Parents will be accused by the Government of "killing their children with kindness" in a new anti-obesity campaign, it has been reported.

Parents 'killing obese children with kindness', says Government
article in the Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"The campaign is said be based on on an unpublished report by the Department of Health that has been sent to senior NHS managers. According to The Observer, the report says three million young families must be better informed about nutrition to prevent their children becoming obese.

It reportedly features a photograph of three young children with the caption: "One of us will die of heart disease or diabetes when we're older because of the foods our parents let us eat now."

In a section headed "Killing with kindness", it reportedly says: "It's hard to say no to your kids, but if you give in every time you're not being kind, you're killing with kindness. Kids who eat the wrong sorts of food and sit around all day are more likely to get heart disease, cancer, diabetes and to die young. Some will die younger than their parents."

It continues: "Parents do not value physical activity or accept responsibility for children's activity levels. Parents believe their children are already sufficiently active at school.

"Sedentary activity is encouraged by parents. Parents believe it is too unsafe to play outside. mums lack the confidence to take part in physical activity with their children.""

It is not 'killing with kindness' nor is it sedentary activity that is causing child obesity. - It is the continued misinformation that the government and the medical profession churn out about how to reduce obesity. Obesity is not caused by overeating or inactivity, so it cannot be reduced or prevented by eating less and/or exercising more.

Obesity is caused by fluid retention, caused in turn by salt sensitivity. So obesity can be prevented or reduced by addressing the problem of fluid retention. The simplest way to do this is to avoid eating salt and salty food.

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!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

"We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun." - George Orwell had something there...

"We may find in the long run that tinned food is a deadlier weapon than the machine-gun." -
George Orwell. - How right he was!

George Orwell also , in his prescient book, 1984, introduced us to Doublethink: "The power to hold two completely contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accept both of them." - I've got news for you: - you almost certainly exhibit this power yourself. - Here's how:-

You KNOW that you know personally people who are not fat - people who are slim, in fact - who definitely eat far more than their body can require, and who take very little exercise and who do not have a particularly high temperature. - And so you KNOW that over-eating and inactivity do not cause obesity - because they do not cause obesity in those people.

And yet simultaneously you nonetheless believe that fat people are fat because they eat too much...

This is Doublethink. - Give it up!

So much tinned food is high in salt/sodium - and it is salt/sodium that makes fat/obese people fatter/more obese, and, more and more, obesity will bring about great suffering and early death to millions upon millions of people.

Don't fall for the lies being promulgated about obesity being caused by greed and laziness; it is caused by fluid retention, caused in turn by salt sensitivity. - Read the facts, not the propaganda...

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, angina, 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!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Vulnerable groups

See Sodium in foods

See also FAT RETENTION

A foolish, ill-informed David Cameron has attacked "moral neutrality", saying the obese, the idle and the poor have no one to blame but themselves.

David Cameron launches 'moral neutrality' attack on obese, idle and poor
Article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"We talk about people being 'at risk of obesity' instead of talking about people who eat too much and take too little exercise."

Absolutely wrong, Mr Cameron! - Where's your evidence? - Any research to support your offensive, false assumption? - Of course not! - You are as ill-informed about obesity as is the prejudiced, ignorant Dr Hamish Meldrum, Chairman of the BMA Council. - See http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2007/08/fat-people-are-just-greedy-says-ill.html

Dieting, i.e. eating less food/fewer calories does not reduce obesity, nor does increasing exercise. - This is because obesity is not caused by overeating.

WHEN is the truth going to be told about obesity?

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 www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Don't get hoodwinked by Hoodia! - You do NOT need to suppress your appetite or eat less to lose excess weight! - Just eat less salt/sodium.

Dieting does not work.

Dieting is harmful.

Dieting results in weight gain.

Read the evidence. - See Scientists Say Dieting Does Not Work or any of the other reports about what actually happens to people's weight when they diet in order to lose excess weight.

You are not overweight because of overeating; you are overweight because of fluid retention.

Just eat less salt! - You will lose excess water and thus lose weight safely and surely.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and heart, 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.

Britain: one in three primary-school leavers is overweight, - The cause of obesity in children is misinformation by the 'experts'.

