This has been quite a year that we are closing out on this New Year’s Eve. As we start another new year, we will be leaving behind an ample collection of curses we suffered and blessings we enjoyed in 2025. No doubt, you have your list. So here is our own brief list of the most memorable of these highs and lows for 2025 in obesity, nutrition, and health.

Curses

CDC Will Never Be the Same
CDC was a bureaucracy that some people loved to hate. But it was a global leader in science, research, and rapid response to health threats. Not anymore. Today, CDC cannot be trusted as a voice for science. This is the result of disastrous cuts to funding, loss of scientific leadership, and an unmistakable prioritization of dogma over science.

Nutrition Policy by Whim, Not Science
It is now clear that federal nutrition policy will be guided by the whims of political leadership at HHS. Political stunts that promote french fries with beef fat and discard carefully researched nutrition recommendations were stark demonstrations of this.

Retrenchment on Access to Obesity Care
Some of the progress on coverage by health insurers for advanced obesity medicines fell away this year. Thus, patients who were doing well on advanced obesity medicines found themselves facing an acute loss of health.

Wider Health Disparities
As the gap in life expectancy and health between wealthy and poor persons continues to grow, health policies promise to make this worse. For instance, USDA stopped bothering to keep track of food insecurity. Congress and the current administration showed their willingness to decimate food security for their political convenience. Furthermore, millions of  lower-income persons are now likely to lose their health insurance.

Blessings

Robust Innovation for Obesity Care
The pipeline for innovation in obesity care is brimming with new medicines. Oral medicines are on the way from Lilly and Novo Nordisk. But its not just those two. Many other big pharma companies are spending big to innovate and make money by meeting the huge need for better options in obesity care.

Movement for Access to Obesity Care at CMS
CMS paused its initiative to open up access to obesity medicines in Medicare and Medicaid early in 2025. But now they are back on track. Although the progress is shaky, it is progress and it is important.

Growing Attention to Long-Term Health in Obesity
With new indications for obesity medicines to prevent kidney disease and sleep apnea, this is a year when the focus was clearly shifting. Until now, all attention has been on weight loss. But now we see real movement to focus on long-term health. This is a big trend to watch.

Global Recognition of Obesity as a Disease
When the WHO embraced obesity treatment and affirmed that obesity is a  complex, chronic disease, we could feel the ground shift. Implicit bias about obesity as a behavioral problem will linger, no doubt. But now it is clear that all around the world, we will slowly but surely shake that obsolete thinking.

Disaster in the Rearview Mirror, illustration created for ConscienHealth with Gemini image generation