Posts Tagged ‘bias’

When you read news feeds about obesity day after day, one thread is unmistakable. It’s a problem. A huge problem. The cost runs into trillions of dollars in the U.S. It’s making whole countries more vulnerable to COVID-19. Stories about this big, bad, terrible problem never end. But solutions are not getting so much play. […]

A new review in JAMA is unequivocal. The choice to have bariatric surgery is something that every patient with severe obesity should be considering: All patients with severe obesity – and especially those with type 2 diabetes – should be engaged in a shared decision-making conversation about the risks and benefits of surgery compared with […]

It’s a wildly popular catchphrase in this age of COVID-19. Follow the science. The video on the right is packed with cautionary tales by Rohin Francis. In short, he explains that when policy makers say they’re following the science, it’s often a fiction. Mangling the science might be a more apt description. Mangling the Science […]

Having obesity is not a lifestyle. Obesity is a chronic disease. But not having obesity is a lifestyle. In fact, it’s a lifestyle that sets a person free from years of having major chronic diseases. Like obesity. This is the logic Solja Nyberg, Archana Singh-Manoux, and Mika Kivimäki offer us in JAMA Internal Medicine this […]

There’s no way to gloss over this mess. Nor should we. The Journal of Internal Medicine made a terrible mess when they published a paper on the role of physiology in African American women with obesity. That mess exposes the how blind people can be to racism. We are perhaps even more blind to the […]

Presumably, when people choose a career in healthcare, at least one of the motivations is to care for other people. So we might expect that along with caring comes respect in healthcare. But that is not a guarantee, apparently. For some providers, respecting diversity in race, ethnicity, gender, and size seems to be a challenge. […]

This week from the New England Journal of Medicine, a perspective on COVID-19, disparities, nutrition, and obesity popped up. Great! But then we read it. Social determinants of health . . . a healthy diet . . . food deserts . . . minority groups face hurdles. The authors piled on familiar phrases. In sum, […]

The interaction between COVID-19 and obesity is producing diverse responses. From some folks we hear denial. From elsewhere, we hear that concerns about obesity are expressions of racism. Still others will tell us that their favorite diet advice is the answer. Of course on Twitter, low-carb diets for COVID-19 are a hot topic today. But […]

Blame and shame for obesity, it seems, is not just for humans anymore. In fact, a new study in the International Journal of Obesity documents significant bias toward dogs with obesity and their owners. What’s more, these attitudes are strikingly similar to what humans endure. Who’s a good dog? According to some veterinarians, not a […]

“I’m tired of people suggesting I should feel guilty about racism,” someone told us recently. That sentiment is a near-perfect expression of white fragility. Many people enjoy the unearned privileges of being white in a racist society. But they don’t like to think about it. Likewise, many people who are fit, able, and thin enjoy […]