Longer Looks: No Silver Bullet For Weight Loss; White Privilege and Longevity; Video Game Addiction; And More

Each week, KHN finds interesting reads from around the Web.

The New York Times: Why Isn’t There A Diet That Works For Everyone?

In the United States and other Western countries, diet and nutrition researchers face an urgent imperative: Figure out how to solve the crisis of obesity. About 40 percent of the adults and 19 percent of the children and adolescents in the United States have obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More and more of them face the increased risks of suffering from diabetes, cardiovascular disease and countless other negative health effects. This situation looks like a single problem from a population standpoint — one that simple guidelines for balancing calorie consumption and expenditure should be able to solve. Instead, a seeming infinitude of variables influence what each of us eats and how the body responds. (Tingley, 10/24)

The Atlantic: What Elijah Cummings's Death Reveals About White Privilege

I had a 30-minute ride to the train station. I nestled into my seat, opened my phone, and saw that Representative Elijah Cummings had passed away. I gasped and covered my mouth. The driver peeked at me in his rear-view mirror. He saw me shaking my head and whispering what many Americans whispered last Thursday: He was only 68. My mind turned to my father, whom I had just left at a hotel in Princeton, New Jersey. Dread burned in my chest. (Kendi, 10/24)

The New York Times: Can You Really Be Addicted To Video Games?

Charlie Bracke can’t remember a time when he wasn’t into video games. When he was 5, he loved playing Wolfenstein 3D, a crude, cartoonish computer game in which a player tries to escape a Nazi prison by navigating virtual labyrinths while mowing down enemies. In his teenage years, he became obsessed with more sophisticated shooters and a new generation of online games that allowed thousands of players to inhabit sprawling fantasy worlds. Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls — he would spend as much as 12 hours a day in these imaginary realms, building cities and fortifications, fighting in epic battles and hunting for treasure. (Jabr, 10/22)

Wired: Big's Backyard Ultra And The Rise Of Women Endurance Stars

On Monday evening, Maggie Guterl and Will Hayward set out for the 60th time on a 4-mile loop through the hickory-covered hills of central Tennessee. It was dark and rainy on day three of the Big’s Backyard Ultra, a running race of fiendish design. There's no set distance, and no set total time, just endless laps around the 4-mile course, which participants must complete once an hour. To win, you basically just have to be the last competitor still moving your legs. For hours Guterl and Hayward had been the only two runners left. They could theoretically have gone on forever. (Scoles, 10/24)

Politico: The Great American Cannabis Experiment

The Green Lady Dispensary on Nantucket island sells cannabis products, but that’s not all it does. The shop also grows and processes its own marijuana flower, cooks or bakes all the weed-infused candy and other edibles sold on the shelves, and tests everything for safety and chemical content. In fact, everything the Green Lady sells is made completely in-house – something very uncommon for a dispensary. Being single-origin might be a business model for other dispensaries in Massachusetts, but that’s not why Green Lady owner Nicole Campbell does everything herself. She has no choice. (Fertig, 10/14)

This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription