Harvard Food Law Society "Forum on Food Policy" TEDx Conference

Last Friday, it was my pleasure to attended and present at the Harvard Food Law Society's TEDx conference, Forum on Food Policy.  I had never been to Cambridge or Boston before, and I was struck by how European they feel compared to Seattle.  The conference was a great success, thanks to the dedicated efforts of the Food Law Society's presidents Nate Rosenberg, Krista DeBoer, and many other volunteers. 

Dr. Robert Lustig gave a keynote address on Thursday evening, which I unfortunately wasn't able to attend due to my flight schedule.  From what I heard, he focused on practical solutions for reducing national sugar consumption, such as instituting a sugar tax.  Dr. Lustig was a major presence at the conference, and perhaps partially due to his efforts, sugar was a central focus throughout the day.  Nearly everyone agrees that added sugar is harmful to the nation's health at current intakes, so the question kept coming up "how long is it going to take us to do something about it?"  As Dr. David Ludwig said, "...the obesity epidemic can be viewed as a disease of technology with a simple, but politically difficult solution".

Read more »

Occupy Wall Street Demonstration In Los Angeles

I ventured downtown to do some street shooting and capture the people involved in Occupy Los Angeles.  The energy was high and everyone I saw was peaceful and friendly to each other.  There were some debates among people with different opinions but that is what I love about this country.  We can have a difference of opinion and share it peacefully.  I wanted to show some photographs of what I observed on Saturday for the people who aren't in the area and want to know what is going on.  You can draw your own conclusions and opinions.  I have more photographs on my facebook fan page.  You can be a fan and see more photographs HERE.

Photographs On Airstream, Inc. Website

As you might know, I photographed the people and the activities of Alumapalooza in 2010 and in 2011.  This is the event held at the birthplace of Airstream in Jackson Center, Ohio.  In the new redesign of the Airstream.com website, my photographs are displayed in the President's Letter section (the photograph I took of Bob Wheeler was from Alumapalooza 2010), Community Section and the Favorites section.  I am thrilled that my travel website (the one you are on now) is named second in the "People" tab.  I look forward to Alumapalooza 2012!  

Here are a few screen shots from the Airstream.com website and after the screen shots, I have attached the video slideshows I put together for each year.  You might guess that I love animals (especially dogs) if you watch the slideshows.

My Brother's Wedding

My brother tied the knot the other day in San Diego to his long term girlfriend, Aurora.  It was a small ceremony at the courthouse and a gathering at their home afterwards.  It was quick but sweet.  They had a photographer on hand to take photographs, but I wanted to take a few to remember the way I saw things.   Here are a few from the day.

And yes, the bride is wiping off the car they drove to the courthouse.  It's my step father's car (the one with the beard) with the "grumpy old man" personalized license plate.  He will be 90 in a month.

We are all a bit slightly skewed from "normal" but that's the way we like it.

The Case for the Food Reward Hypothesis of Obesity, Part II

In this post, I'll explore whether or not the scientific evidence is consistent with the predictions of the food reward hypothesis, as outlined in the last post.

Before diving in, I'd like to address the critique that the food reward concept is a tautology or relies on circular reasoning (or is not testable/falsifiable).  This critique has no logical basis.  The reward and palatability value of a food is not defined by its effect on energy intake or body fatness.  In the research setting, food reward is measured by the ability of food or food-related stimuli to reinforce or motivate behavior (e.g., 1).  In humans, palatability is measured by having a person taste a food and rate its pleasantness in a standardized, quantifiable manner, or sometimes by looking at brain activity by fMRI or related techniques (2).  In rodents, it is measured by observing stereotyped facial responses to palatable and unpalatable foods, which are similar to those seen in human infants.  It is not a tautology or circular reasoning to say that the reinforcing value or pleasantness of food influences food intake and body fatness. These are quantifiable concepts and as I will explain, their relationship with food intake and body fatness can be, and already has been, tested in a controlled manner. 

1.   Increasing the reward/palatability value of the diet should cause fat gain in animals and humans

Read more »

The Last Self Portrait

I usually take photographs during the day.  I was challenged to come up with something at night.  However, I didn't want the usual street scene with lights, neon, and car headlights.

A friend of mine likes to play a game inspired by the tv show, "I shouldn't be alive."  Or as I like to call it, "I should be dead."  This game is to choose one of the most extreme weather situations to see which one you would rather try to survive in.  The choices are (you are all alone with nothing in these situations) in the middle of the desert, in snow, in the middle of the ocean or the rainforest.  We debate on which would be the least painful and perhaps the most "survivorable."  I chose the rainforest and maybe the desert second.  What would you choose?

Anyway, back to the assignment.  I struggled on what to photograph until I passed by some chopped up pieces of wood in a small industrial area.  The first thought that came to my mind is the scene in the movie Fargo where a person gets fed to the wood chipper.  What if I drove by and saw an arm or leg mixed in with the pile of wood?  Well, why not recreate what was already on my mind?

So I did.  After the wood pile, I was excited to do more self portraits of scenes where you might see legs in areas where you least expect.  Perhaps these are murder scenes as viewed by people passing by or perhaps it's suicide and the camera documents the photographer's last self portrait.  Either way, its what you interpret in your head that makes up the story.

So, this might veer from my normal "style" but a welcome one in my mind.  It's a piece of my inside being reflected in a photograph.  The "last self portraits" were taken in order of the wood, wood chipper, by the telephone pole, and hung from the stairs.  As soon as I began, I couldn't stop thinking of more scenes.

Maybe these scenarios should be included in the "I shouldn't be alive" game.  Well, I suppose these photographs are from the "I didn't survive" program.  Either way, it was fun to do.  As I showed these images to my class, one student shouted out, "you're sick!" That was the best compliment I could have received.  I think he's right.

The Case for the Food Reward Hypothesis of Obesity, Part I

Introduction

When you want to investigate something using the scientific method, first you create a model that you hope describes a natural phenomenon-- this is called a hypothesis.  Then you go about testing that model against reality, under controlled conditions, to see if it has any predictive power.  There is rarely a single experiment, or single study, that can demonstrate that a hypothesis is correct.  Most important hypotheses require many mutually buttressing lines of evidence from multiple research groups before they're widely accepted.  Although it's not necessary, understanding the mechanism by which an effect occurs, and having that mechanism be consistent with the hypothesis, adds substantially to the case.

With that in mind, this post will go into greater detail on the evidence supporting food reward and palatability as major factors in the regulation of food intake and body fatness.  There is a large amount of supportive evidence at this point, which is rapidly expanding due to the efforts of many brilliant researchers, however for the sake of clarity and brevity, so far I've only given a "tip of the iceberg" view of it.  But there are two types of people who want more detail: (1) the skeptics, and (2) scientifically inclined people who want mechanism.  This post is for them.  It will get technical at times, as there is no other way to convey the material effectively.

Read more »