African Americans make up 13% of the country’s population, but only 4% of American physicians are black. This lack of racial diversity in the profession is tragic, denying this prestigious career to many worthy people and undermining the health of many African Americans, who are more likely to receive important medical services when they’re cared for by black…
With Thanksgiving behind us, many Americans will not assemble together for a home-cooked meal again for a while. By some estimates, people living in large cities consume the majority of their meals outside the home — at restaurants, coffee shops, bars and food trucks. No surprise, then, that anti-obesity policies are increasingly focused on helping Americans…
Here is a nice picture, from the Wonkblog, summarizing the best evidence to date on whether cigarette taxes reduce smoking. The bottom line here is that cigarette taxes slightly reduce smoking among smokers. That slight reduction reflects, in part, those people who quit smoking because it has simply become too expensive. It also includes people…
The Journal of the Association for Consumer Research (yes, there is such a thing!) had an outstanding issue dedicated to eating behavior recently. Here is a picture from that issue worth sharing:
Is medical marijuana legal in your state? That probably means less narcotic use and abuse: Something to keep in mind as we fight our opiate epidemic.
Put our brains into the modern food environment, and you have a recipe for disaster. Our brains are hardwired to crave calorie-dense foods, this craving no doubt arising from our evolutionary time spent on the Tundra where calories were often scarce. But our modern food environment surrounds us with calorie-dense foods, forcing us to deplete…