Figures on child obesity, NHS waiting times and house price data are to be investigated after a row about the Home Office's use of knife crime figures

Watchdog to vet figures covering childhood obesity, NHS waiting times and house prices
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"The news comes after the UK Statistics Authority accused the Home Office of making "unsubstantiated" claims and "selective" comparisons that drew "inappropriate" conclusions about knife crime figures.

Yesterday the authority said it had identified 340 sets of official statistics which may have to be judged against a new code of conduct on how the Government presented data.

Twenty sets of figures are judged so important that the authority has launched an immediate investigation into whether they are being presented properly.

They include NHS waiting times between referral by a GP and treatment, accident and emergency waiting times, the official house prices index, statistics on race and the criminal justice system and figures on obesity, physical activity and diet.

Only figures which meet the new code would in future be approved by National Statistics, the official body in charge of releasing Government data.

Sir Michael Scholar, the chairman of the authority, said he hoped judging official figures against the new code - which includes criteria on how figures are presented - will improve trust in official Government data.

He said: "We now have the guiding principles in place against which we will assess official statistics to determine whether they meet the standards necessary to be labelled as National Statistics."

I have a particular interest in the figures on "obesity, physical activity and diet", since for decades official advice and medical advice about the causes of obesity have been incorrect and damaging. We have been told, and we continue to be told, that we should cut down on fat and sugar and eat fewer calories in order to lose weight. We have also been told to take more exercise. - None of these measures will reduce obesity; they are likely, on the contrary, to increase it, as indeed they have been doing for some years now. This is because obesity is not caused by eating too much fat or sugar or too many calories, nor by taking too little exercise. - And there has never been any evidence to back up the advice that has been meted out to us over the years. - Imagine that! - Not a scrap of evidence to back up the misinformation so confidently and so insistently dinned into us! - "Just eat less and exercise more", the patronising mantra has been repeated ad nauseum. - But it doesn't work!

Obesity is not caused by eating fat or sugar or too many calories. Nor is it caused by inactivity/laziness. It is caused by weakened veins leading to fluid retention in the bloodstream, i.e. sodium retention and water/fluid retention, and thereby to excess weight/obesity.

The way to reduce/prevent obesity is to avoid salt and salty food, and to avoid prescription drugs as far as possible because these are a major cause of the the blood vessel damage that precedes the salt sensitivity/fluid retention.

You may wonder why the 'experts' continue relentlessly to give the wrong advice? - Well they may be embarrassed to admit that for decades they have been harming the health and causing avoidable disabilities and early deaths of millions of people - not just their patients - and are hoping that by adding 'cut down on salt' to their fat/sugar/calories/exercise misinformation, somehow the advice about salt will override the cutting down on calories message. - I very much doubt that it will...)o: - They are guessing again, just as they guessed, wrongly, about overeating being the cause of obesity, and were so arrogant that they didn't bother to put their assumption to the test...)o: - Most people have been conditioned pretty well all their lives to believe the falsehood that greed and laziness cause obesity; the message about salt scarcely impinges on the unfortunate overweight people. They are too busy damaging their health and destroying their lives and happiness by constantly trying unsuccessfully to lose weight by eating less (i.e. going hungry) and exercising (becoming exhausted).

Well it may be embarrassment by the professionals - or it may be fear of being sued - or worse - for causing the ill-health and early deaths they have caused and are causing!

Maybe they cling to the hope that the truth will not become clear until after they die... - Well not if I can help it!

Why not help with disseminating the truth yourself? - If you have any friends who are overweight and know from experience that dieting does not work, tell them about my blog or send them a link to my website. - Better still, tell your MP about my website. - I'm afraid my own MP is as much use as a chocolate teapot...)o:

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, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

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

The Government has been accused of fixing the outcome of public consultations on health policy.

Government 'fixing health consultations' with taxpayer-funded groups
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"Earlier this month the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, announced that the display of cigarettes and tobacco in shops would be banned in England and Wales from 2011.

He added that people wanting to buy cigarettes from vending machines would in future have to show proof of age to obtain a token to activate the machine, and machines could be banned altogether in the future.

Mr Johnson boasted that the display ban was favoured by an "overwhelming majority" of 96,000 responses to a six-month public consultation on the subject.

Yet only a handful of those 96,000 respondents came from individuals submitting their personal views. Almost 70,000 came from those collected by pressure groups entirely funded by the Department for Health.

Among the groups submitting block responses were SmokeFree NorthWest, SmokeFree Liverpool and SmokeFree North East, which were all set up by the Government to lobby against the tobacco industry.

The finding has prompted critics to accuse the Government of spending taxpayers' money on establishing groups designed merely to back the Government line on public health issues."

This will not surprise many people. Our Government has lied to us too much for us to trust them even to tell us the correct time.