One in three primary-school leavers overweight - Telegraph

Extracts:

1) "One in three children leaving primary school in some parts of Britain are overweight, it has emerged.

New figures released by the Department of Health have also shown that one quarter of children are already obese when they start school before the age of five.

The statistics form part of a nationwide survey of children’s weight which is currently being carried out by the Government.

Figures released by 10 primary care trusts under the Freedom of Information Act have prompted experts to fear that the obesity epidemic has been grossly underestimated.

The findings suggest the Government may not meet its target of stopping the increase in obesity among under-11s by 2010. "

2) "The research comes as a poll for high-street supermarket Sainsbury’s found that weight-conscious teenage girls are not eating enough calories for their age group.

It revealed just over a third of 13 to 18-year-old girls are on diets or have dieted recently and 45 per cent eat less than 1,200 calories per day, which is below the recommended intake.

Only 14 per cent of the teenaged boys surveyed admitted to dieting but a quarter consumed fewer than 800 calories per day - as little as one third of their recommended daily amount."

The second extract provides the explanation for this increasing problem of obesity - namely the continued incorrect advice that 'experts' give about how to reduce obesity. The advice is based on the assumption - unsupported by scientific evidence - that obesity is caused by overeating and can be remedied by eating less, i.e. dieting. - This is catastrophically harmful advice because, as you have just read, it leads to obese people eating insufficient food - particularly damaging to children.

In fact, obesity is caused not by overeating, but by fluid retention, and fluid retention is exacerbated by 'slimming'/dieting...

To reduce fluid retention, and thereby reduce excess weight/obesity, it is necessary to cut down on salt/sodium intake. Eating plenty of fruit and unsalted vegetables makes weight loss faster, because these are foods rich in potassium, and potassium helps to remove sodium and the water that accompanies it from the body - by way of the urine.

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!
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

Obesity in children: - http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html

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.

'Debate' about obesity: opposing views given, but neither side realises that salt sensitivity/sodium retention/fluid retention explain the conundrum.

Size matters: The Great British weight debate - Independent on Sunday

Yet another article about obesity which wrongly assumes overeating to be the cause of the rising incidence of obesity...)o:

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 the result of taking prescribed medications, especially steroids such as prednisolone, prednisone and HRT, and anti-depressants such as amitriptyline. Obesity can be easily reduced by seriously reducing your salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. - It is important not to restrict calories. - 'Slimming' is unnecessary, ineffective and often harmful.

The conventional 'wisdom' and advice about obesity is wrong.

There is no evidence to support the calorie theory about obesity. - And reducing calories does not reduce obesity. - Reducing salt intake DOES reduce 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 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.

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 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.

Doctors intend to suggest that fat children be put into care. They would do better to correct the misinformation they have been giving for decades!

Doctors: 'Put obese children into care' - Independent on Sunday

Extract:

"A motion to be put forward at the British Medical Association's (BMA) annual conference later this month will also say that social workers should treat childhood obesity as neglect in cases where parents refuse to listen to the advice of healthcare experts.

The recommendation comes amid growing concern about Britain's obesity epidemic and the long-term health risks. British children are among the most overweight in the world. In the UK, there are around one million obese children under 16. It is thought that as many as one fifth of boys and one third of girls will be obese by 2020. The rise in obesity has led to an increase in childhood diabetes and warnings that children are putting themselves at risk of future heart disease, osteoarthritis and some cancers."

Child obesity is directly caused by the long failure of health professionals and other 'experts' to give the right information and advice about obesity. Their insistence that obesity is caused by overeating has led to overweight and obese people trying to lose weight by dieting/'slimming' and calorie counting/restriction, and to parents trying to get their children to lose weight in this way too.

But obesity is NOT caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, which in children results from eating too much salt and salty food. In adults obesity is frequently the result 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.

Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

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.)

