 by Avik Chatterjee, MD John had gotten out of prison just a couple months before, but already felt that he was losing muscle and gaining fat. In prison, he felt he had a routine, and could lift weights and control his diet. As a homeless man, he struggled on both fronts. “Doc, I’m trying to be good, you know, low carb and stuff, but what are some other ways to eat better, you know, like Paleo?”
Obesity and obesity related disease have created a tremendous burden on the health care system, and in my practice with homeless patients, I talk about obesity, weight loss, nutrition, and exercise all the time. The sheer variety of fad diets is dizzying, and countless people, even homeless men like John, are considering trying them. So one would think that medical school and residency would be full of teaching about nutrition. You would be wrong.
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 by Kristina Lewis, MD In 2008, Los Angeles passed a unique ordinance aimed at improving the health of residents in one of its poorer areas – South L.A. The city council enacted a zoning law that banned new fast-food restaurants (or the expansion of existing ones) in this lower-income community, home to mostly racial and ethnic minorities. The idea was relatively simple – sort of a reverse play on Costner’s “If you build it, they will come”. I assume the thinking went something like this: Fast food is bad for you; poor people eat fast food because it is affordable and plentiful in their neighborhoods; poor people are more likely to have negative health consequences as a result of worse diets; ergo, remove fast food from poor neighborhoods and people will be healthier. What’s not to love, right?
 by Mia Serabian Eating is largely a social activity. Food is at the center of most celebrations, religious gatherings, and cultural activities. Weekends revolve around brunch, birthdays around cake, and holidays like Passover and Easter around Seder plates and colored eggs. Because we often eat with others, what we eat is susceptible to social influence. What does this mean? Generally, it means that we often look to those around us - our eating companions - to determine how much food, or what type of food, is normal and acceptable to eat. This is called social modeling, and its effect on eating behaviors has been proven repeatedly over the past four decades.
 by Karen Switkowski, MPH, MS “I really want to get the salmon, but I can’t remember how many times I already had fish this week. Did we have that shrimp pasta on Sunday, or was that Saturday? I guess I’ll be OK if I have this now and we don’t make the tuna until next weekend…” Throughout my pregnancy, my husband had to listen to some version of this monologue every time we went out to dinner. Like many women, I had internalized the warning that I risked poisoning my baby with mercury if I ate seafood too often. Although I was also well aware of the importance of the nutrients found in fish and other seafood for fetal development, I was more concerned about consuming too much mercury that I was about not getting enough beneficial fatty acids in my diet.
 by Wei Perng, PhD As the obesity pandemic rages on, researchers fervently uncover risks that contribute to our growing waistlines - from conventional diet and lifestyle characteristics to more surprising culprits like the air we breathe and the people with whom we hang out. That’s right: our friends can make us gain weight.
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