78 posts · 45,098 views

Obesity medicine doctor and cynical realist.

Weighty Matters
78 posts

Sort by Latest Post, Most Popular

View by Condensed, Full

February 6, 2012
05:30 AM
49 views

Why that Diet Soda/Stroke Paper is Worthless and a Failure of Peer Review

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

Ugh.So without spending too much time on this, here's the thing, that paper that purported daily diet soft drink consumption was associated with several vascular risk factors including strokes? It's useless, and moreover, it's a glaring failure of peer review.Why?Because the authors didn't even attempt to control for dietary quality, and moreover, the dietary recall data itself was obviously inherently flawed.First the control issue. As I'm sure you're aware, what we eat has a tremendous impac........ Read more »

Gardener, H., Rundek, T., Markert, M., Wright, C., Elkind, M., & Sacco, R. (2012) Diet Soft Drink Consumption is Associated with an Increased Risk of Vascular Events in the Northern Manhattan Study. Journal of General Internal Medicine. DOI: 10.1007/s11606-011-1968-2

February 1, 2012
05:30 AM
18 views

Obesity in Women Linked to Living Near Parks?!

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

If you like your data clean, pretty and predictable, you probably don't want to read the rest of this post.Researchers from my hometown here in Ottawa recently published a study ahead of print in the journal Obesity. The paper, Relationships Between Neighborhoods, Physical Activity, and Obesity: A Multilevel Analysis of a Large Canadian City looked at a number of different built environment variables and their impacts upon the probability of both leisure time physical activity and overweight an........ Read more »

Prince, S., Kristjansson, E., Russell, K., Billette, J., Sawada, M., Ali, A., Tremblay, M., & Prud'homme, D. (2012) Relationships Between Neighborhoods, Physical Activity, and Obesity: A Multilevel Analysis of a Large Canadian City. Obesity. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2011.392

January 18, 2012
05:30 AM
7 views

Gastric Bypasses Destroy Lap-bands in Head to Head Study!

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

While this wasn't a randomized or blinded trial, the results were striking.442 case-matched patients were followed for 6 post-operative years. Half received a gastric bypass, and half a gastric band. While early minor complications were higher in the gastric bypass group (triple the rate seen in banding), major complications were similar. Aside from that, it's all bypass with the bypassed patients enjoying quicker losses, larger maximal losses and significantly better maintenance of losses.How........ Read more »

Romy, S., Donadini, A., Giusti, V., & Suter, M. (2012) Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass vs Gastric Banding for Morbid Obesity: A Case-Matched Study of 442 Patients. Archives of Surgery. DOI: 10.1001/archsurg.2011.1708

August 25, 2011
05:30 AM
458 views

"Fat Children Eat Less Than Their Thinner Peers"!?

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

"Fat Children Eat Less Than Their Thinner Peers". That's the tweet Linda Bacon from HAES fame sent out to her followers at 9:55am yesterday morning.

It certainly fits the HAES narrative that the world's completely backwards in regard to anything and everything weight related.

Sadly it also continues Linda's confusing practice of tweeting bad data.

Linda's HAES platform, whether you agree or disagree with it, rests on the shoulders of her critical analysis of the medical literature on obesit........ Read more »

Magarey, A., Watson, J., Golley, R., Burrows, T., Sutherland, R., McNaughton, S., Denney-Wilson, E., Campbell, K., & Collins, C. (2011) Assessing dietary intake in children and adolescents: Considerations and recommendations for obesity research. International Journal of Pediatric Obesity, 6(1), 2-11. DOI: 10.3109/17477161003728469

August 18, 2011
05:30 AM
442 views

Why are there less "fit and fat" folks than there used to be?

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

That was the question that leaped to mind after looking at one of the appendices of the recent Edmonton Obesity Staging System paper in the CMAJ.

Looking at the graphic up above (if you click it, it'll get larger), it would appear that the earlier NHANES III cohort (1988-1994) included a significantly higher percentage of so-called, "fit and fat" folks, as compared with the later NHANES 1999-2004 cohort.

