Appetite too big? Here's what to do:

Cut down on salt! - Salt stokes up your appetite.
Give up dieting, eat good healthy meals with plenty of protein and fat and fruit and fresh vegetables, and avoid salt and salty food. You will feel so much better!

Here is a page of information about foods high in salt/sodium (the foods to avoid) and those low in sodium and/or high in potassium (the foods that are better for people who are wanting to lose excess weight)
Sodium foods

You will lose excess weight easily, rapidly and safely, and you will have more energy. - Go on! - Try it! - You KNOW that counting calories and going hungry doesn't work...

Forget about calories! Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Just do it!

There are no calories in salt - but if you cut down on salt you will easily lose weight. If you cut down on calories you will not lose weight.

There are no calories in salt - but if you are overweight/obese and you cut down on salt you will easily lose weight. If you cut down on calories you will not lose weight.

This is because obesity is caused by salt sensitivity/fluid retention and not by eating too many calories. This is why diets and calorie-counting do not work.

You do not need to eat less food to lose excess weight, because eating less food does not reduce fluid retention. Eating less salt reduces fluid retention and that is how it reduces obesity.

How to Lose weight!

See Vulnerable groups

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

See FAT RETENTION

Sandwiches often contain more salt and more calories than a Big Mac

Sandwiches with more calories than Big Mac

Extracts from the Telegraph:

"Leading sandwich chains are selling products that frequently contain more calories, salt and fat than a Big Mac – and failing to inform their customers.

The National Consumer Council, the Government's consumer watchdog, called on shops to provide better information to its customers, some of whom are consuming two-thirds of their daily recommended salt and saturated fat intake with just one sandwich.

Greggs, the country's largest chain of sandwich shops, not only fails to provide any information in-store, the company does not give out any details on its website, leaving customers in the dark that a £1.95 chicken sandwich contains 3.6 grams of salt – two-thirds of the 6 grams doctors say is the maximum adults should consume in a day.

Both Eat and Pret a Manger, which pride themselves on selling gourmet lunches full of fresh ingredients, do not give out information in their shops, either on packaging or in a leaflet.

Customers have to go to the company's websites to find details.

In contrast, McDonald's – following a major revamp in recent years – prints full details on every burger box and bag of chips."

"Marks & Spencer's Oakham chicken and pancetta caesar sandwich contains more salt and saturated fat than a portion of chips combined with a Big Mac burger from McDonald's.

Many of Tesco's sandwiches, such as its red cheddar and tomato, contain more than half the recommended daily amount of saturated fat – linked to heart disease and considered by doctors to be the most unhealthy form of fat."

It is important for information about salt content to be provided, since so many people are sensitive to salt and need to restrict their salt intake. - In my opinion, information about calories is not important, because excess weight and all its attendant illnesses - hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, impaired liver and kidney function, premature aging, etc. are caused by fluid retention and not by eating too many calories. Obesity/Overweight is easily reduced by avoiding salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

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.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

I watched Channel 4's Dispatches: The Truth About Your Food programme last night and it contained the usual untrue claims about food calories...)o;

The format of the programme was mainly about how when people eat in restaurants and the like, they eat more calories than they think, and the high calorie intake was blamed for the increase in obesity in the UK. Assertions like these are untrue and are not supported by any evidence. - All the evidence, in fact, is to the contrary, viz: for overweight/obese people, dieting (i.e. eating fewer calories than the body requires, in order to lose excess weight) almost always results in weight GAIN, not weight loss. - This is because obesity is caused not by overeating, but by fluid retention.

Overweight/obese people can easily and swiftly lose weight by giving up dieting and instead concentrating on avoiding salt and salty food. This reduces the fluid retention.

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

Wider implications of the flawed theory that excess calorie intake causes obesity

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

If you are overweight, you will NOT lose weight by cutting down on calories! - You WILL lose weight by eating less salt/sodium...

Forget about calories! - How to Lose weight!

Health hazards involved in some 'beauty treatments'.

Trust me I’m a junior doctor

Extract from Max Pemberton's article in the Telegraph:

"Tanya didn't need weight-loss tablets and she certainly didn't need their side-effects. Being told to stop taking them was the best tip she'd get all day."

It is not necessary to take drugs or to diet in order to reduce weight. Excess weight can easily, safely and rapidly reduced by minimising intake of salt/sodium, eating good healthy meals and plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables. (There is no need to restrict calorie intake or fat intake: only sodium intake. - So avoid salt and salty food.)

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

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.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

vulnerable groups

How to Lose weight!

Children and Obesity

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Some misguided scientists/nutritionists claim that eating soup could be the key to losing weight...)o: - How wrong they are!

Why eating soup could be the key to losing weight - The Independent

Extract:

"Eating soup with a meal could be the answer to the obesity crisis, according to scientists in the US.

People who fill their stomachs with soup at the start of a meal eat less overall, research shows, and rather than piling on the pounds, the addition of the extra course can actually help people lose weight.