Misguided scientists create hazardous 'anti-obesity' infant formula

Scientists create 'anti-obesity' infant formula - The Independent

I am absolutely incensed about this! - Not content with ruining the health of the rest of the populace, obesity 'experts' are proposing to compromise babies' health before they have even got started on their lives...)o:

There is a dangerous presumption that somehow obesity will continue to increase despite what anyone does. - That is nonsense, of course. - The cause of increasing obesity is the dangerously flawed advice given by the 'experts'. - The assumption that keeps on being made is that obesity is caused by overeating, but it is not. - It is caused by fluid retention. - Fluid retention (and therefore obesity) is caused in children by eating salt or salty food. See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.html - When adults who previously were slim suddenly put on a lot of weight (i.e. fluid retention) it is usually caused by taking prescribed medication, because so many prescribed drugs have the side-effects of sodium and water retention. See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

There has never been any evidence to support the overeating theory of obesity causation, nor to support the calorie reduction/increase exercise theory of obesity reduction. They are both untested and untrue.

IT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT NOT TO CUT DOWN ON CALORIES IF YOU WANT TO LOSE WEIGHT. - IT DOES NOT WORK. - SINCE OBESITY IS NOT CAUSED BY OVEREATING, IT IS NOT REVERSED BY UNDEREATING.

Slimming/dieting is unnecessary, ineffective and is ALWAYS harmful - often dangerously so.

The safe, easy, reliable, rapid way to lose excess weight is to stop eating salt/sodium and salty food and to eat plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk and my Mensa article Obesity and the Salt Connection Read about the politics, the medical negligence and the baleful pharmaceutical industry that have caused the obesity epidemic - page http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html (You need to read the whole page.)
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

Five-ton ambulances answer 999 calls by supersized patients in Britain

Five-ton ambulances answer 999 calls by supersized patients - The Independent

Extracts:

"Britain's obesity epidemic is forcing the NHS to introduce specially adapted ambulances for overweight patients.

Nearly a quarter of hospitals have brought in vehicles which have strengthened stretchers, hoists and suspension, new figures show. More than a third of those surveyed said they were planning to introduce the ambulances, so they could cope with call-outs from the obese.

The NHS spends an estimated £7bn every year on obesity- or bariatric-related disorders. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI) goes over 30. Nearly a quarter of British adults are now overweight, which has created huge problems for ambulance crews."

"How Britain's obesity problem tips the scales

BIGGER COFFINS: Funeral directors are being obliged to order larger-sized coffins from the United States to take expanding Britons on their final journey.

LARGER FURNACES: Cematoriums are installing new furnaces to cater for coffins up to 44in wide.

FAIRGROUND RIDES: Designers are installing larger seats and altering the normal way of strapping passengers in by their shoulders. Instead, they are fastened in around the waist. G Force, in Tamworth, has a larger seat at the rear of each six-seater train.

NEW AMBULANCE TROLLEYS: Wider and reinforced to cope with extra weight. They also feature clamps that fix to the ambulance floor. "

Of course there would not be any of these problems if people had been given the facts about obesity. - 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. 'Slimming'/dieting almost always results in weight gain because it usually causes increased fluid retention. There has never been any scientific, reproducible evidence to support the theory that eating fewer calories reduces obesity. PEOPLE WHO REDUCE THEIR CALORIE INTAKE DO NOT LOSE WEIGHT. - PEOPLE WHO REDUCE THEIR SALT/SODIUM INTAKE DO LOSE WEIGHT - EASILY AND RAPIDLY.

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.)

Last evening on ITV I watched the final documentary programme about Brookhaven Hospital in New York - the hospital for morbidly obese patients.

Last evening on ITV I watched the final documentary programme about Brookhaven Hospital in New York, the hospital where morbidly obese people go to be cared for and, hopefully, to lose weight. I was, again, very impressed by the kindness, humanity and understanding shown towards the patients by the staff there, especially by the manager of the hospital. Everyone seems to be treated as an individual and care is taken to preserve their dignity. - I don't think I can say the same for the programme editors though...)o: - I will write about this later in this post.

