By all means, stay tuned to the smoke signals about brown fat. But I urge you to keep other irons in the fire.

There has been enormous attention of late to the grim and genuinely frightening problem of Alzheimer's disease. The problem is grim by its very nature -- there is little we contemplate with greater dread than the loss of our minds, our very selves.

Can we prevent weight gain and obesity? The answer is self-evident in our rear-view mirror.

As a society, we understand the need for a splint when a bone is broken. When "all" that is broken is one's composure or spirit, we often expect you to just get over yourself.

With a nod to my many colleagues who are genuinely expert in weight management counseling, and have long addressed it well -- and especially to those who taught me to do so -- I must acknowledge that the track record for the large majority of our clan is not pretty.

Good health is perennially on the list of reasons any family has to be thankful, and food is among the most potent of influences on health. The differential effects of pizza and a mixed green salad on health don't change just because politicians play around with the lexicon.

Based on a small, brief, but nonetheless profound and compelling study in the current issue of the highly regarded scientific journal, Cell Metabolism, I intend to start taking resveratrol.

This is not about Food Day. This is about the other 364 days this year; the 365 days last year; and the 365 days next year. Why aren't THEY Food Day?

A committee commissioned by the Institute of Medicine just released its report on front-of-pack nutrition guidance. The recommendations are good in that they may help prevent the food industry from doing bad. The recommendations are bad if they forestall the implementation of superior approaches. And the recommendations are downright ugly if...

Please stop asking whether or not men have prostate cancer by using this test, in other words, because it is tantamount to asking for trouble.

We have yet to see the full toll of 9/11 among first responders, even 10 years out. All relevant resources should be made available to address the burden of illness shouldered by these brave souls who rushed toward the very thing most of us with just average courage would flee.

My lab has completed two studies of walnuts -- our first study showed that adding walnuts to the daily diet of adults with Type 2 diabetes for two months significantly improved blood vessel health.

The First Lady is human, and to my knowledge, has never claimed to be otherwise. Maybe she was just having one of "those days," and needed lunch therapy.

Adults are criminally liable if they give cigarettes, or alcohol, or illicit drugs to a child. But our society does not view giving a child a donut, or fries, or soda as abusive -- even if it occurs day after day.

So while I suppose I am indulging in some self-defense, I am far more concerned with defending science. Because the self-proclaimed guardians of science are denigrating it, every day.

Steven Spielberg recently made his case for Super 8. In the spirit of less-is-more, I make mine for Super 6: the list of six factors most likely to add years to our lives, and life to our years.

Some day, ideally, we will convert the world we live in to a place where eating well and being active are the norm for us all.

People with common sense in fine working order routinely turn it off when it comes to weight loss hucksterism. The more outrageous the claims, the more irresistible they have tended to be.

Knowledge is not power. Where there's a will, there may or may not be a way. And fitness must be made to fit. Some truths are, indeed, self-evident -- others require a bit of cultivation.