The soup regime is recommended by researchers at Pennsylvania State University, who tested it on volunteers. They found that when participants ate a first course of soup before a lunch entrée they reduced the total calorie intake of their meal by a fifth compared with those who ate the entrée alone.

But they stressed that the soup must be low-calorie. Adding a creamy soup to the meal would be likely to have the opposite effect and boost the total calorie intake and lead to weight gain.
The research, supported by the National Institutes of Health, was presented to the Experimental Biology conference in Washington, yesterday.

Barbara Rolls, professor of nutrition and co-author of the study, said it had built on earlier work into the role of low-calorie soup as a way of reducing food intake.: "Earlier work suggests that chunky soup may be the most filling type, so the purpose of this study was to determine whether different forms of soup might have different effects on food intake.""

It both shocks and bemuses me that time and again, as in this case, researchers count calories and do arithmetic and then make claims about weight loss! - Where is the weight loss? - Where is any evidence for their claim? - How can they claim to be scientists when there is still no evidence at all that reducing calorie intake reduces obesity?

The whole of their research here seems to be about calories, not about weight loss. - Weight loss is so very easily achieved by simply reducing the amount of salt (sodium) that you eat. - You can eat lots more calories if you wish and yet you will still lose weight - provided that you eat less salt. To advise people to eat soup as a means of losing weight is very poor advice indeed because soup tends to be high in salt!

(People sometimes wonder how many calories there are in salt. - Actually, there are no calories in salt.)

Read my Mensa article Obesity and the Salt Connection

All that is necessary to curb the growing incidence of obesity is to tell the truth about what causes it! - Obesity is NOT caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, frequently because of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline. (When doctors prescribe drugs that cause sodium retention and water retention they should warn the patient not to eat salt, or food containing salt, while taking the medication. When they do not give this warning, the inevitable consequence is considerable weight gain.)

Read here about the groups of people who are vulnerable to salt: vulnerable groups

Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing your salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables. - It is important NOT to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' or 'dieting' is unnecessary, ineffective and often harmful.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Some Food Myths and how the Food Standards Agency is perpetuating them.

When I looked on 23rd October 2006 at page http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/foodmyths/#elem221121 - part of the Food Standards Agency stable of webpages - I saw the paragraph:
"The most effective way to lose weight – and keep it off – is by changing your lifestyle for good. You need to eat a healthy balanced diet, which means eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, basing your meals on starchy foods, cutting down on foods high in sugar or fat, and by being more physically active."

But actually, cutting down on sugar and fat is not necessary to lose weight. Nor is it necessary to be more physically active in order to lose weight. - All that is normally necessary to lose weight is to eat less salt/sodium, and, preferably, eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, because the potassium these contain helps to displace excess sodium from the body.

Nor was there any mention on page http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthissues/obesity/ (another of the Food Standards Agency pages) of the role of salt sensitivity and fluid retention in causing obesity and the need to eat less salt if you want to lose weight.

Although http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthissues/obesity/ does concede that "Sometimes certain medical conditions and drug treatments can cause weight gain," it has the usual (yawn!) misinformation about calories. - I quote: "When someone is obese, it means they have put on weight to the point that it could seriously endanger their health. This is caused by a combination of eating too many calories and not doing enough physical activity." The claim that "This is caused by a combination of eating too many calories and not doing enough physical activity" is simply not true!

I certainly agree that eating plenty of fruit and vegetables assists in weight loss, and "cutting down on foods high in sugar or fat, and by being more physically active" may well have some health benefits but does not reduce obesity. - The absolutely ESSENTIAL requirement for weight loss is to eat less salt/sodium and they do not even MENTION salt in the context of losing excess weight! - Nor does http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/foodmyths/ give the best advice about salt. - They advise cutting intake to no more than 6g a day. - But if you are very overweight or indeed obese, then you need to reduce your salt intake to the absolute minimum you can manage - much less than 6g a day. - This will enable you to lose as much weight as possible. - Don't worry about whether you will be getting enough sodium. - All food and all water contains a small amount of sodium and this is sufficient for the body's requirements. - So provided you are eating enough food and drinking enough fluid to stay alive, you will be getting enough sodium. - If you are not eat/drinking enough to stay alive then you've got more important problems than sodium to contend with!...(o:

I noticed today - April 8th, 2007 - (I can't remember whether it was there last time I looked at the page) that they have invented a bit of strange misinformation...(o: - http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/foodmyths/ says today:

"Drinking water that is ice cold doesn't use up any more calories than drinking water at room temperature."

Well of course drinking ice cold water does use up more calories than drinking water at room temperature. - I wonder why they are claiming that it doesn't? - The point is though, that it is completely irrelevant as far as reducing obesity is concerned, because obesity is not caused by calorie excess and is not reduced by calorie deficit.

I see that http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthissues/obesity/ also states:

You might be interested in the National Audit Office's Tackling Obesity in England. For a copy of this or other Government publications, contact the Stationery Office.

