Posts Tagged ‘bias’

One of the highlights of ObesityWeek 2018 was Rebecca Puhl’s award for scientific achievement. Not just because we admire her and her pioneering work on weight stigma. But also because she rewarded us. She delivered an inspiring lecture on finding a path to less weight stigma. Stigma researcher Angela Alberga explains: It was incredible to […]

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Mark Twain understood this bit of wisdom. Thus we felt his influence at a session yesterday on food addiction at ObesityWeek 2018 in Nashville. Sandwiched between three scientists, we enjoyed an engaging presentation by a journalist with a good story to tell. It’s […]

“’Obesity’ is not the health risk it has been reported to be,” says the HAES® Fact Sheet. But that assertion stands in stark contrast to the findings of a new study in Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology this week. The study adds to a large body of evidence and begs a question. At what point does […]

Knowing what you believe can be extremely important. But for science, that’s not enough. There’s a big difference, for example, between believing that intermittent fasting can help patients with diabetes and measuring the clinical outcomes that it produces. Likewise, believing that an Active Classroom intervention can boost activity levels at school is not the same […]

Faced with an inescapable choice, who will live and who will die? That’s the question that researchers put to a massive global sample. It was a hypothetical question prompted by self-driving vehicles. Should the vehicle swerve to avoid hitting a large group of people? Even if it means certain death for a smaller group? Should […]

Yesterday at FNCE, dietitians witnessed an event with a split personality. Was it a debate? Or was it a conversation? The title said it was both – a debate and a conversation on weight management and Health at Every Size®. (People in the HAES movement want you to know, that’s their trademark.) Whatever it was, […]

Medscape tells us that 64 percent of physicians believe obesity is a disease. For nurses, the number is a bit smaller – 54%. But believe it or not, this looks like progress to us. More healthcare professionals are coming around. More of them are finally understanding obesity as a disease. Shifting Opinions Five years ago, […]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr coined that phrase in 1849. But we can thank the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America’s Health for keeping it current. They’ve issued the 2018 edition of their annual State of Obesity Report. Therein they tell us – at […]

Never underestimate the power of rationalization. Because sounds good, very often, is good enough. Just ask folks selling “natural” foods and drinks. A good story about natural purity fetches premium prices. Also, you should look at new research on white hat bias. Even for researchers, it seems the ends can justify the means. It’s a […]

There’s no gentle way to express this. We suffer from a huge ethical blind spot regarding access to obesity care. Today, as National Obesity Care Week focuses upon access to care, we must acknowledge just how big this gap is. Of course, we focus a lot on the issue of access to obesity treatment. We […]