In particular I would like to point out to any who do not already know, that the Government advice about how to reduce obesity is wrong. - Here is the truth:

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/
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 and

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

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

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

I found David Craig's book, Squandered, very well worth reading. - It's about how the government wastes taxpayers' money.

I recently bought "Squandered" by David Craig, real name Neil Glass, and I finished it a week or two ago. I recommend this excellent, very detailed and well-researched book.

I hope it will be more widely read. The appalling waste, the fraud and hypocrisy, the cruel, casual unconcern for the have-nots in every sphere is horrifying and shameful.

We need urgently to halt the abuse of power and the insidious change from democracy to bureaucracy as the mode of government in the UK and the EU.

My personal bête noire is the NHS and the abuse of power by the system and by many health professionals.

In the light of the current financial scandals that are precipitating us to Hell in a handcart I expect David Craig is busy writing another book!

You can read what Jeff Randell thinks of the book in this article in the Telegraph - When our devious ministers inhale their own exhaust

And Dominic Sandbrook, Daily Telegraph, writes:
"...David Craig's chilling audit of government spending for the last 10 years - a book much more readable and entertaining than it sounds...a genuinely important book. It is no exaggeration to say that if the right people read it, take it seriously, and take appropriate action, this book could not only save the taxpayer billions, it could save lives....This is a terrifying book, but a brilliant and necessary one. Please read it."

Some of the examples of wasteful departments, etc are

Health
Education
Police/Public Order
Welfare
Quangos
The EU
The 2012 Olympics

Blair's spin is ruining the NHS, says Dr Peter Carter, the new head of the Royal College of Nursing.

Nurses' leader: Blair's spin ruining NHS - Sunday Telegraph

Extracts:

"The Prime Minister has allowed the NHS to plunge into crisis by becoming trapped in a "parallel universe of spin", according to the new head of the Royal College of Nursing.

In a blistering attack on the Government's running of the health service, Dr Peter Carter, the RCN general secretary, said cuts in jobs, services and training were catastrophic for the country and a "personal tragedy" for the Prime Minister."

"Millions were wasted on repeated changes to structures that had now almost reverted back to the position they were in 10 years ago, with money lavished on salaries, redundancies and creating offices.

Worse still, the replacement of 100 health authorities with more than 300 primary care trusts created more jobs than there were talented managers, leading to poor decision-making and a "frittering away of much of the Government's investment".

Government figures show 15,000 managers have been recruited since Labour came to power. Dr Carter, who ran an NHS mental health trust in London for 12 years, said he believed one manager in five was not up to the job, while about the same proportion of NHS organisations were not fit for purpose.

The number of nurses emigrating to find work had doubled to 8,000 since Labour came to power in 1997, and the number will continue to grow, he said.

The Government expects that Britain will be short of 14,000 nurses in three years' time, which will force the UK to poach replacements from some of the poorest parts of the world, Dr Carter said."

Lies, Distortions and Government Spin (UK) - research is used to 'prop up' policies and inconvenient evidence is often buried.

According to a damning report by MPs, research is used to 'prop up' policies and inconvenient evidence is often buried, says Roger Highfield. - The article is here.

Here is an example of manipulating evidence:

"When the Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, told one newspaper this year that more women should have babies at home, she signalled her determination by saying that she had even commissioned research to support her case."
Another extract: "Ministers can also lack a certain scientific rigour. Sir John Krebs, former chairman of the Food Standards Agency, singled out the announcement in September last year by the then Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, that the Government planned to ban junk food from meals and vending machines in English schools.

This all sounds very laudable but, according to Sir John, the policy had been developed with no evidence that it would work, no scientific definition of junk food, no cost benefit analysis and no public engagement."

Well I've got news for Sir John! - The Food Standards Agency does not itself set a good example of scientific rigour. - When in the summer of 2005, I was seeking to apprise the Food Standards Agency of the true cause of obesity - namely, fluid retention, usually owing to salt sensitivity and sodium retention - the fellow who had rung me from the FSA, who emphasised to me that he was a Ph.D., told me rudely that people are fat because they are lazy and they eat too much! - That seemed to me typical of a much lower level of thought and sensitivity than Ph.D.s dealing with problems of obesity and advice about it should be displaying...)o: - There is, of course, NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER to support his contention. - That obesity is caused by over-eating and lack of exercise is an ASSUMPTION, unsupported by evidence or research. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ Eating fewer calories and taking more exercise does not reduce obesity. 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 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 obese dieters actually lose weight, and most actually gain weight as a result of dieting.

Sir David King, the government's Chief Scientist is also quoted in today's article. He is someone else I contacted last year about obesity. He did not personally answer me, but got someone from the Department for Trade and Industry to reply to me. (The DTI is responsible for science policy.) - That reply was polite, but effectively held the same message as the FSA's ill-mannered Ph.D spokesperson. There followed some correspondence which ended with the DTI saying I should contact the FSA - with the result I have already detailed.