Don't bother! - I've got a copy and it gives the usual garbage/misinformation about obesity being caused by overeating/too many calories and says that calorie reduction and more physical activity is the way to combat obesity. - It isn't ! - It doesn't work! - It is unnecessary, counter-productive, harmful and often downright dangerous!

Incidentally, I wonder whether the freelance dietitians who have a link on the http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthissues/obesity/ page pay the Food Standards Agency for that link or for the business that accrues to them from it? - Maybe there is no cash involved. Maybe they just have reciprocal links. - My website definitely has no sponsored links. There is no gain to me, financial or otherwise, from your visiting my website or from taking any of the advice it contains. I alone pay all the costs of my website. - So you know that the advice I give is impartial and not tainted by considerations of possible profit.

Forget about calories! - Cut down on salt! - You'll lose weight fast - as if by magic!

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Healthcare Commission Report finds three in four British hospitals fail children. I find Healthcare Commission fails patients harmed by the NHS.

Report finds three in four hospitals fail children

Extracts:

"Three quarters of hospitals in England are failing to meet standards of quality and safety in the care they provide for children, a damning report has found.

The investigation by the Healthcare Commission, the health services regulator, today says that 70 per cent of 157 trusts scored only "fair" and five per cent scored "weak" when measured against national standards set by the Government, three years ago.

Only four per cent had services that were "excellent".

Nearly one hospital in five failed to provide sufficient emergency life support systems for children at night and, across the board, too few staff were trained in pain management of children.

Lack of training of staff, from nurses through to surgeons and anaesthetists, in communicating with children was a common criticism."

"The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said it was "dismayed" by the findings. "It starkly demonstrates that NHS hospitals have made poor progress in meeting the needs of children and young people," said Dr Patricia Hamilton, the college president.

It was unacceptable but "not surprising" that 75 per cent of hospitals were rated as fair or weak. She said: "Children's services have long been under-resourced and have not been given the priority they deserve.""

Well I suppose the Healthcare Commissions reports may do a bit of good. - A bit. - But what is overwhelmingly needed is some help and support for the individual victims of the NHS system, the victims of medical negligence, ignorance, incompetence and couldn't-care-lessness, all too common in this huge, badly run, employee-oriented, politically manipulated business in which patients get a lot of lip-service and fancy rhetoric from politicians and NHS bureaucrats but precious little real care. - If there were to be prompt and appropriately severe sanctions against personnel who treat patients badly, carelessly, negligently, incompetently - sometimes downright cruelly (which at present happens far too often - because they know they can get away with it) - then there would quickly be an improvement in service and consequent improvement in the nation's health, happiness and wellbeing.

Nothing gets done about the horror of the suffering endured by steroid victims; they continue to be given the wrong advice about their morbid obesity - which is the direct consequence of the medical profession's negligence and which could be lessened if they were to be clearly and directly told that calorie restriction is damaging and they must cut out all avoidable sodium from what they eat. - I feel this blog entry could be better worded but I am so tired and ill that I can't spare the energy to work on the wording or to add more points that cry out to be made. I know that my website and my blog have had many visitors from hospitals, medical centres, universities and other academic institutions from all over the world, visitors from the Houses of Parliament, the BBC, drug companies, etc. etc. and maybe some doctors are at last warning their patients to avoid eating salt while taking dangerous drugs like prednisolone, like HRT, etc, - but WHEN ARE EXISTING STEROID VICTIMS GOING TO BE TOLD THE TRUTH? - When Hell freezes over, I suspect, if the guilty can get away with it.

If and when sodium retention and salt sensitivity are finally, inescapably, recognised as the primary cause of obesity, then I feel confident that the cover-up position will be that it is caused partly by sodium retention, but mainly by over-eating, and the destructive calorie reduction advice will continue as an adjunct to the sodium advice....)o: - BUT THE CALORIE EXPLANATION WILL STILL NOT BE TRUE AND THE STEROID VICTIMS AND OTHER OVERWEIGHT PEOPLE WILL CONTINUE TO BE DAMAGED FURTHER BECAUSE THE SPIN CULTURE DEMANDS THAT POWERFUL PEOPLE BE PROTECTED FROM DAMAGE TO THEIR REPUTATIONS.

My emails to the Healthcare Commission did not even get to them because there are gatekeepers who protect them from unimportant messages like those of damaged citizens...