Although there was a theme about the supposed genetic nature of obesity and the risk of children of obese parents becoming obese themselves, I was not very interested in this, because I believe it to be a bit of a red herring. I am confident that any genuine genetic component of obesity is very small compared with the overwhelming magnitude of the main factors, namely prescribed medications which cause sodium and water retention, pregnancy, and eating salty food in childhood. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/vulnerable_groups.html

What particularly interested and impressed me was the success and happiness of some individual patients who lost a great deal of weight in their time at the hospital. The weight loss cannot, of course, have been because of lower calorie intake (See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 article in the British Medical Journal for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed!). The weight loss must be because the meals at the hospital are much lower in salt/sodium that the food that these patients had been eating prior to going into the hospital. - Obese people who reduce their sodium intake always lose weight - because of excreting extra water - even if they eat more calories than before...

I fear that when those successful patients eventually return home they may gain weight again simply because their meals are unlikely to be as low in salt as those at that hospital. - On the other hand, they may now have come to prefer less salty food and may be able to keep to lower sodium food. - I do hope so.

It would all be so much easier if the 'expert' advice about obesity contained the information about salt and fluid retention... - And if reckless high dose prescribing of steroids and other drugs which cause sodium retention were to be curbed BY LAW.

My criticism of the programme makers lies in the way they portrayed the sons of the brave woman who lost such a lot of weight. - We hardly seemed to see these young men doing anything other than eating - and they were always shown as though they were gluttonous pigs...)o: - They were kind, loving sons to their mother and obviously decent guys, who should not have been spoken of patronisingly or held up to ridicule in this way. - It is definitely NOT their fault that the 'experts' do not tell them that eating less salt is the key to losing excess weight safely, rapidly and easily. When obese people make a genuine effort to eat less sodium they usually lose about 14 pounds in the first month.

Obese people are almost always portrayed on TV as though they are gluttons. It has become the popular perception of obese people. But it is unfair and untrue. - Most obese people are, sadly, 'dieting' or watching calories most of the time. Some, of course, overeat - but some slim people overeat; in fact I think most of the people who overeat are slim. - The fact is that simply overeating does NOT cause obesity, as I have explained above.

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.)
If you would like my help, I can be emailed from my website.

Which? mag finds that some low fat Weight Watchers products for people on diets are high in sugar. - So what! - It's SALT that causes weight gain.

The savoury ready meals 'that can contain more sugar than ice cream' - Telegraph

Extract:

"Some savoury ready meals contain more sugar than vanilla ice cream, according to a study today by the consumer watchdog

A report by Which? magazine found that some low fat Weight Watchers products aimed at people on diets were also high in sugar."

If you are on a diet to lose weight, I urge you to stop dieting. - Obesity is not caused by overeating, by too many calories, by too much fat or too much sugar. - It is caused by fluid retention, usually because of sensitivity to salt which in turn has often been caused by taking prescription drugs. - You can lose weight fast and very easily, without hunger and without exercising and completely safely. - All you need to do is cut down on the amount of salt and salty food you eat. - Give up counting calories altogether! - Just eat fresh food, cooked from scratch, and be sure to include plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit.

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.)

Liver disease: the silent epidemic caused mainly by fluid retention and salt sensitivity

Liver disease: the silent epidemic - New Scientist

I'm afraid I have to disagree fundamentally with the main assertion in this New Scientist article. My comments will follow after the following extract from the article:

"There's more than one way to destroy your liver - and excessive eating is fast becoming the number one culprit

PETE had a truly awful Christmas. A few weeks earlier he was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver and the news was still sinking in while all around him the alcohol-fuelled festivities were in full swing. "I don't even drink," he told the specialist incredulously when given the diagnosis. Surely only hardened alcoholics get cirrhosis?

In November, feeling tired and washed-out, he had gone to see his doctor. Apart from being overweight he seemed to be in good health. Yet blood tests indicated he was anaemic and an endoscopy revealed a burst blood vessel in his gullet, a sign of cirrhosis, the final stage of liver disease. Weeks later Pete's abdomen swelled alarmingly as it filled with fluid - another sign - and a liver biopsy confirmed the diagnosis. He was only 35. "

It is, of course, correct that cirrhosis of the liver does not develop only in hardened alcoholics, though that is the impression we tend to get because that is mostly what is conveyed to us by health professionals. This article suggests that the cause is overeating. - It isn't. - The main and often exclusive cause is fluid retention and the salt sensitivity that results in the fluid retention. - The fluid retention causes obesity, which could also be said to be the cause of the liver disease. - But obesity is NOT caused by overeating. - That is the point.

