Half of all boys will be obese, warns leaked report - Observer
Extract:
"The government's pledge to halt the soaring rate of childhood obesity within three years in fact cannot be achieved until 2050, warns a damning report commissioned by ministers to help them tackle the problem.
The number of six- to 10-year-olds who become obese will keep rising relentlessly until the late 2040s, with as many as half of all primary school-age boys and one in five girls dangerously overweight by 2050, according to the document.
Health campaigners last night said the dramatic findings showed that Britain is facing an unprecedented public health crisis. 'They are frightening preliminary findings and the implications for both the NHS's budget and, more importantly, for children's health are really disturbing,' said Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrats' shadow health secretary. 'I'm not entirely surprised by the direction of the trend but I'm shocked by the scale of it, which is horrifying.'
The confidential document was commissioned by the former Department of Trade and Industry. The paper predicts that both adult and childhood obesity in England will continue rising unless there are dramatic changes in official policy and people's lifestyles. It foresees big increases in heart problems, strokes and diabetes if current upward trends in obesity are not reversed. Few experts expect that to happen.
The 74-page draft document, dated 22 June 2007, also estimates the NHS will have to spend billions more pounds every year on treating patients with obesity-related illnesses. 'A target on childhood obesity was introduced to halt the year-on-year rise in obesity among children aged under 11 by 2010 in the context of a broader strategy to tackle obesity in the population as a whole. As yet there is almost no evidence that the rise in obesity levels is changing.'
And the report goes on to say: 'There is evidence that among children aged six to 10 years, males will be more obese than females, with an estimate of 50 per cent being obese by 2050, compared with 20 per cent of female children. Among children aged 11 to 15, the prediction is different: 23 per cent for males and 37 per cent for females.'
I find it somewhat ironic that it was the former Department of Trade and Industry that commissioned this report, because I wrote to the Department of Trade and Industry over two years ago, explaining that obesity is caused not by overeating, but by salt sensitivity, often caused by prescription drugs, and that reduction in salt intake, rather than dieting, is the way to reduce obesity. I wrote several letters to them, including to Sir David King and to Dr Chris McFee. I informed them about the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7423/1085 which reports actual research on what happens when the standard medical advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and loads of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight. - Clearly my information was not acted upon, inasmuch as the harmful and counterproductive dieting advice continues to be given to the overweight and obese victims of the government's and the medical profession's misinformation, and parents of overweight children will no doubt continue to be blamed for their children's weight problems, when it is actually the 'expert' advice that is to blame for this catastrophic incidence of obesity and its attendant ill-health. Doctors are giving the wrong advice.
Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)
Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection
See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions
I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.
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