This was a great selection, but some of these articles frustrated the hell out of me.

The article about sugar addiction was accurate and helpful, but personally, it didn't tell me anything new. Since everything in broken down into sugar in the body after it is digested, it wouldn't make sense for sugar to be addicting. Furthermore, fruits have sugar in them, but I don't hear anyone raising alarms about the addicting properties of fruits.

The article about tasting fat similarly drove me up the wall. First of all, the author assumess that BMI is a reliable indicator of body composition, which it absolutely is not. Second of all, it assumes that people's weights are attributable to diet and exercise habits, which they aren't. The worst problem I have with it, though, is the very idea that we can "taste" fat. I wonder if these subjects could really taste fat, or if they "tasted" it simply because they expected to? By now, almost everyone with measurable brain waves "knows" which foods are fatty and which ones aren't, so these subjects very likely fell prey to the power of suggestion. Kind of like the placebo/nocebo effect, confirmation bias, what have you.

What about the health-consciousness level of the participants? Were those who "tasted" fat more likely to be dieters or otherwise have more health concerns than those who did not taste fat?

The article about calorie counts on campus menus actually made me smile, because people are actually starting to get attention for protesting the level of weight obsession in this country. It makes me even happier to think that schools are responding and forgoing calorie info on menus. Afer all, how many years have we had food labels? They do not work because people will come in a range of shapes and sizes and shapes, as well as health conditions. Moreover, some of us don't care what's on the label. Some of us are lucky if we get to eat at all, and we aren't impressed that some people think that what we eat is "garbage."

Perhaps the tide is turning and people are starting to see how ridiculous this whole thing is? Call me optimistic, but I think so.

Weight-bearing exercise does not prevent bone loss in dieters. Well of course not. In order to strengthen bones, you need bone material to strengthen. Dieters do not have the mineral intake that they need to achieve this.

All in all, a fascinating read, and somewhat encouraging, too.