 — Healthcare and policies on obesity serve people with wealth and privilege. The disparities are great in the U.S. But they exist everywhere. Just look at childhood obesity in the U.K. Consider the ten percent of children with the most social and economic deprivation. They have three times higher rates of obesity compared to the ten […]
March 6, 2021 — Every morning, before the sun is up, here at ConscienHealth, we struggle to assemble about 500 words that people who care about obesity, nutrition, and health will want to read. Why do we care enough to do this? In short, we do this because we have found a community that matters greatly. These are people […]
December 13, 2020 — “Any belief worth embracing will stand up to the litmus test of scrutiny. If we have to qualify, rationalize, make exceptions for, or turn a blind eye to maintain a belief, then it may well be time to release that belief.” Laurie Buchanan, PhD. This year has been a exploration of the capacity of humans […]
November 26, 2020 — We have come to an odd relationship with food, because we are full of contradictions. This American Thanksgiving holiday brings those contradictions into sharp view. While an increasing number of Americans are going hungry, we’re celebrating a national feast day that is a time to give thanks for abundance. Hunger Soaring with the Pandemic At […]
August 11, 2020 — Food insecurity may well be the next pandemic that results from COVID-19. But new research in JAMA Network Open tells us that the problem is already here. Candice Myers, Emily Mire, and Peter Katzmarzyk tell us food insecurity doubled between 2000 and 2016 in the U.S. Moreover, with this doubling, obesity rose in close correlation. […]
October 17, 2019 — On the occasion of World Food Day, Pope Francis had a message for the world about food and health and social justice. Food for profit at any cost has led to a world of hunger, obesity, and waste. Indeed, he said, food has cultural, social, and symbolic importance we are neglecting. The logic of the […]
