Obesity

Obesity changes the way our endocrine system functions

Conditions

July 8, 2016

A patient of mine brought donuts in yesterday for the staff, and I confess! I had the one with sprinkles.

But with the study published in JAMA reporting that 35 percent of U.S. men and 40 percent of U.S. women are obese, I felt the need to talk a little about obesity and reproduction.

The endocrine system is tightly regulated by hormones which provide feedback to the brain to control their …

How to talk with your kids about exercise

Archana Reddy Shrestha, MD

Physician

March 18, 2016

No matter how early I rise with the intention of getting my workout done before my children wake up, I’m rarely able to do it alone. Most days my 3-year-old daughter climbs out of bed and comes straight down to our home gym and watches me do my workout.

Often times she’ll sit quietly in the corner, but sometimes she’ll join in and follow the trainer on my workout DVD and …

You could get fat from eating healthy foods. Here’s how.

Peter Ubel, MD

Conditions

January 2, 2015

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Have you ever eaten a healthy meal, maybe some brown rice and stir-fried veggies, and found yourself ready for another meal just a short while later? Or, more often couldn’t overcome a hankering for a satisfying dessert to top off (and undermine the healthiness of) that meal?

As it turns out, this lack of satiety is not merely a function of the …

Should junk foods carry warning labels?

David L. Katz, MD

Physician

June 3, 2014

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There is, of course, stuff we can chew and swallow that isn’t food. Play-Doh comes to mind. As does Silly Putty.

My thoughts turned to those substances, among others, when my friends at Time magazine asked me recently to opine on the suggestion that junk foods should carry warning labels. My first inclination was: No, that’s too much. But then it dawned on me: Is anything that …

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Should junk foods carry warning labels?

Should BMI be used to measure obesity in children?

Roy Benaroch, MD

Conditions

April 25, 2014

Stephanie wrote in about a very common problem:

My daughter is 4 years old. She isn’t the tallest cat in town (she is about the 15th-25th percentile for height), and her BMI always ends up being in the high range (like over 85%). I worry about it. I am very health conscious for myself and my family. We live by all of the “rules.” And yet.

The family doctor doesn’t worry — …

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Should BMI be used to measure obesity in children?

The deadly consequences of media distortion in health and medicine

David L. Katz, MD

Physician

April 24, 2014

The recent concentration of misleading media hooey about health has been excruciating, but the problem is perennial. I trust I needn’t make the case that you are under constant assault by distorted, contorted, titillating, and insipid headlines. This is certainly true in my domain of health and medicine; it may well be true more generally, but I tend to limit my commentary to the realm of my actual expertise. But to …

Weight loss resistance is real

David L. Katz, MD

Conditions

March 31, 2014

Weight is not a behavior, and weight is not a choice. Nobody wakes up and decides what to weigh today. In an age when healthy and unhealthy behaviors are increasingly subject to incentives and disincentives, respectively, this is all too easily forgotten.

Of course, weight is largely the byproduct of behaviors and choices, namely what and how much we eat, and what and how much we do: calories in and calories …

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Weight loss resistance is real

Lebron James: The king of junk food

Peter Ubel, MD

Conditions

January 13, 2014

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Lebron James makes over $19 million per year playing basketball for the Miami Heat. Not surprisingly, this salary is peanuts compared his endorsement earnings, which in 2012 topped $42 million. Although perhaps peanuts is the wrong word to use when discussing James outside earnings, which to my knowledge have not involved foods anywhere near as healthy as peanuts. Instead, according to …

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Lebron James: The king of junk food

What we can learn about weight loss from Al Sharpton

John Mandrola, MD

Conditions

October 30, 2013

However you see the Reverend Al Sharpton, one thing is certain: you see less of him now. His Twitter pic tells you he is proud of his 167-pound weight loss. Good for him, he should be.

If you care about health, the disappearance of the Sharpton-of-old is worth mention. His story teaches us a lot, and, if one dares to look a little …

Food deserts are incredibly complex problems

Birju Rao

Policy

October 27, 2013

Recently, food has become the center of a revival of interest in cultures that make up Chicago.