Health professionals are even allowed to refuse to give evidence at the inquest into the death of a patient whose care was their responsibility and whose death resulted from their error! - see http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2007/02/police-to-review-case-of-fatal-calcium.html

Maybe one day I'll write in this blog about the way the 'caring professions' in the NHS destroyed my own health and happiness so needlessly and with such long, sustained cruelty - for years - in complete confidence that no-one would do anything at all about it! - Meanwhile I invite you to read about Andrea Carey's experience of the NHS and its 'aftercare' of patients in these two blog entries:

http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2007/02/healthcare-commission-reports-nhs.html and http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2007/01/operation-ordeal-that-will-haunt-me.html and also to read a little of my experience in http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html and my Mensa article

If anyone has the concern and the courage to want to help me in my mission, I can be emailed from my website.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Fat boy may be put into care - Phone in on Radio Five Live. I managed - just! - to mention my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk

I managed to get onto the phone-in about an hour ago and to say that child obesity is caused not by overeating but by salt intake leading to fluid retention and increased blood volume. I had gone to bed and was in bed when I started to listen to the phone-in and rang in, and so I did not, I think, get my points over as well as I should have, and I am disappointed about that. I found it rather difficult because the presenter to whom I was speaking was unreceptive to what I was saying. Sadly people have been so conditioned to believe the false claim that overeating is the cause of obesity that many of them cannot open their minds to an alternative concept. I was only able to speak very briefly and was barely able to mention my website because the presenter cut me off as soon as I mentioned that I had a website. I then got up in order to post this entry while it was fresh in my mind. - Hopefully some of the listeners will have benefited from what I said and will be cutting down on salt in order to lose weight.

Another contributor to the phone-in was very angry about what I had said, and reiterated the calories in calories out message we have all heard many thousands of times but which results in ever more people becoming obese. - There is no evidence to support the calorie theory about obesity. - And reducing calories does not reduce obesity. - Reducing salt intake DOES reduce obesity. - A big problem with the obese young boy in question is that he does not eat much in the way of fruit and vegetables. This makes it extra difficult for his body to get rid of excess sodium. - Fruit and fresh vegetables contain high levels of potassium, and potassium displaces sodium from the body.

Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 British Medical Journal article for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ and for special advice about children, see http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Fat boy may be put in care

Are you thinking of having liposuction? - I urge you to reconsider. - Here is a safe, cost-free way to lose excess weight fast. - Cut down on salt!

Are you thinking of having liposuction? - I urge you to reconsider. - Here is a safe, cost-free way to lose excess weight fast. - Cut down on salt!

All overweight people suffer from fluid retention. - You can reduce this and lose some of the excess fluid you have in your body by eating less salt and making sure you eat plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. - You do NOT need to restrict calories!

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better! (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

And Sodium in foods

See also FAT RETENTION

What causes obesity and overweight? - Here is the dangerous misinformation given by the World Health Organisation.

On page http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/ of the World Health Organisation's website you can read this:

"What causes obesity and overweight?

The fundamental cause of obesity and overweight is an energy imbalance between calories consumed on one hand, and calories expended on the other hand. Global increases in overweight and obesity are attributable to a number of factors including:

a global shift in diet towards increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat and sugars but low in vitamins, minerals and other micronutrients; and

a trend towards decreased physical activity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization."

This is not true! - It's incredible that the WHO can get away with this false assertion. - There is absolutely no evidence for their claim! - They have never even put their claim to the test! (Their one mention of salt - which contains no calories at all - on the webpage is only peripheral.)

See http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2006/11/do-you-believe-that-obesity-is-caused.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html

Obesity is not caused by eating too much. - It is usually caused/initiated by salt sensitivity and fluid retention, and is best reduced by abandoning the calorie myth and concentrating on cutting down on salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Dieting is potentially harmful. Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Much of the food industry's food labelling in Britain has been criticised as misleading by the National Heart Forum.

Much of the food industry's food labelling has been criticised as misleading by the National Heart Forum

Extracts:

"The NHF report criticised some food companies for misleading consumers in the way information under the industry-backed scheme was presented. It said the information was "too complex" and often confused people rather than helped them."

"Jane Landon, the deputy chief executive of the National Heart Forum, criticised the industry's scheme, warning many consumers were not aware that GDAs were a "limit, not a target". She said: "This report shows some manufacturers and retailers are failing their customers by using nutritional food labels which are overly complex.

"Some even appear to be manipulating the front-of-pack label to promote their products rather than to inform their customers.

"Without reading the small print on the back of the packet it is not clear that for fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt these figures represent limits rather than targets."

It's so weird. - The one piece of information that always seems to be present on packs is the information about calorie content. - Yet this is the ONLY piece of information that is completely irrelevant, since obesity is not caused by eating too many calories! - If the calorie information were to be abandoned, there would be more room for the much more important salt/sodium content to be prominently displayed.

People can read the truth in my blog. - See Do you believe that obesity is caused by over-eating - by consuming too many calories? - I invite you to consider the evidence and think again!

Obesity is not caused by eating too much. - It is caused/initiated by fluid retention. - Dieting is potentially harmful.
Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Try it! - See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

The biggest, most harmful con trick in the history of civilisation! - The obesity myths of the experts have damaged the lives of millions of people.

The biggest, most harmful con trick in the history of civilisation! - The obesity myths of the experts have damaged the health, happiness and life chances of millions of innocent people!

How many thousands of times have you been informed that obesity is caused by over-eating and/or too little exercise? - It isn't true... - There's not a scrap of evidence to support this theory. It is merely an assumption.

