“Blogging is not writing. It’s just graffiti with punctuation.” — Dr. Ian Sussman to Alan, in the movie Contagion I started writing this blog with few expectations other than with a broad objective to provide useful content for anyone interested in understanding: how to take steps—whether large or small—toward living a healthier lifestyle, and how […]
Vertical vs. horizontal programming: The individual perspective Exactly how many measurable changes do you need to implement to improve your health? One, two, two dozen? Only a few, really—fix your diet, get up and move, and quit the tobacco. You’ve heard all of this before. I’m not here to preach. I will, though, throw […]
Obesity rising: analysis from GBD Study 2013 shows startling increase in rates of obesity and overweight worldwide http://t.co/a0dg3VFpeR — The Lancet (@TheLancet) May 29, 2014 The Lancet last week published some pretty grim statistics. Worldwide, between 1980 and 2013: The proportion of adult men with a body mass index (BMI) of at least 25 kg/m2 increased from 28.8% […]
In a recent “Viewpoint” (i.e., opinion) article for JAMA, David Ludwig and Mark Friedman compare and contrast prevailing and alternative models of obesity. The prevailing model: Voluntary changes in calorie intake predictably produce short-term weight change, suggesting the possibility of conscious control of body weight over the long term. Evidence exists, though, that contradicts the […]
I listen to a ton of podcasts—in the car, at home while doing chores, and while working out. A favorite of mine is the popular Freakonomics podcast by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, based on the pair’s best-selling non-fiction books. The core principles of economics have been applied to health issues, per se, for quite some time and […]
A recent headline in the The New York Times garnered a flurry of attention, both good and bad. The headline: “Butter is Back.” In the article, Mark Bittman describes how results from a recent meta-analysis vindicate saturated fat—and therefore, butter—as a villain in our diets. The attention, no doubt, stems from a combination of the […]
During his TED talk in 2006, Hans Rosling describes how he informally tested his class of Swedish undergraduate students at the start of the term. He asked his students: “Which country has the highest child mortality of these five pairs?” — Sri Lanka or Turkey — Poland or South Korea — Malaysia or Russia — […]
Okay, probably not—just miniature food. Enjoy the photographs below of various miniature foods made from polymer clay, which I’m guessing aren’t the artist’s take on what reduced portion sizes should look like. Miniature barbecue: Miniature cheese plate:
An eye-opening (to say the least) infographic on the accelerating pace of scientific publishing and the rise of open access. — A list of papers published in 1880 would fill about 100 pages. — Today, we’re looking at a page published every 45 minutes. How many of these papers discuss “new” or “breakthrough” findings in […]
The map above depicts the distribution of McDonald’s outlets worldwide in 2004. Out of approximately 30,500 McDonald’s outlets, 45 percent were located within the U.S.—that’s 47 outlets per million people in the U.S. compared to 5 outlets per million people worldwide. Hence, the bloated distortion. Sometimes, you have no other alternative but to eat junk. It’s […]
Why it’s unnecessary to fully commit to a commitment device: Lessons learned from my superficial experiment with tracking my activity in real time A commitment device is a means to lock yourself into a course of action that you might not otherwise choose, but that produces a desired result. Examples of commitment devices on the […]
What’s the Sugar Problem? Most of us know the problem. Excess sugar consumption is implicated in all manner of poor health outcomes, including excess weight gain, obesity, non-communicable chronic diseases (e.g., heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc.), and dental caries. Despite the recent spate of news stories on the FDA’s proposal to add a line for […]
It was hard to miss the news last week: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing updates to the Nutrition Facts label on food packages to “reflect the latest scientific information, including the link between diet and chronic diseases such as obesity and heart disease.”
Or, Today’s Physical Activity Primer and Encouragement in Tweets Physical activity = any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that burns energy http://t.co/ILNCuFFkv8 #Move4Health — WHO (@WHO) February 25, 2014 Physical activity incl. activities while working, playing, carrying out household chores, travelling http://t.co/ILNCuFFkv8 #Move4Health — WHO (@WHO) February 25, 2014 Physical activity should not be […]
How Scientific Research and Personal Health Journalism Bred a Weight-Loss Myth that Persists Despite Evidence to the Contrary This is a story that begins in 1959. It’s a true story about how scientific research and personal health journalism interact in unintentional ways that may discourage, rather than encourage, the public from pursuing better health. In […]
In part one of this two-part post, I attempted to dispel misperceptions that may be holding you back from experimenting with Twitter as your tool of choice for gathering the most relevant public health and personal health information. More generally, I tried convincing you (and I hope I succeeded) that Twitter is, in fact, a […]
How to Set Up Your Twitter Account in Less than 11 Minutes and What You Need to Know to Make the Most of Your First 48 Hours Preface: A Personal Confession. I have a confession: Up until this week, I was a…how do I put this? A complete and utter stranger to Twitter. Go ahead…laugh. Get […]
No, not Aristotle. It wasn’t until I was a graduate student in public health and health policy that I became aware of the biologist, Edward Wilson, and his much-debated thesis on the unity of knowledge. I was sitting in an introductory course on environmental health. The professor flashed the indented quote below on a […]