Dr David Katz

There is an intrinsic problem with measuring the quality of a system by how well it conforms to what you already believe. Such a system gets bonus points for agreeing with you -- even when you are wrong.

Fundamentally, we have converted a world in which calories were relatively scarce and hard to get and physical activity unavoidable into a world where physical activity is scarce and hard to get and calories are unavoidable.

The National Consumers League, claiming to represent consumers' interests, issued a press release this week announcing they had submitted a complaint to the FDA, asking the agency to banish NuVal from the nation's supermarkets.

When it comes to nutrition and the monumental influence it has on our health, the rubber hits the road wherever people and food come together. Kitchens and cafeterias. Schools and workplaces. Supermarkets and restaurants.

If we are prepared to acknowledge the widespread bullying to which both science and sense are subject at the hands of the almighty dollar, we might commit ourselves to the systematic effort of distinguishing the two.

The wellbeing of children is everybody's business, and everybody should mind that children are staring down the barrel of a glow-in-the-dark cheese doodle or sugar-laden cereal loop at foreshadowed health and foreshortened lives.

Tirades are, by their very nature, apt to gain a lot of attention and "go viral." They are dramatic. They are extreme, provocative, and full of intrigue. Hype sells. Unfortunately, much of the time -- it is wrong.

What makes the K-E diet truly appalling is that it transforms a medical therapy into the indulgence of a short-term, short-sighted, vanity-driven whim. It opens up a whole new world of shockingly bad ideas.

Up to a point, we professionals are quite right to note how hard getting to health can be through the obstacle course of the modern day -- for adults and children alike. But there is another story to tell about health, and it is fun. It's all about fun.

The best possible start in life is every baby's birthright. For the vast majority of babies, breastfeeding is an important part of that formula. The marketing of other formulas to neonates as an alternative to breast milk... most certainly is not!

Make your standard of care better than standard. Be a good boss -- ask good questions, get good answers. By doing so, you can help ensure that you and your doctor are always diligent, and choosing wisely -- together.

Eating some meat, preferably from lean, well-fed, well-exercised, and kindly tended animals is assuredly consistent with human health. But the health of humans and the planet argue consistently for Michael Pollan's excellent and pithy advice: Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

Pink slime happens to have been outed. But what other things that you never knew you never knew were in your food are still finding their way into you, and your kids?

Health care is nothing like cell phones, or any of the other things that "might" come in handy during some future emergency: a bulletproof vest, a car, a ladder, a fire extinguisher, a helicopter, a Hazmat suit, a gas mask, a tank, etc. Truly, about the worst analogy I've ever heard.

If measles does make a meaningful comeback, it would imply public health is sliding back as we head into the future. We don't want to go there.

We are wasting our energy debating the nature of the calorie -- which is, simply, and incontrovertibly, a measure of energy.

The religious overlay that nutrition has taken on is neither holy nor wholesome. It precludes us from breaking bread together. It forestalls the public health progress that could occur if we could all find a seat at a common table.

Gentlemen: You are role models for your children. Like it or not, you are playing follow the leader -- and you are the leader (or one of them). Lead toward health, your children will follow you there. Lead elsewhere, they will follow you elsewhere. They will do as you do.

We routinely squander and neglect something we would hate to have taken from us, and would surely fight to prevent someone taking from our loved ones. It's certainly wisdom, it's just not yet conventional to acknowledge that health is wealth. Making it conventional is up to us.

We need to know that we consume too much sugar and that it does us harm because, ostensibly, knowledge is power. In that spirit, we in public health have cause to welcome some important new allies to the mission of advancing health through better nutrition: museums.

FDA approval of Qnexa will represent a rather desperate measure at a desperate time for desperate individuals of a desperate society. So be it. But our desperate need to address this problem decisively is long overdue and should be the mother of far better invention than this.

As I write this, the Prevention Fund is about to undergo -- or has just undergone -- a $5 billion amputation. For those of us dedicated to disease prevention and health promotion, this is a very cruel cut indeed.

This week, Wal-Mart announced the release of its home-grown, front-of-pack nutrition guidance system. Can we possibly be that gullible? If so, we probably all deserve to be eating whatever the big companies selling food tell us we should.

Even if we were to isolate sugar as public health enemy number one, its regulation would draw us into challenging subtleties.