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Yoni Freedhoff

@yonifreedhoff.bsky.social
3.2K followers 191 following 211 posts

Associate Professor of Family Medicine @UOttawa/Exclusively obesity medicine since 2004/Bylines spanning from The Lancet to the NYTs/הנני

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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
My latest for @medscape.com discusses the use of GLP1 in children with obesity and how some have decided that even if it works, it's bad. It's a remarkable position given the challenges and risks obesity confers to children's qualities of life and health given the drug's efficacy /1
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
A two-fer this week from me on @Medscape. My latest looks at the rise of stigma vs. the use of GLP1s and the perception that they are a "quick-fix". While that stigma definitely exists, rather than worsening over time, I'm betting the rise of GLP1 use will herald /1
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
My latest for @medscape.com . What if teen exposure to GLP1 related weight TikTok content is healthier than teen exposure to pre-GLP1 extreme & nonsensical dieting content? Sure would be nice to have some actual evidence, but my bet is, current stuff is less harmful. www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
medscape.com
Is GLP-1 Social Media Content Really Harming Teens?
A viral report claims GLP-1 social media content is fueling teen eating disorders. Dr Yoni Freedhoff checked the literature and found that the data tell a different story.
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
My latest for @medscape.com asks if it's wise to publish idealized guidelines for the use of GLP-1 meds rather than basic guidelines with an explanation covering what a more idealized prescription support program would look like? /1
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
My latest for @null where I ask what are the ethics of conducting or publishing research on behavior-only weight-loss interventions for patients with obesity when we’ve had dozens of years of research that have come to the same basic conclusions /1
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Decided I'm going to write an add-on for my book for the GLP1 era. Just as with dieting, so much misinformation around GLP1s and this addition very much inline with book's overarching aim to mythbust and to make ending traumatic dieting that much more doable. Hope to have available by January
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Had a nice chat with @caitlinschiller about my now vintage book The Diet Fix. Book holds up imo, but needs a chapter on permission to use GLP1s and mythbusting around them. The title btw wasn't my choice. Mine was, "A Prescription for Chocolate: The End of Traumatic Dieting". Can have a listen here:
simplify-show.beehiiv.com
Eat chocolate and enjoy life: a practical diet framework
Dr. Yoni Freedhoff on what having a "best weight" actually means
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
My latest on @medscape.com on how even the insurance plans designed by and for physicians rarely cover GLP1 medications for obesity and the hypocrisy and short-sightedness therein. There's a backstory too. Had originally submitted as an opinion piece for @cmaj.ca /1
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
My latest in @medscape.com on how obesity is finally, truly, a choice. But no, not the choice of trying harder, but rather of therapeutics, where even our current generation of medications and surgeries, if accessible and affordable to all, would push 90% of obesity into remission
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
My latest in @medscape.com: Seems that one by one the fear mongered risks about GLP1s get disproven. No increased suicide risk, no thyroid cancer risk, no blindness risk. But the loudest these days is muscle loss risk. Well guess what? No meaningful risk there either www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
medscape.com
No Need to Worry About GLP-1-Induced Muscle Loss
Recent headlines have alarmingly stated dramatic muscle loss for patients on GLP-1s. Yoni Freedhoff, MD, explains why this is a manufactured controversy.
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
My latest for @medscape.com covers how the diet era is already dead, it just doesn't know it yet and why that's glorious www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
medscape.com
The Bell Tolls for the Diet Era
Does the new generation of weight-loss drugs mark the end for weight-loss diet researchers, fat-acceptance entrepreneurs, and others? Yoni Freedhoff, MD, thinks it does.
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
My latest on @medscape.com covers some thoughts on the new American Dietary Guidelines and why they actually matter a great deal even if it's true that virtually no one consciously follows or cares about them www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
medscape.com
Why Diet Guidelines Matter Even if Zero People Follow Them
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 24/12/2025
My latest on @Medscape - can you successfully sue your employer for GLP1 coverage? Though plaintiffs have already tried and failed, two new developments have made a new potential case much, much stronger www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
medscape.com
Two New Developments May Help Future Plaintiffs Compel GLP-1 Coverage
Two recent developments may potentially increase GLP-1 coverage for more patients with obesity. The lack of coverage may be another failure of recognizing obesity as a chronic disease.