The smells, tastes, sounds, and even atmospheres created by cuisine allow both tourists and native Chicagoans to sample our city’s diverse cultural heritage. As such, food has become an increasingly popular and a relatively inexpensive way to enjoy what Chicago has to offer. In fact, one …

When should insurance cover body contouring?

Stephanie Van, MD

Conditions

September 7, 2013

Today in clinic, I interviewed a formerly morbidly obese woman. She has lost almost 300 pounds since undergoing gastric bypass surgery a few years ago, a presentation that has become increasingly common. She was here to see the plastic surgeon for her four week follow up appointment, status post abdominal skin flap removal.

See, after losing a ton of weight, loose skin remains, especially in places like the arms and abdomen. …

Don’t waste your time finding the perfect diet

Barbara Berkeley, MD

Conditions

September 7, 2013

Nathan Pritikin: 69. Robert Atkins: 72. Roy Walford: 79. Adelle Davis: 70. Aveline Kushi: 78. Marjorie Shostak: 51. Jack LaLanne: 96. Ancel Keys:100.

David Murdock is a billionaire who believes that he knows the formula for the perfect diet. Not only has he built his own research institute to refine his theories, but he is confident that his food choices will keep him alive to the age of 125. This would …

Did Mike Huckabee foreshadow his journey back to obesity?

Barbara Berkeley, MD

Conditions

May 15, 2013

Ah, the addictive power of modern food. Never underestimate it.

On a recent trip to New York I happened to be flipping through the channels on my in-flight TV when I ran across Mike Huckabee doing an interview on Fox News. I was surprised to see that he had gained his weight back. The former governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate had staked quite a bit on the success of his …

Stop blaming patients for not doing enough to stay healthy

Bob Doherty

Physician

February 20, 2013

“Discrimination against heavy people, by the general public and medical professionals, might be a greater health and social problem than any extra pounds they may be carrying” argues UCLA Professor Abigal Saguy, PhD, in a provocative essay in the Washington Post.

“Despite the fact that body weight is largely determined by an individual’s biology, genetics and social environment, medical providers often blame patients for their weight and blame their …

Would you accept obesity advice from a fat doctor?

Joyce Ho, MD

Conditions

September 7, 2012

Something that has been on my mind recently is obesity, specifically obesity in doctors. This may be because we cover obesity in a high percentage of our stories (1 in 3 Americans is obese, after all) or because I recently discovered that I gained ten pounds since moving to New York City. Either way, after watching Dr. Snyderman speak her mind on national television about how obese leaders are unfit …

Why weight loss advice may be unethical

Arya M. Sharma, MD

Physician

September 4, 2012

And issue of Newsweek quotes me as saying, “A lot of our weight-loss recommendations are unethical because we shouldn’t be saying lose weight when there is no chance people will keep it off.“

This quote appears in the context of a lengthy article by Daniel Heimpel that examines whether or not the obesity epidemic is being oversold.

While I personally do not think that the obesity epidemic is being oversold, I do …

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Why weight loss advice may be unethical

Overweight people have a weight thermostat that is turned up too high

Albert Fuchs, MD

Conditions

January 22, 2012

I’ve written many times that losing weight is the second hardest thing I ask my patients to do. (Breaking an addiction like smoking or alcoholism is the hardest.) The frustrating thing is how little we know about how to lose weight successfully. But we are learning more all the time about why losing weight is so difficult.

Much about dieting and weight loss is poorly understood, but let’s first lay out …

Obesity is a sign of good health in some cultures

Arya M. Sharma, MD

Conditions

January 20, 2012

On the first day of the 1st Caribbean Obesity Forum, I presented various talks on obesity – its economic implications, its assessment and the need for firmly anchoring obesity treatment in primary care.

Interestingly, several family doctors in the audience raised the interesting issue that here on Barbados (as probably on other islands) many patients are actually quite happy with their weights.

One family physician noted in his presentation the case of …