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Daily Rounds: Gluten-Free Nation; Low-Income Yoga; Irrational About Rationing; Fat-Fighting Families

Should we all go gluten-free? (New York Times magazine) - "Food companies are always trying to take advantage of the latest dietary trend or health craze. (Low carb, anyone?) But the story of how we got to a place where celiac disease is suddenly mainstream, prevalence rates are rising, perfectly healthy people are opting to eat gluten-free and General Mills is coveting these customers is an especially unlikely business narrative." (nytimes.com)

Stretching the boundaries of yoga (The Boston Globe) - "Because many yoga postures stretch and strengthen the muscles affecting the back, at least 10 published studies have been done on yoga and chronic low-back pain, says Saper. But though the majority have shown yoga to be promising as a low-cost treatment, all have been done on predominantly white, educated, affluent populations, he says. “In our patient population, it’s unusual to have back pain alone as a single problem,’’ Saper says, noting that many patients also suffer from hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, and anxiety." (bostonglobe.com)

RationING or RationAL? Health care cost control falls victim to ideology (The Huffington Post) - "Don Berwick, possibly the most widely respected and thoughtful expert on improving health care quality and controlling health care costs, has withdrawn his nomination as head of Medicare in the face of Republican opposition based on claims that Berwick wants to ration the availability of health care. Which is intellectual horse manure if you honestly consider all of what Berwick has written and said and done. But to whine about politics interfering with a presidential nomination is pointless, and misses the more important question. Why do people who believe in the rationality of the market about prices and supply and demand so ferociously oppose just that if you change rationAL to rationING?" (The Huffington Post — David Ropeik)

Fighting childhood obesity: it's a family affair (NPR) - "With more and more children in the U.S. becoming overweight, many parents are wondering how to talk to their children about weight. The Packard Pediatric Weight Control Program for families is remarkably straightforward and successful. After a long day of school or work, a group of families gathers in a Stanford Hospital classroom in Menlo Park, Calif." (NPR)

This program aired on November 28, 2011. The audio for this program is not available.

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