Here's today's money quote from one of my favorite blogs, which should be required reading for everyone buying all the hype about obesity in America:
"We know that the body of evidence, as even acknowledged by an expert review conducted by the National Institutes of Health, shows that weight gain with age or stable weights even if fat, for both men and women has the lowest death rates; while dieting, weight loss or fluctuating weights (yo-yoing), significantly increases the risk of actual death, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes and cancers."
4 comments:
I have a genuine question about these statements and a few others made on that site. I understand that the diet industry and the effects of yo-yo dieting may be doing damage to people's health.
However, shouldn't a focus on preventing children from becoming obese in the first place- by increasing exercise and decreasing things like junk foods and unhealthy habits, be a priority? Then they'll presumably never deal with the side effects of either being obese or dieting. This is the quote that I may be misinterpreting: Growing numbers of young people are knowingly choosing blindness, limb amputation, kidney failure and death rather than be fat. Just what they’re doing to control their weight is something no one’s wanted to speak about for fear of giving more young people ideas, but it’s too late for that.
Oops, I did take that quote out of context. I missed the related article before I responded.
I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that just moving around when you're larger is a form of exercise on its own? I mean that sincerely, not sarcastically. Now having said that, let me just comment that, as a teacher, I'm seeing more and more overweight children. Not just plump children, but children who are gasping for air when they have to climb a flight of stairs or even walk up a small incline their their classes. It's not just weight but inactivity that is killing people. Some overweight kids are even excused from gym because it makes them too tired.
jbmmommy - that would be nice, but as far as I've seen there are virtually NO programs that have any appreciable documented impact on the incidence or extent of childhood obesity (or adult obesity either, as far as I'm aware). But the "epidemic" is constantly hyped by the "experts" to get funding for yet another ineffectual program. That blog has lots of very detailed reviews on these.
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