Stephan J. Guyenet
@sguyenet
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The neuroscience of eating behavior and obesity. Author of The Hungry Brain. Founder and director of Red Pen Reviews. Neuroscience PhD, University of WA.
Seattle, WA
Joined April 2011
We justifiably get upset at academics like Sacks when they commit fraud, because we expect better of them. But I think examples like this are just the tip of the misinformation iceberg, which extends far beyond academia. #RedPenReviews
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Dang, this is messed up. "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" was one of my inspirations as a young neuroscientist. This is why we need better systems for promoting information quality, both inside and outside the scientific community.
Bombshell: Oliver Sacks (a humane man & a fine essayist) made up many of the details in his famous case studies, deluding neuroscientists, psychologists, & general readers for decades. The man who mistook his wife for a hat? The autistic twins who generated multi-digit prime
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In spite of the corruption and negligence involved in our botched research on dementia with ongoing negative clinical trials, increasing rates of obesity and metabolic disease, it is intriguing that dementia rates are decreasing. Not what I expected, but this is very good news.
The most heartening longevity trend lately is that we are actually beating dementia. At each age, the prevalence of dementia is down compared to what it was like decades ago. Today's 90-year-olds have less than half the risk of dementia that ones in 1984 did!
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A TRIUMPH for the GCGR-GLP1R-GIPR triple agonist Retatrutide in P3. Participants with #obesity and knee osteoarthritis taking retatrutide 12 mg lost an average of 28.7% of their body weight at 68 weeks. Mild dysesthesias noted #weightloss #arthritis
https://t.co/Ne2TlqaYNU
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Red Pen Reviews just published our review of Good Energy, by @CaseyMeansMD and @calleymeans. This is a particularly important review, because both authors are influential in US public health policy, and Dr. Casey Means is the current nominee for US Surgeon General.
1/ 🧵 HUGE REVIEW: "Good Energy" by @CaseyMeansMD & Calley Means is a massive bestseller. With the author poised to influence US public health policy, the question matters: Is the science actually accurate? We did a review. Here is what we found. 👇 https://t.co/j3AfvCAamZ
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1/ 🧵 HUGE REVIEW: "Good Energy" by @CaseyMeansMD & Calley Means is a massive bestseller. With the author poised to influence US public health policy, the question matters: Is the science actually accurate? We did a review. Here is what we found. 👇 https://t.co/j3AfvCAamZ
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Two examples of food properties that may have smaller effects on body fatness independent of calorie intake: -Calorie absorption -Macronutrient composition
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I actually think there are almost certainly food properties other than calories that impact body fatness in humans. But we've been studying this for >120 years, and it's unlikely there's anything else as powerful as calories.
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Reminder that calorie intake is the only food property that has been clearly and repeatedly shown in RCTs to independently impact body fatness in humans. Other food properties have not been clearly shown to impact body fatness in humans, independent of calorie intake.
I recently tried to explain in a tweet why “Calories Don’t Cause Obesity.” 👉 4 Key Points, below 👇 👉Video: https://t.co/gKyBNYfBty But the moment some people see those eight letters—C-A-L-O-R-I-E-S—they get triggered. So naturally… I’m doubling down. I’m not sure how many
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Expenditure data are from this page https://t.co/Cgdceb3mXm
brookings.edu
Track federal expenditures by department and program. Data are updated daily.
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Now that DOGE has been shuttered, we can evaluate how it impacted government spending. The graph below shows total US government spending in 2025 vs. 2024 and 2023. Judge for yourself. https://t.co/uzbV6yPlZV
Exclusive: DOGE 'doesn't exist' with eight months left on its charter https://t.co/Ku9U9Lf94E
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Oral semaglutide disappoints in the two evoke trials, failing to reduce the rate of cognitive decline #Alzheimers disease #Dementia
https://t.co/0c4HPDG4qn
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Gee, it's such a coincidence that the genes that impact body weight keep turning out to be mainly expressed the brain! #hungrybrain
What's the strongest genetic protector against obesity? It's GPR75! Humans with loss-of-function variants in GPR75 weigh 5 kg less, and deleting it makes mice thin GPR75 inhibitors haven't made it to human trials yet, but they're on their way: Regeneron are among the leaders
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What's the strongest genetic protector against obesity? It's GPR75! Humans with loss-of-function variants in GPR75 weigh 5 kg less, and deleting it makes mice thin GPR75 inhibitors haven't made it to human trials yet, but they're on their way: Regeneron are among the leaders
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Many people were skeptical that market pressure would lead to cost reductions for GLP-1s, but it's happening. In fact, it's happening faster than I expected. Maybe due to intense demand and competition.
GLP-1 meds just got cheaper. Whether people still bite, we shall see! Good step though. All doses need to be that low cost.
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Diet and lifestyle can be effective an an individual level. People who are engaged and motivated can do it! It becomes much harder to pull off on a population level.
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We should do whatever we can to support healthy diets and lifestyles -- but Americans aren't going to put up with government policy that's aggressive enough to massively change our diets. To address obesity, we should use what works, and GLP-1 drugs are one thing that works.
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"We don't need drugs for obesity, we need healthier diet and lifestyle" Healthy diet and lifestyle are good and should be encouraged, but this strategy has been failing to curb the obesity epidemic for decades. Show me the evidence that what failed yesterday will work tomorrow.
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