 by Avik Chatterjee, MD When I first met him, Mr. Smith had just moved into a motel room re-purposed as a homeless shelter, with his four children. He was anxious and distracted, his eyes darting from me to the door, to the children’s clothes folded up on the bed.
“This morning I had to get my kids to school, meet with my housing worker, figure out why MassHealth won’t accept my application, and to top it all off, I know my blood pressure and blood sugar are out of control. Doc, I won’t lie to you, life’s been so difficult this past year, I haven’t taken my medications at all.”
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 The FDA recently released two new regulations that provide instructions to restaurants, grocery stores, vending machines and other food establishments for how they will have to comply with the law compelling them to post calories on menus. The idea motivating this law and regulations is that if consumers are aware of the calories of their purchases, they may make lower calorie choices. Is this true? Does the posting of calories or other nutritional information affect consumer choice? And if so, does the nature of the posted information make a difference?
 by Lauren Fiechtner, MD As mammals we have two different types of fat tissue: white and brown. White fat stores energy and plays a role in how full we feel. Brown fat helps regulate the body’s temperature by releasing heat. In mice brown fat has been linked to improved insulin sensitivity and decreased body weight. In humans brown fat has been associated with lower BMI. So we think brown fat is healthier and more efficient than white fat.
 by Kristina Lewis, MD Ask 10 friends or patients who have successfully dieted in the past year what their strategies were, and you’re likely to get 10 different answers. With choices ranging from Atkins and Ornish to the dubious blood type diet, there are so many unique weight loss strategies available that it is difficult to keep track of them all. Despite the cornucopia of options for weight loss, it turns out that the secret to long-term weight loss maintenance involves far less variety. Keeping weight off is not about jumping on board with the latest trend. It has more to do with making some simple changes and sticking with them for the long haul. As it turns out, when thinking about how to keep weight off, “boring” may be the best strategy.
 by Marie-France, MD NIH funding is declining, leading to less support for large observational cohort studies. Over the last several decades, these types of studies have allowed us to understand determinants of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. But, does opportunity knock for a new paradigm of cohort study? This is the bet that the Health eHeart Study is taking.
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