The Fine Line Between Shared and Manipulated Medical Decisions

My friend and colleague Brian Wansink, from Cornell University, worked with some colleagues to design a preliminary restaurant menu, that maximizes the odds the people will order healthy foods. Trick number one: don’t call them “healthy” foods. Here is an image of that menu, reproduced in the Atlantic. This is a great example of how…

Recently Mayor Michael Bloomberg learned that his Big Gulp ban had been blocked by a state Supreme Court judge for arbitrarily targeting these consumer goods without a legal rationale.  Determined to combat the obesity epidemic, Bloomberg will no doubt appeal this decision.  But he shouldn’t.  Instead, he should look back at the history of alcohol prohibition…

Just came across an interesting way to try to motivate people to exert themselves: post calories-burned-counts on the stairs. Would that work for you?  For me, it would probably make me look down while walking up, only to trip, fall backwards, crack my head, all the while asking myself: “What the heck is a kcal…