One diet does not fit all.
If your diligent dieting doesn’t seem to make a dent, your body—not your willpower—might be to blame. “There are people who can be eating very few calories but still sustain their weight because of how their bodies metabolize fuels,” said Dalia Perelman, a research dietitian at Stanford and co-lead author of a new paper on weight loss. The study’s 609 participants logged everything they ate (as well as exercise and other factors) for a year while following either a healthy low-fat or low-carb diet. In the first six months, strictly following either diet seemed to be what mattered for weight loss. But after that, participants who ate the same number of calories experienced different results, with some continuing to shed pounds and others regaining weight.
Researchers discovered biomarkers of metabolism that predicted which bodies would be most successful at losing weight and at keeping it off. Additionally, participants’ respiratory quotient (the ratio of inhaled oxygen to exhaled carbon dioxide) revealed that some people’s bodies burned fat more easily while others were better at carbohydrate combustion. The findings lay the groundwork for personalized diets. In the meantime, if you’ve forgotten the taste of pasta but still have cobwebs in the “aspirational” section of your closet, you’re not alone. “If you are following a diet that worked for someone you know and it is not working for you, it might be that that specific diet is not as suited for you,” said Xiao Li, co-lead author of the paper and a former postdoctoral fellow at Stanford Medicine.
Secrets of Shark Tank.
There’s a cloud of secrecy and NDAs swirling around the TV show Shark Tank—the American Idol of entrepreneurship—where contestants pitch their products to investors. But three Stanford alums who made it on air with their products have revealed tidbits to the Stanford Daily from their experiences on the show, including extreme preparation strategies, misleading video clip edits, and the moment Richard Branson poured water on Mark Cuban’s face.
Fast runs in the family.
As San Francisco 49ers running back and Heisman Trophy finalist Christian McCaffrey, ’18, has become famed for his record-breaking stats, his mom, Lisa Sime McCaffrey, ’91, has joined him in the spotlight, cracking jokes in interviews and dropping celebratory F-bombs on live television. But she’s known for more than her good humor—Lisa was a star soccer player at Stanford, thanks in part to her speed (which she just might have inherited from her father, Olympic sprinter Dave Sime). “Lisa just flew. I mean, she was really fast,” Julie Foudy, ’93, a former Stanford teammate and captain of the U.S. women’s soccer team, told the Athletic. Many point to Christian McCaffrey’s father, Ed, ’90, MA ’91, a former NFL wide receiver, when explaining his talent, but the physical gifts he inherited from his mom are just as evident on the field. Fortunately, Lisa is always there to keep him grounded (and to remind folks that he’s technically a college dropout). The 49ers are headed this Sunday to the NFC championship against the Philadelphia Eagles. Just a few hours later, Trent Irwin, ’19, Michael Thomas, ’12, and wide receivers coach Troy Walters, ’99, MA ’00, of the Cincinnati Bengals will take on the Kansas City Chiefs, including Justin Reid, ’19, in the AFC championship.
Snack attack.
Photo: Herschell Taghap
Water in Lake Lag hit the 14-foot mark last week, flooding surrounding pathways and bringing students to its shores with inflatable swan rafts and bike jumping competitions. While the university discouraged entering the lake (because pathogens), the warnings didn’t stop all the fun—unless you were this tiger salamander.
Moneyball for therapy.
In what may be a game changer for psychotherapy, researchers are using artificial intelligence to quantify therapeutic language. Just as the Oakland A’s employed the rigorous analysis of baseball metrics to generate wins in Moneyball, researchers hope that quantification and rigorous analysis of psychotherapists’ language features will enable “wins”—improved outcomes—in therapy settings, said Scott Fleming, ’14, MS ’21, a graduate student in Stanford’s Biomedical Informatics Training Program. Using a natural language processing tool kit they developed, Fleming and fellow researchers distill transcribed psychotherapy sessions into clinically relevant language features (like speaking about the present or future as opposed to the past, or referring to positive or negative emotions), then use AI to find patterns related to therapists’ timing, responsiveness, and consistency. “Once we can assess the degree to which differences in language track with patient trajectories, we want to develop insights that can be used to improve patient care,” Fleming said. Sounds like a home run.
But wait, there’s more.
A panel of scientific experts, including former leaders of Harvard and Princeton, has been engaged to conduct an impartial evaluation of the facts surrounding academic articles in which Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne is a listed author. Stanford’s Board of Trustees will continue to share updates with the community via their website.
Five decades after the murder of Leslie Perlov, ’72, on campus, John Getreu, now 78 years old, has pleaded guilty to the crime. In 2021, Getreu was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in connection with the 1974 murder of Janet Ann Taylor, the daughter of former Stanford football coach and athletic director Chuck Taylor, ’43, MA ’47. Getreu now faces another possible life sentence.
The Graduate School of Education and the Stanford Accelerator for Learning are getting a new home: a full renovation to the historic education building as well as the addition of a new building. Rounding out the school will be a third, historic building: the Barnum Center for Family and Community Partnerships. (Fun fact: At one time, that building housed a candy store. The Loop respectfully requests an investigation into its closure.)
If you’ve got a New Year–induced hankering to identify your priorities in life, the Stanford Meaningful Work Kit might be of help. Originally designed for students, the tool asks participants to sort and rank cards in categories such as skills and work culture in order to help you think about your ideal work situation. Aaaand should you decide to put some of that thinking into action, STANFORD has tips on how to quit your job without burning bridges.
Law professor David Sklansky talks about the classified documents found in Biden’s home and at his former office at the Penn Biden Center, how the discoveries compare to the ones at Mar-a-Lago, and what might happen next.
For those whose lives have “gone gray” after long-term, COVID-related loss of smell and taste, Stanford Medicine researchers are here to brighten your day. Injections of platelet-rich plasma derived from a patient’s own blood have been shown to clinically improve olfaction. Having passed the sniff test, the treatment is now being offered to patients outside the researchers’ trial.
Netflix founder Reed Hastings, MS ’88, announced he will step down from his co-chief executive role at the company. But he won’t just be chilling. Hastings is set to become Netflix’s executive chairman, and he told the New York Times that he’ll “also be spending more time on philanthropy.”
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