Posts Tagged ‘wellness’

Listen up folks. A donut is not the way to tell the world about the state of obesity in the United States. Nope, not at all. Donuts do not lie at the root of the problem. Neither do french fries. But cluelessness drives people to reduce the complex problem of obesity into a simplistic infographic […]

My struggles with weight and health began when I was 3, after my parents got married and my mom got a promotion. Her job became more stressful, home-cooked meals became rare, and healthy living wasn’t a priority. My mom, my dad, and I all began to put on weight. We tried cooking at home more […]

We’ve just spent two days with nearly 200 human resource pros in the Texas Business Group on Health. They gathered for regional forums on health benefits in San Antonio and Houston. One thing comes through loud and clear. Employers are moving on beyond superficial wellness programs. Those programs alone don’t have much of an impact […]

Brush your teeth, wash your hands, take a shower. These are all good, healthy ways to clean up. Dietary cleansing and detox rituals? Not so much. So it’s surprising to see the Washington Post making itself a platform to promote a pseudoscience sugar detox cleansing ritual. Does It Work? n=1 The clickbait headline promises to […]

The closing day of YWM2019 began and ended with acceptance and commitment. First, Jason Lillis presented a brilliant session on using our own values to empower healthy changes. Then, at the end, attendees told their own true stories of acceptance and commitment to live their best lives. It was a perfect pair of bookends for […]

New research from Rebecca Pearl and colleagues on self-stigma raises important questions for self-care. In obesity, self-care is the most common approach. “I ought to be able to do this myself” is a common thought we hear. WW (formerly Weight Watchers) has many millions of members. Diet, exercise, and weight loss books top the charts […]

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 […]

Food and beverage marketers have one very clear mission. Encourage people to drink and eat more. Thus, they innovate, they formulate, and they communicate. And it all advances a singular purpose – sell more. Superfood, healthy food, food fads – they’re all part of the marketing machine. More than ever, that machine relies on academic […]

Workplace wellness sounds like such a benign concept – maybe even beneficent. So why does it sometimes spark such anger from employees? And why aren’t workplace wellness programs working to yield better health? A recent paper from Frontiers in Psychology offers important insights. Senior author Stuart Flint sums it up: Problems arise when these programs […]

Beware. Gendered generalizations will almost always get you into trouble. But they surround us. And in the Washington Post, Monica Hesse points out Twitter founder Jack Dorsey can utter meaningless drivel about what to eat and it’s a “biohack.” However, from a female opportunist – say, Gwyneth Paltrow – it’s simply whacky. Hack or whack? […]