Recently, it has become a craze to demonize hydrogenated vegetable oils, also known as trans fats. Indeed, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) is seeking to outright ban this class of substances, since they are, after all, "artery-clogging" and "a threat to public health." Trans fats are found in most pre-packaged foods, especially anything... Read More

Former president George W. Bush recently had surgery to open a blocked coronary artery. As the NBC Nightly News reported (click link for video) So George W. Bush, a famous fitness fanatic, had a blocked artery. Now, he was experiencing no symptoms, so "heart disease" may be a bit of a strong term. Indeed, it... Read More

This is my 100th blog post. Upon reaching this milestone, I thought that this would be a great time to take moment to look back at my experience as a blogger in Human BioDiversity (HBD) and share my thoughts on the things to come. 1. The Beginning 2. Fertility 3. Immigration and the economy 4.... Read More

In my previous post, I noted that the oft-mentioned association between obesity and poor health and "early" death may be a function of the lower average IQ of obese people. I suggested that the true correlate of these things was in fact low IQ. And indeed, I've stumbled on additional studies that suggests that this... Read More

Continuing my inquiry into this matter, one question that hasn't been satisfactorily answered is why has the obesity rate shot up in the past few decades? As I've made plain in previous posts, variation in obesity between individuals within a group at any given time is largely heritable, as is a good portion of the... Read More

A recent article in the UK Daily Mail featured the "Weight of the World" chart made by Visual.ly. It graphically represents the average body mass index (BMI) of the inhabitants the countries of the world. In keeping with my recent series on the matter, I wanted to see what it'd look like if I turned... Read More

My recent series on diet and cardiovascular health has produced some interesting findings. Within these findings, I have noticed some intriguing patterns. Following in the tradition of my "Tales of Two Maps" series, here are another set of two maps: This is the previously featured map of the year 2000 mortality rate from cardiovascular disease... Read More

In my Twitter feed I encountered this 2007 article that notes that the conventional wisdom about exercise and weight loss–that exercise leads you to lose weight and keep it off–is wrong: For most of us, fear of flab is the reason we exercise, the motivation that drives us to the gym. It’s also why public-health... Read More

Comedian/documentarian Tom Naughton recently made a highly intriguing post about the "Spanish Paradox"; that is, the low rate of cardiovascular illness among Spaniards despite their apparently poor markers of heart health. This post was made on the discussion site of Naughton's 2009 documentary Fat Head. This movie (which I have yet to see, but plan... Read More