In the later cohort, the percentage of the study population with an EOSS score of zero (me........ Read more »

Padwal, R., Pajewski, N., Allison, D., & Sharma, A. (2011) Using the Edmonton obesity staging system to predict mortality in a population-representative cohort of people with overweight and obesity. Canadian Medical Association Journal. DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.110387

Janssen, I., Shields, M., Craig, C., & Tremblay, M. (2011) Changes in the Obesity Phenotype Within Canadian Children and Adults, 1981 to 2007–2009. Obesity. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2011.122

Jennifer L. Kuk, Chris I. Ardern, Timothy S. Church, Arya M. Sharma, Raj Padwal, Xuemei Sui, & Steven Blair. (2011) Edmonton Obesity Staging System: association with weight history and mortality risk. Appl. Physiol. Nutr. Metab., 570-576. info:/10.1139/H11-058

August 11, 2011
05:30 AM
473 views

Did you hear the one about kids who eat candy being thinner?

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

I did.

I heard about it when Linda Bacon from HAES tweeted a link to a press release about it multiple times, calling it "Myth Busting". Knowing that Linda knows how to critically appraise a journal article, I figured it'd be worth reading the actual study.

I was wrong.

The study looked at one solitary day's 24hr. dietary recall collected from 11,182 children between the ages of 2-18 years of age, and then compared candy intake to overweight and obesity status in those same children.

Now d........ Read more »

E. O'Neil, C., L. Fulgoni Iii, V., & A. Nicklas, T. (2011) Association of candy consumption with body weight measures, other health risk factors for cardiovascular disease, and diet quality in US children and adolescents: NHANES 1999–2004. Food . DOI: 10.3402/fnr.v55i0.5794

August 9, 2011
05:30 AM
417 views

Hidden vegetables for one and all!

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

But also don't hide them too!

What am I talking about?

A recent study out of Volumetrics' Barbara Rolls' lab that found incorporating pureed vegetables into 3-5 year olds' bread, pasta sauce, and chicken noodle casserole reduced energy intake in kids by 12%! And don't worry, Dr. Rolls has shown these same type of effects over and over again in adults.

That's not an insignificant, or unexpected reduction - decreasing the energy density of food by adding in piles of pureed vegetables means if........ Read more »

Spill, M., Birch, L., Roe, L., & Rolls, B. (2011) Hiding vegetables to reduce energy density: an effective strategy to increase children's vegetable intake and reduce energy intake. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.111.015206

July 19, 2011
05:30 AM
252 views

Are large amounts of exercise essential for weight loss maintenance?

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

Let me start things off by telling you that I do believe exercise to be extremely helpful in long term weight management. I'll also tell you that I'm a huge fan of the National Weight Control Registry. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Registry, Registrants are folks who are supremely good at maintaining their weight-losses. In fact, the average Registrant has lost 67lbs and kept it off for 5.5 years!There's a great deal of variety in the Registry. Different types of dietary appr........ Read more »

Catenacci VA, Grunwald GK, Ingebrigtsen JP, Jakicic JM, McDermott MD, Phelan S, Wing RR, Hill JO, & Wyatt HR. (2011) Physical activity patterns using accelerometry in the national weight control registry. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 19(6), 1163-70. PMID: 21030947

July 11, 2011
05:30 AM
485 views

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition's recent peer review failure.

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

There's got to be a better way than peer review, because if papers like this one can make it through, the system is broken.The paper's entitled, Dairy attenuates oxidation and inflammatory stress in metabolic syndrome, and it's written by Renee Stancliffe, Teresa Thorpe and Michael Zemel.The paper's aim was to study the impact of dairy on oxidative and inflammatory biomarkers in individuals with metabolic syndrome, following 12 weeks of being randomized to different levels of dietary dairy. The........ Read more »

Stancliffe RA, Thorpe T, & Zemel MB. (2011) Dairy attentuates oxidative and inflammatory stress in metabolic syndrome. The American journal of clinical nutrition. PMID: 21715516

June 30, 2011
05:30 AM
574 views

Amazing, shocking, unbelievable news about type 2 diabetes and diet!

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

Have you caught the amazing, shocking, unbelievable news that type 2 diabetes can be managed through weight loss and lifestyle change?I sure did.Um, I first caught it in medical school nearly 20 years ago and see it virtually daily in my office. I'm guessing if you've got type 2 diabetes, you caught that news from your doctor. In fact I'd be shocked to learn if there were a single type 2 diabetic on the planet who wasn't told at diagnosis that weight loss and/or lifestyle change could reverse t........ Read more »

Lim, E., Hollingsworth, K., Aribisala, B., Chen, M., Mathers, J., & Taylor, R. (2011) Reversal of type 2 diabetes: normalisation of beta cell function in association with decreased pancreas and liver triacylglycerol. Diabetologia. DOI: 10.1007/s00125-011-2204-7

