Category: Obesity

How can we really stop obesity?

I met a young man in my clinic recently, who came for treatment of obesity. He was only 26, yet suffered from obesity throughout his life — now reaching a debilitating 420 pounds. His explanation for how he developed obesity was a reflection of the iss…

Why doctors-in-training need better nutritional education

Obesity is a global epidemic, and its prevalence is increasing in every part of the world. While we have new medications and complex surgical techniques that promote weight loss, the awareness of healthy eating habits and dietary education are still th…

New year, new thinking about treating obesity

Eat less, exercise more is a common refrain heard by millions of people with obesity. If only it were that simple. Decades of research shows obesity is a disease that is caused by a combination of genetic, environmental, biological, and behavioral fact…

Doctors need to learn more about nutrition

I was misinformed about medical school. Growing up, I wanted to help people become healthy. After four years at the Ohio State University Medical School and three years of a family medicine residency, I still did not know enough to accomplish my goal. …

Call obesity what it is: a disease

In 2013, the American Medical Association (AMA) announced its decision to classify obesity as a disease, moving against the recommendation at the time of a group studying obesity. Yet there are still those who believe that obesity is not a disease but …

Soda Industry Steals Page From Tobacco To Combat Taxes On Sugary Drinks

Voters in Oregon and Washington will decide whether to strip cities of the ability to tax sugary drinks.

Evening eating: Are you a “light” eater?

An excerpt from Let Go of Emotional Overeating and Love Your Food: A Five-Point Plan for Success. Copyright © 2018 by Arlene B. Englander. Published by Rowman & Littlefield. All rights reserved.  Anyone who has ever tried to lose weight or keep weight off realizes that evening can be the make or break time of […]

Don’t sign off on fat acceptance. Don’t normalize obesity.

I cannot get behind fat acceptance, or better stated in medical lingo as “normalizing obesity.” As a physician and as someone who has been obese or morbidly obese my adult life, I know first hand what it’s like to hate my body and feel ashamed of it. I still do this very moment as I […]

A new way to reduce sugary beverage consumption

The beverage industry derailed the movement for soda taxes in California by convincing state elected officials to pre-empt local taxing authority in exchange for cancelling a ballot initiative that would have made all new taxes difficult to pass. But taxes are not the only way to reduce sugary beverage consumption in California or the U.S. as a whole. […]

Why do we think obesity is caused by lack of exercise and not junk food?

There are now more than 700 million obese people worldwide, 108 million of them children, reported the New York Times in 2017. In Brazil, food giant Nestle sends vendors door-to-door hawking its high-calorie junk food and giving customers a full month to pay for their purchases. Nestle calls the junk food hawkers, who are themselves […]