'Less sleep' linked to obesity. - Both problems - obesity and lack of sleep - can be easily reduced by eating less salt.

This could be your dream diet - article in today's Daily Telegraph.

Extract:

"evidence is emerging of a link between a drop in the time society spends slumbering and the dramatic rise in obesity and associated diseases, such as diabetes and high blood pressure."

In the article the connection made is that shorter sleeping time results in weight gain and some 'explanations' are explored. - In fact the positive correlation between less sleep and more weight has been made before. - See http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2006/10/claim-is-made-that-lack-of-sleep-may.html and http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2006/09/sleepy-kids-at-greater-risk-of-obesity.html

But as is so often the case with matters concerning obesity, cause and consequence have been reversed. - Just as inactivity is the consequence of obesity and not the cause of it, so losing sleep is the consequence of becoming more obese and not its cause. Obesity causes a host of adverse physical and emotional health outcomes, and it is these adverse health outcomes that lead to reduced sleep.

Obesity is NOT caused by eating too much or by lack of exercise. - Overwhelmingly it is caused by salt sensitivity and fluid retention. - It is easy for obese people, child or adult, to lose weight by eating less salt/sodium and forgetting about calorie reduction. Cutting down on salt enables the body to shed (in the urine) some of the excess water held in the body by sodium and so weight is lost.

Once weight is lost by reducing salt intake, sleep will improve.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
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