A Sign of the Times

Every now and then, I venture out to go shopping at mainstream chain clothing stores.  Although I find it onerous, there are certain things ...

60 Minutes Report on the Flavorist Industry

A reader sent me a link to a recent CBS documentary titled " Tweaking Tastes and Creating Cravings ", reported by Morley Safer. Sa...

New Review Papers on Food Reward

As research on the role of reward/palatability in obesity continues to accelerate, interesting new papers are appearing weekly.  Here is a r...

Another Simple Food Weight Loss Experience

Whole Health Source reader Sarah Pugh recently went on a six-week simple food (low reward) diet to test its effectiveness as a weight loss s...

A Brief Response to Taubes's Food Reward Critique, and a Little Something Extra

It appears Gary Taubes has completed his series critiquing the food reward hypothesis of obesity ( 1 ).  I have to hand it to him, it takes ...

Two Recent Papers by Matt Metzgar

This is just a quick post to highlight two recent papers by the economist and fellow health writer Matt Metzgar . The first paper is titled ...

Does High Circulating Insulin Drive Body Fat Accumulation? Answers from Genetically Modified Mice

The house mouse Mus musculus is an incredible research tool in the biomedical sciences, due to its ease of care and its ability to be genet...

The Brain Controls Insulin Action

Insulin regulates blood glucose primarily by two mechanisms: Suppressing glucose production by the liver Enhancing glucose uptake by other ...

Harvard Food Law Society "Forum on Food Policy" TEDx Conference

Last Friday, it was my pleasure to attended and present at the Harvard Food Law Society 's TEDx conference, Forum on Food Policy .  I ha...

Losing Fat With Simple Food-- Two Reader Anecdotes

Each week, I'm receiving more e-mails and comments from people who are successfully losing fat by eating simple (low reward) food, simil...

The Case for the Food Reward Hypothesis of Obesity, Part II

In this post, I'll explore whether or not the scientific evidence is consistent with the predictions of the food reward hypothesis, as o...

The Case for the Food Reward Hypothesis of Obesity, Part I

Introduction When you want to investigate something using the scientific method, first you create a model that you hope describes a natural ...

Humans on a Cafeteria Diet

In the 1970s, as the modern obesity epidemic was just getting started, investigators were searching for new animal models of diet-induced ob...

Primal Docs

Chris Armstrong, creator of the website Celiac Handbook , has designed a new non-commercial website called Primal Docs to help people conne...

Fat Tissue Insulin Sensitivity and Obesity

In this post, I'll discuss a few more facts pertaining to the idea that elevated insulin promotes the accumulation of fat mass.   Insuli...

Hyperinsulinemia: Cause or Effect of Obesity?

Is Elevated Insulin the Cause or Effect of Obesity? The carbohydrate hypothesis, in its most popular current incarnation, states that elevat...

Catered Paleo Dinner with Yours Truly

Gil Butler, organizer of the Western Washington Paleo Enthusiasts group, has organized a catered "paleo" dinner on Sunday, October...

Book Review: The End of Overeating

The End of Overeating was written based on the personal journey of Dr. David A. Kessler (MD) to understand the obesity epidemic, and treat ...

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...

Seed Oils and Body Fatness-- A Problematic Revisit

Anthony Colpo recently posted a discussion of one of my older posts on seed oils and body fat gain ( 1 ), which reminded me that I need to ...

Food Palatability and Body Fatness: Clues from Alliesthesia

Part I: Is there a Ponderostat? Some of the most important experiments for understanding the role of food palatability/reward in body fatnes...

I Got Boinged, and Other News

The reaction to my post " The Carbohydrate Hypothesis of Obesity: a Critical Examination " has been overwhelmingly positive, parti...

The Carbohydrate Hypothesis of Obesity: a Critical Examination

Introduction I'd like to begin by emphasizing that carbohydrate restriction has helped many people lose body fat and improve their metab...

Ancestral Health Symposium

Last weekend I attended the Ancestral Health Symposium at the University of California, Los Angeles, organized by Aaron Blaisdell, Brent Pot...

Dietary Guidelines for Americans, My Way

I just saw this on BoingBoing .  Simple but true.  This image was created by Adam Fields .  The people who design government dietary guideli...

Interview on Super Human Radio

Today, I did an audio interview with Carl Lanore of Super Human Radio.  Carl seems like a sharp guy who focuses on physical fitness, nutriti...

