An Encouraging Trend

I was in the Seattle/Tacoma airport today, and I noticed quite a few people taking the stairs even though they're flanked by escalators....

Calories and Carbohydrate: a Natural Experiment

In the lab, we work hard to design experiments that help us understand the natural world.  But sometimes, nature sets up experiments for us,...

What Causes Insulin Resistance? Part VII

In previous posts, I outlined the factors I'm aware of that can contribute to insulin resistance.  In this post, first I'll list the...

What Causes Insulin Resistance? Part VI

In this post, I'll explore a few miscellaneous factors that can contribute to insulin resistance: smoking, glucocorticoids/stress, cooki...

A Roadmap to Obesity

In this post, I'll explain my current understanding of the factors that promote obesity in humans.   Heritability To a large degree, obe...

Book Review: The Primal Blueprint

Mark Sisson has been a central figure in the evolutionary health community since he began his weblog Mark's Daily Apple in 2006. He an...

Book Review: S.P.E.E.D.

This book was sent to me by Matt Schoeneberger, who co-authored it with Jeff Thiboutot. Both have master's degrees in exercise science ...

The Body Fat Setpoint, Part IV: Changing the Setpoint

Prevention is Easier than Cure Experiments in animals have confirmed what common sense suggests: it's easier to prevent health problems ...

Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part VII

Jaw Development During Adolescence Beginning at about age 11, the skull undergoes a growth spurt. This corresponds roughly with the growth ...

Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part VI

Early Postnatal Face and Jaw Development The face and jaws change more from birth to age four than at any other period of development after ...

FiveFingers in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness

I recently bought a pair of Vibram FiveFingers Sprint (pictured). They're minimal, lightweight shoes with "toes". They'r...

Letter to the Editor

I just got a letter to the editor published in the journal Obesity . It's a comment on an article published in October titled " E...

Statistics

Ricardo just sent me a link to the British Heart Foundation statistics website . It's a goldmine. They have data on just about every ...

Exercise and Bodyfat

I'm a firm believer that exercise is part of a healthy pattern of living. Hunter-gatherers had a word for exercise: "life". ...

The Tokelau Island Migrant Study: Weight Gain

Between 1968 and 1982, Tokelauans in nearly all age groups gained weight, roughly 5 kilograms (11 pounds) on average. They also became slig...

U.S. Weight, Lifestyle and Diet Trends, 1970- 2007

For this post, I compiled statistics on U.S. weight, health and lifestyle trends, and graphed them as consistently as possible. They span t...

Inactivity and Weight Gain

Most of the papers I read in the field pay lip-service to some familiar stories: thrifty genes ; calories in, calories out; energy density; ...

Fit at 70

In my professional life, I study neurodegenerative disease, the mechanisms of aging, and what the two have in common. I was reading through...

Cardiovascular Risk Factors on Kitava, Part III: Insulin

The Kitava study continues to get more and more interesting in later publications. Dr. Lindeberg and his colleagues continued exploring dis...