NEWS

In good conscience, it is hard to ignore the steady stream of scientific publications that tell us we are putting our children at risk by filling the world with plastics. And yet it seems that the convenience and ubiquity of plastics make it hard to resist. A sweeping new review in Lancet Child and Adolescent […]

At one of the world’s finest restaurants, Alchemist in Copenhagen, a menu item invited a scientific study. It was the restaurant’s yogurt fermented with ants. Why in the world did this traditional Bulgarian yogurt require ants? What were those ants doing to help make yogurt from milk? They produce yogurt that has “a slight tangy […]

Six years after the original EAT-Lancet report, the team behind this report is back with a sequel. Tamara Lucas and Richard Horton published a commentary to accompany the report. They note the critical feedback on the original edition. And they suggest those critiques may have had an ever so slightly humbling effect on the Commission: […]

“The Hegseth hypocrisy: Fat-shaming top generals in land of McDonald Trump.” That headline delivers the essence of fat shaming in the week’s political news. It started with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and quickly spread to detractors of the administration. Hegseth explained that he can’t stand the sight of fat people in the military: “Frankly, it’s […]

The press office at the UNC School of Medicine wins the prize for clickbait this week with this gem: “Junk food can scramble memory in just four days.” That headline inspired some impressive creativity. From the seed of junk food to scramble memory sprouted headlines about rewired brains, disrupted memory circuits, cognitive decline, and brain […]

A pair of new papers in the Journal of the American Heart Association serves up a fundamental challenge to assumptions about nutritional guidance in obesity. The science is complex, involving metabolomics and dietary quality. But the concept is simple. Obesity is not just a simple problem of excess body fat. Rather, it is a complex […]

A perverse economic environment is, arguably, propelling us toward an overwhelming health problem with obesity that is becoming a wealth issue. Nick Triggle reports in depth for the BBC and makes a strong case for the idea that advanced obesity medicines are turning obesity into a wealth issue. People with the least wealth have the […]

We spend a lot of time these days talking about the risks of ultra­-processed foods. Sugar. Additives. Marketing. Long‐term metabolic effects. These are very real concerns. But recent events in Indonesia offer a sobering reminder that more basic failures – poor oversight, bad food handling, spoiled ingredients – can cause acute harm. This has happened […]

Back in March 2024, we welcomed the news of a door opening ever so slightly for Medicare Part D plans to cover GLP-1s in people with obesity and heart disease. So 18 months later, it’s reasonable to ask, how’s that working out for everyone? A new research letter in JAMA gives us an answer, but […]

Bimagrumab continues to be a enigma. We see flickering signs of good news – and then, inexplicably, it goes dark. The pattern repeated itself this week when news emerged that Lilly pulled the plug on a phase two study with bimagrumab and tirzepatide in persons with obesity and diabetes before it even enrolled a single […]