Posts Tagged ‘diet’

Please don’t tell the keto cult. They’ll be all over us with compelling anecdotes. But it seems that we may be nearing the peak of ketogenic diet hype. Writing in JAMA Internal Medicine this week, Shivam Joshi,  Robert Ostfeld, and Michelle McMacken tell us: Although the ketogenic diet has garnered much attention for the dietary […]

Who needs candy bars anymore? Boomers are too old for them. Millennials and Gen Z are woke to the poison that is sugar. So “functional” snacks are a thing. No wonder the folks who make M&Ms, Snickers, and Twix are buying into a functional food business called Foodspring. They’re ready to sell you yummy protein […]

The USDA opened up the process for developing the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for inspection and input this week. It was the second of five public meetings. Also, it was the first of two chances for the public to deliver live comments to the committee. The committee seems to be taking its task for the 2020 […]

Could it be that chasing dietary options for heart health is pointless? Commenting on a new study in Annals of Internal Medicine, Amitabh Pandey and Eric Topol express doubts: Diets and supplements are 2 of the most intense areas of public interest but are among the most lacking in adequate data. Unfortunately, the current study […]

What will you be grilling for your summer holiday feasts? Hot dogs are a traditional favorite. Why not substitute some fake meat made of pea protein? Hot dogs – despite a beloved cultural image – have never been an especially wholesome food. For more on this, we refer you to Upton Sinclair’s expose on the […]

The buzz around ultra-processed foods continues to grow. Much of that buzz swirls around the first-ever randomized and controlled study by Kevin Hall and colleagues. It’s sparking a whole range of reactions. Some offer only praise. Meanwhile, others offer diffuse criticism. Still others are asking sharp questions. But some of the most interesting questions are […]

Risk-benefit ratio is a term of art that most anyone in healthcare will know. It answers a very basic question. Does this thing offer more benefits than risks? The thing might be a drug, it might be a device, or it might be an operation. But what about some of the beliefs that drive health […]

Everything is effective. Give somebody a potent drug and it will surely do something to them. Enact a health policy and it will surely have an effect. In fact, the effects will certainly be many – both desired and undesired. But for both drugs and health policies, the target is health. So we’d best be […]

It’s an awesome responsibility, saving the planet. But apparently, it’s also simple. And many people have an answer. Opt for eating chicken instead of beef. We can go vegan, vegetarian, or to a warmer, fuzzier “plant-based” diet. Beyond Meat is doing quite well by serving up pea protein in Beyond Burgers. Without a doubt, we […]

It’s been a wild ride. Almost 40 years ago, David Jenkins published the first paper to propose that the glycemic index of foods might be an important measure of nutrition quality. Back then, dietary guidance pointed to a low-fat panacea. Research continued quietly on the glycemic index. The pendulum swung from fear of fats to […]