The way to protect the liver from this grave illness is to avoid dieting and to minimise salt/sodium intake because this minimises the fluid retention and results in swift, safe weight reduction as some of the excess fluid is excreted from the body.

The liver is also damaged by having to metabolise medications, so it is best to avoid taking prescribed or over the counter drugs if they are not really necessary.

Obesity is not caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, which in turn is usually caused by sodium retention. The blood vessels become distended with extra sodium and the water it attracts to itself. There is no evidence to support the calorie theory about obesity. - And reducing calories does not reduce obesity. - Reducing salt intake DOES reduce obesity because it reduces the fluid retention by enabling the body to excrete excess salt and water in the urine.

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.

See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html for the many health problems that will be ameliorated by salt reduction.

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.)

Addendum 1:

The first 'Anonymous' has added a comment below this post, saying "I consume more salt than any other person I know, I occationally just pour some in my hand and eat it. I weight 145lbs @ 5'10 and depending on the day can be at body fat percentage that is just below the healthy minimum. Explain that." - Well I am not able to add a comment myself because of a technical problem, but the answer to Anonymous is that only people who are sensitive to salt become overweight/obese and suffer from fluid retention, so obviously Anonymous is not sensitive to salt and that is why he is slim and can eat lots of salt without gaining weight. He has good strong healthy veins that are strong enough to resist becoming swollen with excess salt and the water attendant on it.

Slim people are slim because they have healthy veins and kidneys and are not sensitive to salt.

Addendum 2:

The second 'Anonymous' comment asks if there is something other than salt in the diet that is causing the weak veins and the salt sensitivity and the answer is that there are many prescribed pharmaceutical drugs that cause weak veins and salt sensitivity. If Japanese people take fewer prescribed pharmaceutical drugs than people in the western world then they are much less likely to become obese. Pharmaceutical drugs are a major cause of obesity, especially of morbid obesity, so people who value their health would be wise to avoid taking prescribed pharmaceuticals unless there is very good reason to do so. See my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Kate Winslet accepted a "substantial donation" to an eating disorder charity in settlement of her libel action over 'diet doctor' story in Grazia mag

Winslet wins payout over 'diet doctor' story

Extract:

"Kate Winslet, the actress, today accepted a "substantial donation" to an eating disorder charity in settlement of her libel action over a magazine's claims she visited a diet doctor.

The 31-year-old star of films including Titanic and Sense and Sensibility was not at London's High Court.

However her solicitor, Rachel Atkins, told Mr Justice Eady that the story in Grazia magazine last month caused the actress "substantial personal hurt, distress, anger and embarrassment" as well as damaging her personal and professional reputation.

Miss Atkins said the article wrongly stated - albeit in good faith - that the actress had approached a doctor for help with her weight, despite the fact that she has previously said she would not bow to Hollywood pressure to be skinny. "

This is excellent news and Kate Winslet is to be commended for taking this action. The constant encouragement to 'diet' and to try 'slimming' is very damaging to the health of many vulnerable people.

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.

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

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.)

Snacking gene contributes to obesity - says Steve O'Rahilly, Professor of Biochemistry and Medicine at the University of Cambridge. - What drivel!

Snacking gene contributes to obesity

Extract:

"Steve O'Rahilly, Professor of Biochemistry and Medicine at the University of Cambridge, and one of the researchers who identified the abnormality, said: "The vast majority of these people have already been along the diet route. They have tried intense attempts to lose weight and it simply fails.

"They are fat for a reason. They have impaired ability to remain satiated between meals because they have a molecule that is broken in their brain — it does not transmit the signal that tells them when they are full.""

This is foolish nonsense!

Child obesity is almost always caused by eating salt and salty food. These fat children will grow up to be fat adults unless they stop eating salty food.

Adult obesity, in adults who were previously slim, is usually caused by salt sensitivity and fluid retention, exacerbated by the flawed 'expert' advice that calorie restriction is necessary in order to lose weight. You do NOT need to restrict calories to lose excess weight! - You need to eat less salt/sodium.

