Posts Tagged ‘research’

We have breaking news from Barcelona! Headlines from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress this week tell us: “Everything the government teaches us about eating is wrong.” Normally sober and cautious, Stat tells us: “Huge new study casts doubt on conventional wisdom about fat and carbs.” But you needn’t be alarmed. This is just […]

We have a new target, folks. For decades now, the preferred cause has been to prevent childhood obesity. Stitch in time. Ounces of prevention. Innocent children. All that fuzzy imagery was easier for people to buy into than addressing obesity in grownups. Writing in JAMA, Bill Dietz calls for expanding that focus to prevent weight […]

“We have a pretty good idea of how to curb childhood obesity.” Such convictions run deep. And because of those convictions, prevention is a frontline strategy for dealing with childhood obesity. So it’s especially dispiriting when we see the scientific literature stained by a paper fudging conclusions about childhood obesity prevention. No Significant Effect Morphs […]

Seven to nine hours of sleep per night might significantly improve health and reduce obesity risk. A new study published in PLOS ONE finds that people who sleep only six hours per night have a waist that’s three centimeters bigger than people who get nine hours. With better sleep, the odds of diabetes drop as […]

Yesterday, Kevin Fontaine and David Allison opened their third conference on causality in obesity research at the UAB Nutrition and Obesity Research Center. They explained the growing urgency to ask hard questions about cause and effect in obesity. Targeting Elusive Causes for Obesity For three decades, obesity prevalence has been growing relentlessly. And yet, we […]

Here’s a fascinating new way to look at health disparities. How much disparity does a place have in walking? Does everyone take many steps per day? Or do some take a lot while others take very few? A new study in Nature finds that disparities in opportunities to walk predict higher obesity rates.  Big Data […]

Coffee just traded up to a brighter halo of health. In Annals of Internal Medicine yesterday, two studies found an association between drinking the brew and living a little bit longer. Should everyone drink deeply of this “elixir”? Our advice? Drink it if you like it. A Modest Benefit These two studies cover diverse populations. […]

Here’s a bit of simple advice for eating healthy. Don’t eat in front of the TV. The advice is simple enough. But reality is not so simple. In a new study, Holly Raynor and Rachel Rosenthal found – to their surprise – that watching TV during a meal did not lead people to eat more. […]

More than 20 years ago, discovery of the ob (obesity) gene and the protein that it encodes – leptin – was a breakthrough for obesity science. Mice that lack the gene develop extreme obesity. And giving them the protein reverses it. Some people misleadingly dubbed it a satiety hormone. In Cell Metabolism, a new commentary by Jeffrey […]

Think of an industry reaping boundless profits from intellectual property. In the midst of constant change, a few strong competitors defy the odds and continue to dominate. You might be thinking of software or pharmaceuticals. But in fact, these words describe the business of publishing science. Perhaps you’ve noticed that things are a little pricey […]