Here is an extract from my 'political' page. - I urge you to read ALL the page, right to the end. - You will then have a good idea of where the responsibility/blame lies for the present 'obesity epidemic'; it lies squarely with the professions who are extremely highly paid precisely to prevent this sort of health catastrophe - medics, politicians, etc.

"Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 BMJ article for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of dieters actually lose weight, and most gain weight as a result of dieting. - Even the ones who manage to lose weight do not usually improve their health. - See Guardian article for a report in The Guardian of Monday, June 27th 2005. It is about a huge research study of nearly 3000 people over a period of 18 years. The study found that overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat. It also found that dieting causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits of the weight loss.

Contributing to the increase in obesity we have the widespread prescribing of steroids and HRT and other drugs which cause weight gain, and the failure of doctors to adhere to the protocols connected with the prescribing and monitoring of steroids. But pre-eminent, in my opinion, is the catastrophically damaging calorie-reduction advice that continues to be given despite such a wealth of evidence that it is bad advice.

Another possible factor is the increase in the amount of oestrogen in the water table.

Salt produces obesity only in vulnerable people, i.e.
1. People whose veins are weak because of immaturity (babies, children),
2. People whose veins are weak because of steroids, HRT, amitriptyline or certain other prescribed drugs, too readily prescribed, often in very high dose.
3. People whose natural hormone levels are abnormally high (pregnant women, PMT sufferers).
4. 'Slimmers' - People whose blood vessel walls have been weakened by 'slimming' - i.e. eating insufficient food.

Most medics do not understand what sodium retention is, and most are unaware that tablets they prescribe are causing this extremely damaging condition. They tend to blame obesity, mistakenly, on overeating. Similarly, most nutritionists and dieticians do not realise that obese people need to lose excess water to lose weight, and that excess water held in the body will not be affected by cutting calories. There can scarcely be anyone who has not heard hundreds of times over the message that overweight people should cut calories and cut down on fat. They have been conditioned to believe this. They do not need to be told it another thousand times.

The advice from the nutritionists is WRONG. It does not work! This nation HAS reduced its intake of fat for some years now. With what result? Ever increasing obesity levels! Obese people need to concentrate on reducing salt, not calories.

Since the summer of 2001 I have been writing to MPs, to medical people, to journalists, to nutritionists and others, urging that suitable warnings be printed on packs of the tablets so that the destruction of more lives can be prevented. I have written hundreds of letters. The warning label should say something like:
DO NOT EAT SALT, OR FOODS CONTAINING SALT, WHILE TAKING THIS MEDICATION, BECAUSE IT COULD CAUSE FLUID RETENTION RESULTING IN MASSIVE WEIGHT GAIN.

To the best of my knowledge, no action has been taken. Nor is the public being told the truth about weight gain and weight loss. The best way to lose weight is to concentrate on eating less sodium and more potassium. (A book, written a few years ago by a hospital professor, about the health dangers of salt, makes no mention of steroid victims and specifically states, incorrectly, that HRT does not cause a salt problem!)"


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Warning (from Mr Edward Leigh, British MP, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee) of obesity risks to entire generation

Warning of obesity risks to entire generation

Extract:

"An entire generation of children now at primary school is heading towards increased rates of serious health problems, an influential committee of MPs says today.

It criticises the departments of Health and Education and Skills for doing too little to stem the "alarming" obesity epidemic. At least one primary school child in seven is now classed as obese."

I started writing about the increase in the incidence of obesity, and in particular about child obesity, to MPs - scores of them (all three major parties), and to journalists, broadcasters, scientists, medics, appropriate agencies, nutritionists, etc - in the summer of 2001, and explaining that the assumption that obesity is caused by overeating is incorrect and that obesity cannot, therefore, be remedied by undereating. I also wrote to Mr Edward Leigh, the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, the initiator of this news item, and to other appropriate parliamentary select committees. - Unfortunately my evidence and my argument were, and continue to be, disregarded. People fail to realise that there has never been any scientific evidence to support the overeating theory of obesity. Nor has there ever been any scientific evidence to support the theory that obesity is lessened by calorie reduction. Both of these theories are mere assumptions, and both are false.

I explained to them that obesity results from sodium retention and water retention in people who are vulnerable to salt. These days I often refer to these vulnerable people, of whom I am one, as sensitive to salt.

The 'Obesity Epidemic' would best be reduced by giving the correct advice about how to prevent/lessen obesity. Obesity is NOT caused by eating too much! - It is caused by fluid retention, usually in people who are sensitive to salt.

The most severe obesity - morbid obesity, as it is usually called these days - is mainly caused by the widespread prescribing of steroids and HRT and other drugs which cause weight gain, often in far too high a dose, and the failure of doctors to adhere to the protocols connected with the prescribing and monitoring of steroids. But pre-eminent, in my opinion, is the catastrophically damaging calorie-reduction advice that continues to be given despite such a wealth of evidence that it is bad advice.