Salt sensitivity is often caused either by taking prescribed medications that cause sodium retention, and not being warned that while taking these drugs that they must avoid eating salt, or by pregnancy, and not being warned that while pregnant they must avoid eating salt.

Obesity is NOT caused by faulty genes that make people hungry between meals! - It is caused by 'experts' - like this professor - giving the wrong information.

All obesity, whether in children or adults, is accompanied by increased appetite/hunger - the reason for which should be glaringly obvious! - A bigger, heavier body requires more calories/energy to move it around and to service it. And a bigger body has a greater surface area from which to lose heat, so for this second reason also it requires extra calories.

And since all obesity uses up so many calories and also makes the body so ungainly and uncomfortable, obese people do not usually feel like taking much exercise. - Their inactivity is the consequence of the excess weight and not the cause of it.

The overeating/underactivity explanation for the cause of obesity, and all the associated explanations dependant upon it, are not supported by EVIDENCE. - The calorie myth is just that: a myth.

OBESITY IS CAUSED BY FLUID RETENTION, NOT BY OVEREATING AND/OR BY INACTIVITY. THE BEST, THE SAFEST, THE FASTEST WAY TO REDUCE OBESITY IS TO CUT DOWN DRASTICALLY ON SALT INTAKE, AND TO EAT PLENTY OF FRESH FRUIT AND VEGETABLES - AND COMPLETELY ABANDON CALORIE RESTRICTION BECAUSE THIS IS A RED HERRING.

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

"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 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."

All that is normally necessary to lose excess weight is to eat less salt, i.e. to reduce one's sodium intake, and to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.

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.)

If you would like to ask me a question or would like further advice, or if you would like to help me in my mission, I can be emailed from my website.

If, despite what I have written above, you still believe that obesity is caused by overeating then read my blog entry http://aboutsalt.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_archive.html

Surge in obesity among children adds to Britain's growing band of diabetics. The Calorie Myth needs to be abandoned. Children need to eat less salt.

Surge in obesity among children adds to Britain's growing band of diabetics

Extract:

"The burden of diabetes is growing much faster than health planners anticipated because of the epidemic in obesity in Western countries, scientists say today."

"Diabetes can lead to many serious health problems, including heart disease, blindness and amputations. It occurs when the body cannot properly utilise sugar to provide energy. This results from either a lack of insulin — the hormone that controls sugar use — or because the effects of insulin are no longer felt."

The reasons for the surge in obesity - and therefore of diabetes and its attendant serious health problems - are explored on my webpage http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html and may be briefly summarised as the failure to publicise the true causes of obesity and the best ways to reduce it.

Obesity is not caused by overeating. It is caused by fluid retention, which in turn is usually caused by sodium retention. There is no evidence to support the calorie theory about obesity. - And reducing calories does not reduce obesity. - Reducing salt intake DOES reduce obesity. Excessive salt intake is the main cause of child obesity. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/children.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 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/
(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."

British School Dinners and Jamie Oliver

Three Cheers for Jamie Oliver! - for drawing attention to the scandalously poor quality of so many school dinners in Britain - containing loads of salt (main cause of obesity in children) and low-grade fat, lots of sugar (damages teeth) and very lacking in fresh fruit and vegetables. He shamed the politicians and others into taking action to improve the meals and to spend more time and money on them. The changes he brought about will have immeasurably improved the health, behaviour and school performance of all the children who are now eating real food at dinnertime, instead of junk like 'turkey twizzlers'...

Three boos for all the dinosaurs who are still churning out the advice that obese people should simply eat less and exercise more! - After decades of this advice, the incidence of obesity is still rising, even though most obese folk are restricting their food intake most of the time. - You'd think the 'experts' would realise by now that the advice simply does not work...

Think about it: - it's only fat people who get told that they are over-eating and should eat less. - Do the slim people who eat massive amounts, often of high calorie food, ever get told they are eating too much and should eat less? - No they don't!

Obesity is not caused by over-eating and cannot be 'cured' by under-eating.

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.)