Posts Tagged ‘bias’

JAMA grabbed some headlines this week on a popular subject – cutting sugar consumption for kids. Fatty liver disease is a serious problem and the headlines point to a simple solution. “To fight fatty liver, avoid sugary foods and drinks,” said the New York Times. How did researchers prove that? All it took was a randomized […]

In a most compelling way, Tommy Tomlinson describes his lifetime of experiences facing obesity: Losing weight is a f***ing rock fight. The enemies come from all sides: The deluge of marketing telling us to eat worse and eat more. The culture that has turned food into one of the last acceptable vices. Our families and […]

In 1982, Michael Lyons published the first finding that a virus could cause obesity. More than a quarter century later, quite a pile of evidence has accumulated. And yet, the notion of viruses causing obesity seems far from the mainstream. Why is this so? The Long Road for a Counter-Intuitive Finding It’s been more than […]

Euphemisms. We hear them in when people talk about their health. My sugar is a little high. I’d like to lose a few pounds, but it’s not a big deal. I just need to watch what I’m eating. Fine. But there comes a time when you can’t fake it anymore. The Royal College of Physicians in London […]

As we’ve noted, 2018 was a year of toxic misinformation. Scholars from the Rand Corporation warned us about Truth Decay, because misinformation is creeping into every corner of our lives. So let’s take a minute to review some of the biggest whoppers of 2018. One by one, maybe they seemed trivial. But add them all […]

Two recent articles have us thinking about the harm that might come from hanging on to weak dietary advice. One is all about salt. The other is about dairy fat. But underneath it all is core problem. Some of the dietary advice taken as gospel is grounded in associations and suppositions. It never goes through […]

A new research letter in JAMA Surgery spells it out. After facing bias and stigma for having obesity, people who seek out the most effective treatment available – bariatric surgery – face public scorn for it. Patrick Dolan and colleagues found that 39 percent of American adults believe that bariatric surgery is “an easy way […]

No doubt, the intentions behind this headline were good. “Obesity is too dangerous to normalize,” said a letter to the editor on Sunday in the Washington Post. That letter came in response to a commentary about plus-size fashion that pleaded for clothes that will let bigger women simply be themselves. And feel good about it, […]

In the UK, the National Health Service (NHS) is coming to terms with the impact of obesity and diabetes. Chief executive Simon Stevens says: The NHS is now going to be ramping up practical action to support hundreds of thousands people and avoid obesity-induced heart attacks, strokes, cancers and type 2 diabetes. Because what’s good […]

Plus fashion is growing up and perhaps moving into the mainstream. It’s inevitable. In a world where roughly 75 percent of the population is living at a high BMI, fashion that focuses only on stick-thin models can’t survive. But growing up is hard. So plus fashion is in its awkward phase, as Washington Post fashion […]