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Reposted by Yoni Freedhoff
Jeffrey B. Benyacar @drjeffreyb.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
I double checked this and it's true. You teach clinicians that naming identity matters and that erasure is harm, yet when Jews are targeted you suddenly forget that lesson, which is not neutrality but a failure of your own stated ethics. 🛟 #medtwitter
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 10/12/2025
My latest in @medscape.com covers two recently published studies. The first claimed black coffee would prevent cancer. The second, and hold onto your hats, that whole body vibration treatments don't help with weight loss
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 15/11/2025
My latest on @medscape.com on how declining obesity rates are now almost certainly attributable to GLP-1 medications, but how new guidelines meant to be wiser than BMI in its diagnosis are apparently diagnosing 70% of the population with obesity www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
medscape.com
We’re Curing Obesity, But Far More People Apparently Have It
Recent reports show a decrease in obesity rates; however, a new proposed definition predicts a surge of people with obesity.
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Yesterday, @standwithus.bsky.social Canada posted the podcast that Montreal's Dr. Lior Bibas and I recorded about antisemitism and antizionism in medicine in Canada. Among the topics, what legal liability has the CPSO exposed themselves to by not acting? www.youtube.com/watch?v=StMK...
youtube.com
Doctors Speak Out: The Reality of Antisemitism in Medicine
YouTube video by StandWithUs Canada
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
My review of @juliabelluz.bsky.social and @kevinh-phd.bsky.social's new book Food Intelligence finally published on @medscape.com. tl;dr? If you're looking for a detailing of our current understanding of the science of food, eating, and metabolism, this one's for you www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
medscape.com
What We Know and Don’t Know About Nutrition and Health
Yoni Freedhoff, MD, reviews the new book 'Food Intelligence,' which details the impact of food on nutrition, biochemistry, metabolism, and health.
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 21/08/2025
My latest in @medscape.com on GLP1 meds and suicide: Did you hear GLP1 meds might increase the risk of suicide? I'd bet you did. It was all over the news consequent to just 3 case reports submitted by Iceland to the European Medicine Association who announced an investigation /1
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Reposted by Yoni Freedhoff
Tyson Graber @rnaguru.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
@yonifreedhoff.com Here are violin plots showing distribution of the ww signal in Ottawa by year and by VOC. "wwlast30d" represents signal sampled over past 30 days. A 5-year, continuous public health dataset unaffected by policy changes--unlike clinical indicators--is a beautiful thing.
2 plots showing distributions of ww signal by year and by VOC.
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
You might remember my blog on how Lilly effectively levied a fat tax on obesity whereby they were charging more for tirzepatide prescribed for obesity than for diabetes in 🇨🇦. Well they've cancelled that and launched a financial assistance program for Zepbound open.substack.com/pub/yonifree...
open.substack.com
Lilly Cancels Its Tirzepatide Fat Tax
Lilly announces the pending launch of their MyZepbound.ca financial assistance program for patients prescribed tirzepatide for obesity
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
Do front-of-package food warnings change behaviour? Do they increase stigma vs. obesity? How about if the warnings don't reference obesity at all but simply, as they should, reference nutrients? My latest for @medscape.com explores new research that found /1
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
Good news for Canadians looking to start Zepbound (tirzepatide) for obesity. Lilly will be introducing a program to help defray costs. Medication should be on shelves mid summer. I'll blog about this in more detail but wanted to briefly mention
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Just read a rare piece that rather than demonize weight loss drugs, instead highlighted the use of Wegovy in teens by emphasizing the teens' joy for the benefits the drug provided them with /1
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
My latest for @Medscape asking why, despite robust evidence demonstrating sustained weight loss significantly decreases both cancer incidence and recurrence that both patient and doctor facing literature on same nearly never mention it? /1
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
I had a small role to play in this @dougmanuel.bsky.social led publication which hopefully will help to pave the way for the development of a multinational, multidisciplinary evaluation framework for public health environmental surveillance (including wastewater) journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
journals.plos.org
Developing an evaluation framework for public health environmental surveillance: Protocol for an international, multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study
Introduction Public health environmental surveillance has evolved, especially during the coronavirus pandemic, with wastewater-based surveillance being a prominent example. As surveillance methods exp...
