 by Stephanie Linakis, MPH Replacing sugar sweetened beverages with artificially sweetened, zero and reduced calorie substitutes would seem to be one foolproof strategy for weight loss, right? Well, maybe – the story could be more complicated. Our body’s myriad biological and psychological pathways challenge what would logically appear to be a simple choice. The body can easily recognize and process a natural, calorie free substance such as water. Drinks – and yogurt and other products – that are artificially sweetened (with aspartame, saccharin, or sucralose, for example), however, can confuse our systems and may lead to unintended consequences.
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 by Renata Smith, MPH In addition to text messaging interventions for obesity prevention and management, researchers are using mobile applications (‘apps’) as a means of supporting participants in their weight loss or maintenance journey. The world is fascinated with apps for all aspects of life. As of June 2014, a staggering 75 billion apps of any kind have been downloaded from the Apple App Store, with 50 billion more downloaded from the Google Play store. So, it makes sense to take advantage of such a large study population of app users.
 by Wei Perng, PhD Recent technological advances have landed us in a new age of research known as “the omics” era. While the number of omics categories is rapidly increasing, the core four involve the large-scale evaluation of gene expression (genomics), mRNA expression (transcriptomics), protein structure and function (proteomics), and metabolite patterns (metabolomics) - all in hopes to gain knowledge on disease development. Scientists have recently taken a keen interest in metabolomics; specifically, on how low-molecular-weight compounds (e.g. amino acids, carbohydrates, fatty acids, hormones) in tissue can provide information on disease progression and prognosis. Metabolomics could provide a snapshot of the good, the bad, and everything in between.
 by Karen Switkowski, MS, MPH Height is about more than physical appearance or the ability to reach items on the upper shelves of the grocery store. Economics research indicates that taller people make more money, even after controlling for factors such as age, gender, weight, education, and experience. In public health research, we often use height and growth rate as a study outcome when looking at the effects of various exposures, particularly nutritional factors. Height is an easily measured variable that can be used as a general marker of nutritional status and also predict health and developmental outcomes. What are some of the research questions that height is used to study?
 by Avik Chatterjee, MD I’ve never been good about drinking water. During my medical residency, though, I did get good at drinking coffee. But drinking so much coffee and not water (like everyone else seemed to be doing) made me nervous about my hydration status. since I wasn't drinking enough water to begin with, wouldn’t drinking coffee (with the ensuing diuretic effects) make things worse? IV fluids to the resident room, stat!
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