It is over 50 years since steroids were first prescribed and it is beyond belief that most doctors are still unaware in practice of their potential for causing sodium and water retention and morbid obesity and the many other serious health problems attendant on these...

Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 BMJ article about Leeds University research for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of dieters actually lose weight, and most gain weight as a result of dieting. - Even the ones who manage to lose weight do not usually improve their health. - See Guardian article for a report in The Guardian of Monday, June 27th 2005. It is about a huge research study of nearly 3000 people over a period of 18 years. The study found that overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat. It also found that dieting causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits of the weight loss.
Another possible factor in the increasing incidence of obesity is the increase in the amount of oestrogen in the water table.

If overweight/obese people seriously and genuinely reduce their salt/sodium intake, they all lose weight fast - and even faster if they also make sure they are eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, because these high potassium foods help to remove excess sodium from the bodies of salt-sensitives.

Eating less and counting calories hinders, rather than helps with the problem of obesity, as it usually increases salt sensitivity. - That is why, as countless unfortunate 'slimmers' have found, 'dieting makes you fatter.'

Read my 'political' page The 'Obesity Epidemic' - I ACCUSE! and my Mensa article Obesity and the Salt Connection and my page about child obesity http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

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

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Department of unsubstantiated obesity claims: Chewing gum to help tackle obesity...(o: (Professor Steve Bloom's work.)

Chewing gum to help tackle obesity

Extracts:

1) "The chewing gum would act as an appetite suppressant by releasing a hormone which would make the stomach feel full, according to Professor Steve Bloom."

2) "Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Professor Bloom said: "We asked the simple question, why do you feel less hungry after lunch and it turned out there was a hormone being released."

My comments:- It is food that makes the stomach feel full, not the hormone!

FACT: Obese people need more food/more calories than people of normal weight because they have more weight to carry around and a greater surface area from which to lose heat. It is dangerous for obese people to lose weight by restricting calorie/food intake. - See Guardian report for a report in The Guardian of Monday, June 27th 2005. It is about a huge research study of nearly 3000 people over a period of 18 years. The study found that overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat. It also found that dieting causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits of the weight loss.

But in fact, most obese people do not lose weight when they reduce calorie consumption and/or increase exercise. Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 BMJ article for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

3) ""The idea of chewing gum was hit on because overweight people like to chew," continued Professor Bloom."

My comment: I wonder whether Professor Bloom has a scrap of evidence for this extraordinary claim? - Let us bear in mind that there is no evidence, even, that obesity is caused by overeating; it is merely an assumption that was first made many years ago and has never actually been put to the test. In this respect, it resembles the former universal belief that the earth was flat, and has been subjected to the same reasoning process, i.e. the reasoning that "it is obvious..."!! - Not very scientific...(o: - But then few could accuse the medical profession of scientific rigour...(o:

In fact, obesity is caused not by overeating, but by fluid retention, caused in turn by salt sensitivity in the groups of people vulnerable to sodium retention. I believe that all that is normally necessary to lose excess weight is to forget about calories and just eat less salt/sodium and eat plenty of fruit and vegetables. - See my webpage about vulnerable groups

You can easily put my assertion to the test. - Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it!
See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

The Daily Telegraph asks on its pages today, "How can we save the NHS?" - Here is my simple solution.

The Daily Telegraph asks on its pages today, "How can we save the NHS?" - Comments are invited. (Daily Telegraph webpage) - Unfortunately my contribution was not selected for inclusion. - Here is (roughly) the comment I sent:

"Abandon the discredited calorie reduction advice as treatment for obesity! Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 British Medical Journal article for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is fluid retention that causes excess weight, not over-eating. - Just look around you. - You can always see slim people overeating and not becoming overweight - and it is not because they are taking lots of exercise. - It is because they do not suffer from fluid retention.

Every overweight person has a problem with fluid retention, whether they are aware of it or not. This is usually caused by salt sensitivity, and the fluid retention can be lessened by reducing salt/sodium intake."

Give up the calorie battle! - Forget about calories! If you are wanting to lose excess weight, please try this simple, safe, healthy, risk-free, cost-free, drug-free way of losing weight - Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - See my website for further details: http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.) If you would like to get in touch with me you can do so via my website.

There are many other health problems associated to fluid retention/salt sensitivity, though they are seldom attributed to it. See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

Do you believe that obesity is caused by over-eating - by consuming too many calories? - I invite you to consider the evidence and think again!

Do you believe that obesity is caused by over-eating - by consuming too many calories - and/or taking too little exercise? - I invite you to consider the evidence and think again!

Here is an extract from the UK Government's official statistics on page http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=1329:

"The prevalence of obesity in England has increased markedly among both adults and children since the mid 1990s. In 2002 it was similar for both sexes; the rate for boys and girls was 17 per cent and for adults was 23 per cent. In 1995 the equivalent figures were 10 per cent for boys and 12 per cent for girls, 15 per cent for men and 18 per cent for women.