June 27, 2011
05:30 AM
534 views

The deleterious impact of snacking on journalistic integrity

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

It's been a bad few weeks for obesity related press releases.The first was that press release from CIHI, where its headline and first paragraph served here in Canada, to lead journalists to declare that all that's necessary to combat obesity are 15 minutes of exercise a day, and a diet rich in fruits and vegetables (and consequently anyone who's obese is lazy and eats Ding Dongs for supper).Now there's this one.It came from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and it was released in ........ Read more »

Sampey, B., Vanhoose, A., Winfield, H., Freemerman, A., Muehlbauer, M., Fueger, P., Newgard, C., & Makowski, L. (2011) Cafeteria Diet Is a Robust Model of Human Metabolic Syndrome With Liver and Adipose Inflammation: Comparison to High-Fat Diet. Obesity, 19(6), 1109-1117. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2011.18

June 20, 2011
05:30 AM
591 views

Obesity's contagious, or is it? A sober second look at obesity and social networks.

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

Right off the top let me say I'm not well versed enough in statistics to know who's right.On one side of the fence are the findings of Christakis and Fowler, famously published in the New England Journal of Medicine that posited obesity is socially contagious. Non-statistically, their paper didn't sit right with me, but as far as stats go, I'm no maven.On the other side of the fence is a new paper published by Russel Lyons who posits that Christakis' and Fowler's work is a great example of stat........ Read more »

Lyons, R. (2011) The Spread of Evidence-Poor Medicine via Flawed Social-Network Analysis. Statistics, Politics, and Policy, 2(1). DOI: 10.2202/2151-7509.1024

May 30, 2011
05:30 AM
537 views

Are we obese 'cause we sit all day long?

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

That was one of the cases put forth by Dr. Bob Ross during our Forks vs. Feet debate.He had discussed an as of then unpublished study that concluded that due to changes in occupation-based physical activity, we were all on average burning 100 fewer calories per workday, and that those no longer burned calories have caused us to become obese.Well, the paper was just published and I had a gander.Now I do think there are weaknesses to the analysis, in that this study of theoretical energy expenditu........ Read more »

Church, T., Thomas, D., Tudor-Locke, C., Katzmarzyk, P., Earnest, C., Rodarte, R., Martin, C., Blair, S., & Bouchard, C. (2011) Trends over 5 Decades in U.S. Occupation-Related Physical Activity and Their Associations with Obesity. PLoS ONE, 6(5). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0019657

Wilkin, T., Mallam, K., Metcalf, B., Jeffery, A., & Voss, L. (2006) Variation in physical activity lies with the child, not his environment: evidence for an ‘activitystat’ in young children (EarlyBird 16). International Journal of Obesity, 30(7), 1050-1055. DOI: 10.1038/sj.ijo.0803331

Luke, A., Dugas, L., Ebersole, K., Durazo-Arvizu, R., Cao, G., Schoeller, D., Adeyemo, A., Brieger, W., & Cooper, R. (2008) Energy expenditure does not predict weight change in either Nigerian or African American women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 89(1), 169-176. DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.2008.26630

Lara R Dugas, Regina Harders, Sarah Merrill, Kara Ebersole, David A Shoham, Elaine C Rush, Felix K Assah, Terrence Forrester, Ramon A Durazo-Arvizu, & Amy Luke. (2011) Energy expenditure in adults living in developing compared with industrialized countries: a meta-analysis of doubly labeled water studies. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 93(2), 427-441. info:/10.3945/ajcn.110.007278

Westerterp, K., & Speakman, J. (2008) Physical activity energy expenditure has not declined since the 1980s and matches energy expenditures of wild mammals. International Journal of Obesity, 32(8), 1256-1263. DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2008.74

Swinburn, B., Sacks, G., & Ravussin, E. (2009) Increased food energy supply is more than sufficient to explain the US epidemic of obesity. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 90(6), 1453-1456. DOI: 10.3945/ajcn.2009.28595

May 11, 2011
05:30 AM
539 views

Probiotics for weight management?

