One in three Canadians is obese, and it’s not about willpower

Obesity has more than tripled in Canada since 1981. In their new book “Food Intelligence,” Canadian co-authors Julia Belluz and Kevin Hall - an award-winning health and science journalist, and a prominent researcher on metabolism in the U.S. - argue that it’s not because of a collective loss of willpower. Instead, they say the foods we buy and eat have become more calorie-dense, delicious and addictive over the last 40 years. 

More with Kevin Hall! Until recently, Hall was the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s key researcher on the connection between ultra-processed foods and obesity. He took an early retirement due to increasing censorship of his work. He talks about his groundbreaking study with former “The Biggest Loser” contestants, the link between Big Tobacco and Big Food, and why Canadian scientist expats like him may soon be looking to return home. 

When his wife died of endometrial cancer, Charles Kinch refused to accept that the care she received was the best she could get. His complaint, at first dismissed, has now sparked major changes in how cancer patients in British Columbia are treated and supported.

Like many Canadian small towns, Carberry, MB had become a healthcare desert. In 2023, the small ER closed and the last doctor left. Carberry embarked on the fight of its life to get healthcare back. Just days before the first of two new MDs starts work, Dr. Brian Goldman visits Carberry to learn about the Herculean efforts it takes for one town to reinstate healthcare, and make sure they don't lose it again. 

For three decades, Dr. Brian Day has been at the centre of the debate around private health care in Canada. Despite losing his court battle to bring it to B.C., Day still wants to see more private, for-profit clinics. The orthopedic surgeon and owner of Vancouver's Cambie Surgery Centre says competition from the private sector could push the public system to deliver faster and better care.

Ottawa’s Montfort hospital sees twice the number of patients for mental health emergencies as the Ontario average. And as this number increased in recent years, the everyday environment of the ER waiting room – chaotic, loud and overstimulating – became an ever larger trigger, causing distressed patients to flee or harm themselves or others. In the new Mental Health Emergency Zone right off the main ER, everything has been designed for de-escalation, and staff and patients are seeing dramatic results.

Gurleen Kaur Chahal is one of the inaugural students at Toronto Metropolitan University’s new Peel Region medical school, designed to serve the area’s diverse population. She's determined to be part of the solution for the kinds of struggles her multigenerational Punjabi household has faced accessing care.

After a seemingly innocuous question about pi, Allan Brooks tumbled down a ChatGPT rabbit hole. Three weeks later, he emerged, after spending 300 hours in a spiralling 7,000-prompt exchange with the chatbot. Dr. Keith Sakata, the psychiatrist whose viral thread on X breaks down the phenomenon known as “AI psychosis,” says the built-in sycophancy of large language models like ChatGPT needs to change before more harm is done.

How much would you be willing (and able) to pay to get your knee or hip replaced? Calgarian Linda Slater's knee pain became unbearable during her two-year wait to see an orthopedic surgeon. She drained her retirement savings to pay $30,000 for a new knee at a private Toronto clinic. Dr. Rick Zarnett, an orthopedic surgeon who works out of both a private clinic and public hospital, says the system needs to improve so patients can get surgery sooner.

Companies are spending big bucks advertising weight-loss drugs like Rybelsus, seeing huge potential in capitalizing on the popularity of Ozempic. But in Canada, so-called "reminder ads" can give only the name of the medication, not what it's for, telling people to ask their doctor for details. Ad man Terry O’Reilly says it can result in bad ads that turn people off, and pharmaceutical policy expert Barbara Mintzes says reminder ads can lead to overtreatment and high costs, doing more harm than good.