Weight Gain and Weight Loss in a Traditional African Society

The Massas is an ethnic group in Northern Cameroon that subsists mostly on plain sorghum loaves and porridge, along with a small amount of m...

Simple Food: Thoughts on Practicality

Some people have reacted negatively to the idea of a reduced-reward diet because it strikes them as difficult or unsustainable.  In this pos...

How Does Gastric Bypass Surgery Cause Fat Loss?

Gastric bypass surgery is an operation that causes food to bypass part of the digestive tract.  In the most common surgery, Roux-en-Y bypass...

Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part VIII

Further reading I didn't come up with the idea that excessive food reward increases calorie intake and can lead to obesity, far from it....

Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part VII

Now that I've explained the importance of food reward to obesity, and you're tired of reading about it, it's time to share my id...

Drug Cessation and Weight Gain

Commenter "mem", who has been practicing healthcare for 30+ years, made an interesting remark that I think is relevant to this dis...

Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part VI

Reward Centers can Modify the Body Fat Setpoint Dopamine is a neurotransmitter (chemical that signals between neurons) that is a central med...

Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part V

Non-industrial diets from a food reward perspective In 21st century affluent nations, we have unprecedented control over what food crosses o...

Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part IV

What is Food Reward? After reading comments on my recent posts, I realized I need to do a better job of defining the term "food reward...

Healthy Skeptic Podcast

Chris Kresser has just posted our recent interview/discussion on his blog The Healthy Skeptic .  You can listen to it on Chris's blog he...

Fast Food, Weight Gain and Insulin Resistance

CarbSane just posted an interesting new study that fits in nicely with what we're discussing here.  It's part of the US Coronary Ar...

Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part III

Low-Fat Diets In 2000, the International Journal of Obesity published a nice review article of low-fat diet trials.  It included data from ...

Clarifications About Carbohydrate and Insulin

My statements about carbohydrate and insulin in the previous post seem to have kicked up some dust!  Some people are even suggesting I'v...

Healthy Skeptic Podcast and Reader Questions

Chris Kresser , Danny Roddy and I just finished recording the podcast that will be released on May 24th.  It went really well, and we think ...

Administrative Note

My blog is being mercilessly ripped off by cheesy feed aggregators that are using my material for commercial gain, often without attribution...

Ask Me a Question

On May 13th, I'll be recording a podcast with Chris Kresser of The Healthy Skeptic . Chris interviewed me about a year ago, and I thou...

Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part II

How to Make a Rat Obese Rodents are an important model organism for the study of human obesity. To study obesity in rodents, you have to ma...

Food Reward: a Dominant Factor in Obesity, Part I

A Curious Finding It all started with one little sentence buried in a paper about obese rats. I was reading about how rats become obese whe...

Upcoming Talks

I'll be giving at least two talks at conferences this year: Ancestral Health Symposium ; "The Human Ecological Niche and Modern Hea...

Obesity and the Fluid-in, Fluid-out Therapy for Edema

I recently attended a lecture by Dr. Arya M. Sharma here at the University of Washington. Dr. Sharma is a Canadian clinician who specializ...

US Omega-6 and Omega-3 Fat Consumption over the Last Century

Omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fats (PUFA) are essential nutrients that play many important roles in the body. They are highly bioacti...

Fat-ten-u

I recently bought the book Food in the United States, 1820s-1890 . I came across an ad for an interesting product that was sold in the late...

Great New Product

Do you feel sad sometimes? Are you tired when you get up in the morning? Do you get winded running sprint intervals? I've just found a...

Dr. Kevin Patterson on Western Diets and Health

A few readers have pointed me to an interesting NPR interview with the Canadian physician Kevin Patterson ( link ). He describes his medical...

Randy Tobler Show: Welcome

This morning, I had a conversation with Dr. Randy Tobler on his radio show "Vital Signs", on 97.1 FM News Talk in St Louis. Dr. ...

Safflower Oil Study

A few people have sent me a new study claiming to demonstrate that half a tablespoon of safflower oil a day improves insulin sensitivity, in...

New Ancestral Diet Review Paper

Pedro Carrera-Bastos and his colleagues Maelan Fontes-Villalba, James H. O'Keefe, Staffan Lindeberg and Loren Cordain have published an ...

Gluten-Free January Survey Data, Part II: Health Effects of a Gluten-Free Diet

GFJ participants chose between three diet styles: a simple gluten-free diet; a "paleo light" diet diet that eliminated sugar and i...