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

Very interesting study just came out ahead of print in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.In it, researchers studied the impact of over-feeding on stool based calorie loss.Basic principle is that we're not perfectly efficient creatures when it comes to extracting calories from our food. Further, mouse experiments have suggested that their guts' microbial flora and fauna causally impacted their weights. To start exploring this in humans, here researchers studied whether or not changing ........ Read more »

Jumpertz R, Le DS, Turnbaugh PJ, Trinidad C, Bogardus C, Gordon JI, & Krakoff J. (2011) Energy-balance studies reveal associations between gut microbes, caloric load, and nutrient absorption in humans. The American journal of clinical nutrition. PMID: 21543530

May 10, 2011
05:30 AM
612 views

Is sodium a dietary red herring for the effects of processed foods?

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

You may have read or heard about a research paper that came out a few weeks ago in JAMA. The study followed 3,681 Europeans and looked for relationships between sodium excretion (the gold standard means of determining sodium intake), and cardiovascular disease and death.The study's findings were in contrast with what most would have expected. Though higher sodium excretion did in fact correlate with higher blood pressures, surprisingly, it also correlated with decreased mortality.So what's goi........ Read more »

Stolarz-Skrzypek K, Kuznetsova T, Thijs L, Tikhonoff V, Seidlerová J, Richart T, Jin Y, Olszanecka A, Malyutina S, Casiglia E.... (2011) Fatal and nonfatal outcomes, incidence of hypertension, and blood pressure changes in relation to urinary sodium excretion. JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association, 305(17), 1777-85. PMID: 21540421

April 27, 2011
05:30 AM
639 views

Food addiction. Chicken or egg?

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

Food addiction's a hot topic these days.Proponents posit that food addiction is a real phenomenon that leads people to almost irresistibly eat.Opponents believe that it doesn't exist, and it's just a means with which people justify their difficulties with food.What if they're both right?A recent study's got me thinking. Now be forewarned, it's an animal study and therefore not necessarily attributable to human beings, but nonetheless....The study looked at minipigs (which as evidenced by the ph........ Read more »

Val-Laillet D, Layec S, Guérin S, Meurice P, & Malbert CH. (2011) Changes in brain activity after a diet-induced obesity. Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.), 19(4), 749-56. PMID: 21212769

February 16, 2011
05:30 AM
666 views

Think the gym's gonna make you slim? Think again.

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

Not sure why we're still funding exercise for weight loss studies as two recent comprehensive reviews of the medical literature have concluded that weight loss by means of exclusively exercise interventions run in the order of a 1-3% loss in response to 180 mins/wk of exercise and no loss at all if less than 150 mins/wk, but yet here's another one to discuss.What's a bit different about this study is that it was long - 18 months and hence perhaps will yield a different outcome.So what'd the stud........ Read more »

Jakicic, J., Otto, A., Lang, W., Semler, L., Winters, C., Polzien, K., & Mohr, K. (2010) The Effect of Physical Activity on 18-Month Weight Change in Overweight Adults. Obesity, 19(1), 100-109. DOI: 10.1038/oby.2010.122

February 3, 2011
05:30 AM
362 views

Why I still think breakfast's part of weight management.

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

Much ado has been made of a recent study that suggested that eating large breakfasts added to total daily calorie counts with pretty much all coverage suggesting that folks trying to lose weight should think twice about having it, or more specifically, how much of it.The study, published in advance of print in Nutrition Journal, monitored the dietary intake of 280 obese and 100 normal weight subjects for 10-14 days. Researchers were interested in total daily energy intake as a function of total........ Read more »

Schusdziarra, V., Hausmann, M., Wittke, C., Mittermeier, J., Kellner, M., Naumann, A., Wagenpfeil, S., & Erdmann, J. (2011) Impact of breakfast on daily energy intake - an analysis of absolute versus relative breakfast calories. Nutrition Journal, 10(1), 5. DOI: 10.1186/1475-2891-10-5

January 31, 2011
12:00 PM
518 views

Ending public-private partnerships between Big Food and Health

by Yoni Freedhoff in Weighty Matters

Sorry for the late post, the embargo lifted at noon.Today's edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal contains an editorial the I co-authored with Paul Hebert. In it we argue that partnerships between food conglomerates and health organizations should be avoided.The risk is straightforward. Partnerships by definition serve to benefit both parties. For the health organizations the benefits involve some combination of money, resources and exposure. For the food industry the benefits ........ Read more »

Yoni Freedhoff, & Paul Hebert. (2011) Partnerships between health organizations and the food industry risk derailing public health nutrition. CMAJ. info:/

login

Yoni Freedhoff

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

Why is this post inappropriate?

search

topics

dates

View

Language

Languages to Display

join us!

News