There is no evidence that the average calorific intake or consumption of foods rich in fat and added sugar has increased in the UK since the mid 1980s. Men aged 19 to 64 in 2000/01 reported a daily energy intake of approximately 2,323 kcal (a reduction of 6 per cent since 1986/87). Women in the same age groups reported 1,642 kcal, a reduction of 3 per cent.

Reductions over the same period were also observed in the contribution of total fat to total energy intake (from 38 to 34 per cent in men and from 39 to 34 per cent in women) and saturated fat (from 15 to 13 per cent in men and from 17 to 13 per cent in women)."

So people are eating significantly FEWER calories and LESS fat, yet obesity has INCREASED MASSIVELY!!!

Surely the logical deduction from those facts is not that obesity increases because of eating more calories! - So where is the evidence for the constant insistence by medical 'experts' that obesity is caused by over-eating and will be reduced by eating less? - Answer: - THERE ISN'T ANY!!!

The research evidence is that when obese people try to lose weight by following the 'expert' advice they usually GAIN weight...)o:

Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and calorie intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 BMJ article for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of dieters actually lose weight, and most gain weight as a result of dieting. - Even the ones who manage to lose weight do not usually improve their health. - See Guardian article for a report in The Guardian of Monday, June 27th 2005. It is about a huge research study of nearly 3000 people over a period of 18 years. The study found that overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat. It also found that dieting causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits of the weight loss.

Contributing to the increase in obesity we have the widespread prescribing of steroids and HRT and other drugs which cause weight gain, and the failure of doctors to adhere to the protocols connected with the prescribing and monitoring of steroids. But pre-eminent, in my opinion, is the catastrophically damaging calorie-reduction advice that continues to be given despite such a wealth of evidence that it is bad advice.

Another possible factor is the increase in the amount of oestrogen in the water table.

Now before you engage in the conditioned reaction of attributing the solution to this apparent paradox as being the exercise factor, I invite you read about research on this:

'Exercise has 'little effect on childhood weight' - reported HERE in the Guardian. According to the findings of research carried out by Glasgow University, getting four-year-olds to engage in three extra 30 minute sessions of exercise a week had no effect on whether they were obese or not. "Despite rigorous implementation, we found no significant effect of the intervention on physical activity, sedentary behaviour or body mass index," concluded the researchers.

More than 500 nursery school children were recruited for the study, which compared children who exercised three times a week with children left to their own devices.

DESPITE THEIR OWN FINDINGS, the researchers deny that this research means that exercise is completely ineffective in preventing obesity! - They say that "the problem of overweight children needs to be addressed on several fronts at the same time, not just through exercise."

So the researchers are so conditioned by the calorie explanation of obesity (for which there is no supporting evidence) that they deny the results of their own research! Their conclusion is therefore not science; it is mere conjecture...)o:

Here is an extract from my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html:

"When children become fat it is essentially because they are eating salty food. Children are especially vulnerable to salt because of their small size and small blood volume, and because their blood vessels are weaker than those of adults. Salt, and the water it attracts to it, can more easily distend weak blood vessels than fully mature ones. The resulting increase in blood volume results in weight gain, as well as higher blood pressure and many other undesirable consequences. The smaller the child, the less salt they should have - and a baby, of course, should have no salt at all. - Babies can die if they are fed salty food.

Because children have much smaller bodies than adults it would be best if they had no more than half as much salt as adults. Most children, however, have much more than this because they eat so many snacks and instant foods. Just one cheeseburger, for instance, contains almost double the recommended daily salt maximum for children. There are high amounts of salt in packet soups, instant noodles, ketchup and sauces, sausages, burgers and savoury snacks. Fat children will lose weight fast if they eat less salt. And even faster still if they eat plenty of fresh fruit and unsalted vegetables, because these are rich in potassium, which helps to displace sodium from the body."

Morbid Obesity - You could find it helpful to eat less salt.

Are you morbidly obese? - You have my great sympathy; I am so sorry that you have this affliction. I hope this blog entry will help you.

No doubt many people have added to the many difficulties of your life by blaming you for your condition. - How wrong they are!

Unless you ate a great deal of salt or salty food when you were a small child or you have the great misfortune to be a sufferer from Cushing's Disease, or some other rare disease which causes great obesity, then the most likely responsibility for your obesity lies with prescribed steroids, like prednisolone, or prescribed HRT or certain other prescribed drugs, possibly prescribed in too high a dose and possibly prescribed for too long a time and almost certainly inadequately monitored by the prescriber. - And I'll bet you were not warned that these drugs commonly cause sodium and water retention (the cause of your overweight) and that while taking them you should not eat salt or food containing salt, were you?

Your excess weight is largely water (extra water in your bloodstream) and is definitely NOT caused by eating too much. But you obviously need more food than slim people, because you have more weight to carry round all the time. - Don't let anyone stop you eating when you are hungry! - You need that food and those calories.

