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.

I watched the ITV programme "Half Ton Hospital: Tonight Special" this evening. It featured the New York obesity clinic, Brookhaven Hospital.

In this documentary we saw a few of the patients/residents in this clinic, one of whom, a young woman, sadly died during the time period covered. - Many obese people suffer from sleep apnoea; they have particular difficulty in managing to keep breathing while they are in bed asleep, so they wear oxygen masks to help with this. This young woman had forgotten to put on her oxygen mask one night and that was why she had died.

Most of the morbidly obese residents were trying to lose weight by adopting the measure advised by the director of the clinic, namely to eat only 1500 calories a day and to take more exercise. Many of them, understandably, could not keep to this regime and there was a lot of what was called 'cheating' - i.e. sending out for food to be brought in - food that was then eaten 'in secret'. - But the CCTV cameras showed this happening.

The director seemed a nice fellow, and was very concerned about the harm that obesity surgery (bariatric surgery) can do and the deaths that often result from it. He wanted to protect one of the residents from this. But the young woman was determined to have it done and by the end of the programme she had had gastric surgery. We were told that this meant that she would then have to eat and drink very little in order not to strain/burst the small stomach that she now has.

But the director was quite right, this young woman could not keep to the regime. She had already started to eat extra food and presumably will damage her stomach.

I can't cover all the programme with what I write here, obviously, but I feel I should commend the kindness that was evident. Those fat patients were not insulted (except when they were in public, away from the clinic) and were treated with respect as fellow human beings.

The sadness is that nobody realised that all they needed to do was eat less salt/sodium... - There is no need to restrict calories and there is no need to increase exercise. Because obesity is not caused by overeating or by insufficient exercise; it is caused by fluid retention, usually in people who are sensitive to salt. Exercise is awkward and often hazardous for obese people. And obese people need a lot of calories/food because carrying all the extra water/weight about uses up a great deal of energy.

One young woman managed to lose 3 stone in weight in a month, keeping to the 1500 calories a day and doing more exercise. - I firmly believe that the reason she lost weight was actually because she must have been eating a lot less salt. - I feel sure that she could have eaten twice as many calories and still lost a lot of weight fast provided that she avoided all salt and also ate plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables.

I invite you to read my Mensa article Obesity and the Salt Connection

You don't have to believe me, of course. - But the thing about what I say is that I'm not selling anything, and you can easily put my advice to the test. You also have the reassurance that cutting down on the amount of salt you eat is completely safe and will benefit your health in many ways.

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.)