"Why is US death rate rising for white, middle-aged?"

"National data sets from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention... show that middle-aged whites are committing suicide at an unrivalled rate... But why are whites so much more likely to commit suicide than other demographic groups?"

... [R]esearchers found increased numbers of declining self-reported health, mental health and ability to work. Middle-aged whites reported problems with walking a quarter of a mile, climbing 10 steps, standing or sitting for two hours, shopping and socialising — some of which are risk factors for suicide."

"Father fears 800-pound son will die after hospital discharged him for ordering pizza."

Headline at The Washington Post.

The son had been in the hospital for 3 months, trying "to get his weight down to 550 pounds so he could have gastric bypass surgery," and in all that time he'd only lost 20 pounds. An 800-pound sedentary man needs 7,000 calories a day just to maintain that weight, so he must have been getting immense amounts of food, even without the ordered-in pizza.

The father said: “If he comes home and I do get him up the stairs somehow, some way he’s going to go right back to his eating habits.” How? Where does the food come from?

The son said:  “I don’t feel like I broke the rules... I was on a care plan and you could’ve implemented on that care plan that I had an addiction to ordering out food. You guys knew that from the get-go the moment I got admitted there.... Rhode Island hospital completely sickens me... You broke the rules, not me.”

"Should We Bank Our Own Stool?"

The question everyone is asking.

"Health Benefits of Tea? Here’s What the Evidence Says."

I'm linking to this (in the NYT) because I love the illustration.

Meade said: "I hope it doesn't give people seizures."

IN THE COMMENTS:  Adam said:

That illustration is of the world's most famous teapot!

Wow! That blew my mind. The link goes to "Utah Teapot":

The Utah teapot or Newell teapot is a 3D computer model that has become a standard reference object (and something of an in-joke) in the computer graphics community. It is a mathematical model of an ordinary teapot of fairly simple shape, that appears solid, cylindrical and partially convex. A teapot primitive is considered the equivalent of a "hello, world" program, as a way to create an easy 3D scene with a somewhat complex model acting as a basic geometry reference for scene and light setup. Many programming libraries even have functions dedicated to drawing teapots.

On clicking the link, Meade — who used to make teapots — said: "That's an ugly teapot." Then: "The 'actual Melitta teapot' is actually pretty good. It's a good form."

"A given person, in 2006, eating the same amount of calories, taking in the same quantities of macronutrients like protein and fat, and exercising the same amount..."

"... as a person of the same age did in 1988 would have a BMI that was about 2.3 points higher. In other words, people today are about 10 percent heavier than people were in the 1980s, even if they follow the exact same diet and exercise plans. 'Our study results suggest that if you are 25, you’d have to eat even less and exercise more than those older, to prevent gaining weight,' Jennifer Kuk, a professor of kinesiology and health science at Toronto’s York University, said in a statement. 'However, it also indicates there may be other specific changes contributing to the rise in obesity beyond just diet and exercise.'"

From an article in The Atlantic called "Why It Was Easier to Be Skinny in the 1980s."

If I had to guess what's going on here, I'd guess that there is inaccuracy in estimating the calories consumed and the weights of the individuals in question, especially those people from 30 years ago. But Kuk's guesses are: 1. exposure to chemicals in the environment, 2. prescription drugs, and 3. our "microbiomes" — gut bacteria — have changed.