More faults found in FLOTUS Victory Claims
The Weekly Standard’s Jeryl Bier is reporting more faults in First Lady’s Michelle Obama’s claims of Let’s Move role in the supposed lowering of childhood obesity rates. The analysis looks at the...
View ArticleNew Study Confirms Breastfeeding Not Protective for Childhood Obesity
A new study published in JAMA concludes that breastfeeding is unlikely to prevent the development of obesity in children up to 11 ½ years old. The study, involving 17, 046 breastfeeding mother-infant...
View ArticleNYU Professor Insults Obese Students
The New York Daily News reports that visiting professor Geoffrey Miller wrote on Twitter, “Dear obese Ph.D. applicants: if you didn’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won’t have the...
View ArticleUniversity Launches Investigation of Professor
The University of New Mexico has issued a terse statement that it is investigating “every aspect” of Professor Geoffrey Miller following his tweet insulting Ph.D. candidates who are obese. This...
View ArticleCatching Up on Obesity and Neurological Diseases
For some time I have been reading papers dealing with the association (or lack thereof) of obesity with neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s Disease, autism spectrum disorders, and ADHD. I did...
View ArticleSnacking is Bad. Right?
In this uncertain world, one thing we can be sure of is that adolescent snacking is contributing to the obesity epidemic. Right? Well, er, no. Actually, young snackers (you know who you are) are likely...
View ArticleThe BMI Pit
Arya Sharma has an excellent post today on an article detailing the weakness of using the Body Mass Index in clinical practice. Readers of the Downey Obesity Report will be familiar with some of the...
View ArticleAHRQ: Policy-based non-evidence evidence?
Summary: Preventing weight gain among adults is a national health care priority. So I read with interest a recent AHRQ effectiveness review which found scant evidence of any strategy to prevent...
View ArticleAMA Recognizes Obesity as a Disease
The AMA House of Delegates did not adopt a report (scroll down to page 19) from it Board of Trustees and instead voted to recognize obesity as a disease, according to a report from Forbes. For...
View ArticleHuffington Post Live Discussion of AMA Decision
Here is the link to the HuffPost Live Discussion: http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/ama-recognizes-obesity-as-a-disease/51c1cd312b8c2a0a3100028d Enjoy.
View ArticleIRB Raps Obese-trashing Prof
The University of New Mexico has announced that its Institutional review board (IRB) has found that Professor Geoffrey Miller’s tweet telling Ph.D. applicants who were obese not to apply was not...
View ArticleReflections on the AMA Disease Decision – Part 1
I think I have been responding to questions about whether or not obesity should be defined as a disease since the American Obesity Association’s (AOA) first Obesity and Public Policy Forum in 1999. It...
View ArticleReflections on the AMA Decision – Part 2
One of the more curious comments on the AMA decision came from Hank Cardello of the Hudson Institute. Hank (with whom I have broken bread a couple of times) is a former food industry executive who...
View ArticleWhat Next? A Boy Scout Merit Badge for Discrimination?
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) just can’t seem to stop discriminating. No sooner had the BSA stopped the public relations bleeding from the exclusion of gay scouts, they start catching flack for...
View ArticleToo Heavy For Help?
A new NBC News report indicates that patients who are obese may be too heavy for air ambulances to transport to emergency rooms. The delay due to having to be transported by ground may lead to increase...
View ArticleNYC ban on large soda cups unconstitutional
New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division has held that the New York City’s ban on the sale of sugar sweetened beverages in cups over 16 ounces unconstitutional, upholding a lower court decision....
View ArticleNew UK Map of Childhood Obesity
The Guardian has published a cool interactive map of obesity in England which allows users to compare obesity rates by levels of poverty, education, etc.
View ArticleObesity Mortality Estimate Sharply Up
In a new analysis, researchers have determined that mortality due to obesity is much greater than previously estimated, perhaps some 4 times as higher as previous estimates. The new analysis is based...
View ArticleFat-Bashing Prof Censured
Psychology Professor Geoffrey Miller has been formally censured by the University of New Mexico for a tweet he published in June telling Ph.D. candidates who are obese not to apply to his program. At...
View ArticleUPDATE: 97 Putative Causes of Obesity
UPDATE: 97 Putative Causes of Obesity An earlier post listed 82 putative causes of obesity. Now, the list has been updated. Two of the previous categories have been combined (chemical toxins and...
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