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
Don't hold breath
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
My latest in @medscape.com - remember that recent ginormous The Lancet paper that among other things was highly critical of the use of BMI to diagnose obesity that instead recommended either the use of BMI along with a secondary marker of excess adiposity /1
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 11/05/2025
Her name is Leah, and I am her father (as promised - father/daughter tattoos for getting into her University of choice)
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
It seems it's now official. Lilly has effectively levied a fat tax on Canadian prescriptions of its diabetes and obesity medication tirzepatide (aka Mounjaro/Zepbound) whereby if prescribed for obesity, you'll pay nearly double what you'd pay if prescribed for diabetes. More in my Substack
open.substack.com
Despite Assurances To The Contrary, Lilly Has Effectively Levied A Fat Tax In Canada For Mounjaro
If You Have Obesity, You'll Pay Nearly Double For Mounjaro Than If You Have Diabetes
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
My latest on Medscape covers a recently published study that both traditional media and social media reported as being proof that Splenda increases hunger (and of course as a consequence, increases weight). Sounds scary. Unless you actually read the paper 🧵
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
My latest in Medscape discusses 3 recent examples of how studies regarding obesity that ignore obesity medications, despite their being our current standard of care in obesity's treatment, do a disservice to readers, reporters, and the public. www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...
medscape.com
Don’t Bash the Usefulness of Obesity Medicines
Recent studies offer a grim view of obesity treatment, however, they fail to acknowledge the current generation of obesity medications. Yoni Freedhoff, MD, explains why this is problematic.
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Reposted by Yoni Freedhoff
Tyson Graber @rnaguru.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Ottawa WAVE (Wastewater Analytics for Viral Epidemiology) as of Mar 16. LEFT IMAGE: 7d trendline of SARS-CoV-2 signal since spring 2020 (A); Past year (B), and 2 months (C), inferred case incidence (D), and Reff (E) determined with ern (PMID: 38905266). RIGHT IMAGE: other viral traces
Plots of SARS-CoV-2 signal across time in Ottawa, Canada;Plots of IAV, RSV, IBV, MPOX wastewater signal across time in Ottawa, Canada;
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 13/03/2025
My latest, published ahead of print in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology looks at the historic failure of public health to move the needle on chronic non-communicable diseases like obesity, and its historic opportunity now to find some success /🧵
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
Recorded a podcast about antisemitism in medicine in Canada and other relatedly depressing topics open.substack.com/pub/awakefro...
open.substack.com
How can we respond to an epidemic of hate? A conversation w/ Dr Yoni Freedhoff
Jewish doctors are quitting the profession in Canada, as racist hate has overtaken hospitals & universities since October 7. What can be done to stop blackballing--& restore decency in health care?
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 04/02/2025
My latest on @medscape.com explores the futility of weight loss diet studies. Brief thread to cover the basic arguments with link to story at the end /1
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
Short thread on my latest for @medscape.com explores why, despite their incredible benefit, so many people stop their anti-obesity medications? /1
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
My first Bluesky non-preemptive moron block!
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Next up from me on @medscape.com, covers how despite their great efficacy, obesity medications are unlikely to have led to decreasing American rates of obesity. Short thread explaining why 🧵
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Enjoy your Chinese food tonight my fellow Jews!
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 14/12/2024
Such a pretty girl
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Reposted by Yoni Freedhoff
Nukit @nukit.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
COVID-Aware Community: We relentlessly harassed an at-risk, marginalized woman living in an authoritarian country for literally no reason we can show; but it's actually her fault for trying to protect herself and her family from the people she was helping. "LOL" Sociopaths and silent enablers
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Make America Hemiplegic Again #MAHA
Headline about RFK Jr. lawyer asking FDA to revoke approval of polio vaccine
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
My latest: Lilly To Levy A Fat Tax For Its Weight Loss Drug in Canada - people with obesity should expect to pay double what people with diabetes pay for no discernable reason open.substack.com/pub/yonifree...
open.substack.com
Lilly To Levy A Fat Tax For Its Weight Loss Drug in Canada
If you're prescribed tirzepatide for obesity in Canada, come January, you'll be paying double what you would pay if you were prescribed it for type 2 diabetes
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
Something I really need to write before the end of the year and so consequently my woodshop is the cleanest it's been in 2024. Even culled the scrap wood pile.
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
My latest on Medscape makes the case that no, diet and and exercise are not better than medications for obesity. As in literally not better. Idealistically maybe there's room for argument (though I don't think so tbh), but the data on drugs' superiority is unequivocal 🧵
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Have to assume this is consequent to the abuse the inventor took from the COVID aware community. There is a truly vile segment therein.
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Done!
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Many people reflecting on COVID public health response. Simply put, other than in the very early days when medical systems were being overwhelmed and brute force was 100% required, every public health measure and everything safety advocates campaigned for occurred because of our failure
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Yoni Freedhoff @yonifreedhoff.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Been blogging since 2005. Guessing near 4,000 posts. Literal millions of words. Have general sense of how they'll hit. Just submitted one for Medscape about obesity meds that's going to piss off a lot of people. Will share as soon as it's live (sometimes days other times weeks - am not in charge)
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