To anyone that says, "A randomized controlled trial in nutrition is impossible!" I can now say, "You just don’t want it badly enough."

Should you go on the Mediterranean diet?

As you are already probably aware, the Mediterranean diet is one of the diets that started it all. Its rules are relatively simple: lots of olive oil, lots of fruits and nuts, lots of vegetables and cereals, and some fish and chicken, and not a lot of dairy, red meat, processed meats, and sweets and some wine (And while Greece is part of Mediterranean, Greek yoghurt does not seem to feature prominently in this diet–so think on that a bit…)

The Mediterranean diet has been studied a lot. One could argue that of all the diets that have gone though fad phases, including the Atkin’s diet, the Mediterranean diet has been studied the most. In particular, its effects on preventing cardiovascular events (stroke, heart attacks and death from either) has been of particular interest. There have been major cohort studies, but never a randomized controlled trial. Read More...

You don’t add higher octane gas to the house that’s on fire to put it out.

The World Health Organization’s definition of health, which I had to memorize in the first month of medical school, is, “The state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

Personally, I think this is ridiculous because it’s basically tautological. The term “well-being” is essentially synonymous with “health”. In fact, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “well-being” as, “The state of being happy, healthy or prosperous.” Way to go, 1948 WHO’er’s. It’s like looking in the dictionary for the definition of “happy” and seeing “not sad” and then looking up “sad” and seeing its definition as “not happy.” (Flashbacks to being the child of immigrant parents inserted here. And yes, I was a weird kid and yes, my parents will tell you that.) Read More...

Burn the boats: Why you’re going to fail. Or not.

I’ve been studying and reading health research for decades, and this post is just a bit of my biased gestalt on the state of affairs on obesity, obesity research and the new hope that arises within a TON of people every January.

The preponderance of obesity research indicates that most of you will fail at achieving your goal of weight loss this year; and that of those of you who succeed at achieving the goal within this particular year will ultimately fail because the data generally shows that the weight comes back, resulting in a net effect of zero. What we don’t fully understand still, is why this failure happens; and I’m not sure that we’re going to truly unearth it anytime soon enough to make a difference in your resolution this year. Read More...

Defending yourself against decision overload

It’s 2011, and a new year for the ongoing onslaught of infomercials, internet promises and magazine gimmicks competing for your attention.

A friend of mine once told me, “The most expensive clothes you’ll ever buy are the ones you never wear.” The same goes for diet programs, online e-books, and new (or just re-branded) products. Most people don’t buy new clothes thinking they’ll never wear them. Likewise, most people don’t buy new fitness products thinking they’ll never use them. Read More...

Going the extra mile doesn’t always make things better (but then again, it might)

I picked this study for two reasons: 1) It’s actually not a half-bad study, and 2) It addresses a significant fitness issue that has been plaguing athletes, trainers and coaches for decades–to stretch or not to stretch. However, despite the study’s many strengths, it falls just short of making it truly useful in helping active people make the decision whether or not to perform static stretching. Read More...