Warning of obesity risks to entire generationExtract:
"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.)