Have a look at my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ and then look at some of the other pages, especially the steroids page.

You will find that the best, the safest, the fastest, the most reliable way to lose weight is to eat less salt and forget about reducing calories or struggling to do exercise when you are too fat to be comfortable doing it. - You will feel SO MUCH BETTER! - Overeating and lack of exercise are NOT what caused your obesity.

Good luck!

The Department of Health has a Draft Paper: Losing Weight – Feeling Great! (I believe the advice it gives is WRONG!! - What do you think?)

The Department of Health has a Draft Paper online entitled
Losing Weight – Feeling Great!
and dated 29 November 2005. This is the link: here

Here is some of its content, in italics:

In the U.K. almost two thirds of adults are now overweight. One child in every three has an unhealthy weight too.

WHY HAVE I GAINED WEIGHT?

It’s all about calories. Calories (you will see kcals on packets) are a measure of energy. (You may sometimes see the metric measure on packs – joules or kilojoules.)....
Your weight remains the same if you take in roughly the same amount of energy (calories) through food and drink, as the amount of energy (calories) your body burns up through physical activity.

Your weight will go up if you take in consistently more energy (calories) from food and drink, than your body burns up through physical activity.
Your weight will go down if you take in consistently less energy (calories) from food and drink, than your body burns up through physical activity.

But it is not true that gaining weight is all about calories. There is absolutely no evidence to support this statement. We all know slim people who eat huge amounts of calories and do not take much exercise and do not gain weight at all. - They eat far more calories than their bodies burn up through physical activity. - But they do not gain weight. - The Calorie Myth is unsupported by evidence and is not the true explanation for obesity.

Here is some more of the document's content:

HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT

To lose weight you need to take in less energy from food and drink than the amount of energy your body uses up. Although this may sound simple, actually doing it day in, day out, over a period of weeks or months, requires real determination and commitment...
...to lose weight, healthy eating is rarely enough. As a guideline an average man requires 2500kcals and average woman requires 2000kcals.You will need to make sure you really are reducing your total energy (calorie) intake. Eating 500 to 600 calories less each day, than your body needs, is realistic. That way you eat enough to be properly nourished and you won’t feel too hungry. It gives you a steady and safe weight loss of about 1lb a week.

This also is untrue. Following the calorie reduction advice given will cause hunger and tiredness and it will be difficult to keep to the advice. And it is very, very unlikely to result in weight loss. - The advice is not supported by evidence. The 1lb a week weight loss claimed for the advice is a calculation based on arithmetic, calculating so many calories to the pound weight; it is not based on actually trying out the advice on real people. - If you want the FACTS about the causes of obesity and the safest way to reduce excess weight: (Eat less salt/sodium) , see http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ - It is easy for most obese people to lose weight safely and rapidly - up to a stone (14 pounds) in the first month alone - by seriously and strictly eating less salt/sodium and eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. One woman following my advice lost 5 stones (70 pounds) in a year without hunger and without restricting calories at all!

Here is an extract from http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html

"Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat and carbohydrate intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7423/1085 for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of dieters actually lose weight, and most gain weight as a result of dieting. - Even the ones who manage to lose weight do not usually improve their health. - See http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1515455,00.html for a report in The Guardian of Monday, June 27th 2005. It is about a huge research study of nearly 3000 people over a period of 18 years. The study found that overweight people who diet to reach a healthier weight are more likely to die young than those who remain fat. It also found that dieting causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits of the weight loss.

Contributing to the increase in obesity we have the widespread prescribing of steroids and HRT and other drugs which cause weight gain, and the failure of doctors to adhere to the protocols connected with the prescribing and monitoring of steroids. But pre-eminent, in my opinion, is the catastrophically damaging calorie-reduction advice that continues to be given despite such a wealth of evidence that it is bad advice.

Another possible factor is the increase in the amount of oestrogen in the water table."

The Department of Health's Draft paper makes no mention of salt or sodium! And yet salt sensitivity is overwhelmingly the main cause of obesity, and reducing salt intake is overwhelmingly the easiest, safest, speediest and most reliable way to lose excess weight. Nor does the Draft paper make any mention of the huge role of prescribed medications in causing salt sensitivity! And there is no mention at all in the Draft paper of fluid retention, yet fluid retention is a major component of obesity!

And how can the Department of Health be so completely unaware that calorie reduction such as they recommend for reducing weight is actually well recognised as being a major cause of weight gain? And how can they be suggesting that surgery, with all its attendant risks and costs, may be appropriate as a means of losing weight? I consider this highly irresponsible.

This Alice in Wonderland approach to weight reduction, whereby the advice given to reduce weight is actually highly likely to result in weight gain, should be abandoned forthwith, along with all the research aimed at finding ways to get obese people to limit their calorie intake and thus harm themselves further. - I include here the dangerous intention to prescribe so-called anti-obesity pills to people already damaged enough.

Give people the correct information about obesity and the salt connection and they will lose weight fast - just like magic - rapidly and easily.