I don’t know what to make of this article from Great Britain titled ‘Obesity Needs to be Tackled in the Same Way as Climate Change’. It bothers me on so many levels. First, there is a statement, presumably from the fellow connecting obesity and climate change, that scares the living hell out of me:
Professor Philip James said the challenge of obesity was so great that action was needed now, even without clear evidence of the best options.
So…we don’t know what to do, but we need to take action?!? Isn’t that putting the cart before the horse?
What seems to go forgotten in this article is that we have been fighting obesity for the past 50 years – go down the aisle of any grocery store and count the number of low-fat, low calorie products – you might not be able to keep count.
Western culture is obsessed with obesity. How many people do you know are on a diet?
How many people do you know that don’t need to be on a diet are on a diet?
Oh – by the way – if the good doctor paraphrased above hadn’t noticed – the polar ice caps are still melting. Maybe we don’t want to tackle obesity in the same fashion?
And…the article goes on to tell us something only a scientist could tell us and make it sound like a solemn learned observation: children are born small.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the quote:
“Because these children start off being born small, they are then exposed to totally inappropriate environments, and they are therefore super-sensitive.”
Apparently, this researcher works at the Institute for the Frigging Obvious.
Maybe I’m being too hard on the article. It goes on to mention a drive for better product labeling – nothing wrong with that, but the ‘traffic light’ labels wouldn’t help somebody following a low carb lifestyle as there’s no mention of carbohydrates – I guess because they’re so darn good for us. Or is ‘sugar’ and carbs the same thing in the EU?
I guess their food labeling does little to clue me in.
Lastly, they talk to an American researcher that provides the same old song and dance that we’ve heard for 50 years – cut calories and exercise for 60 to 90 minutes.
Problem is – there’s no proof exercise leads to weight loss – and it makes you hungry to boot. I’m not going to put down exercise – I wish I did more myself – but I lost 80 lbs without doing any, so that proves that maybe exercise as a means to weight loss isn’t a requirement for everybody.
So I’m struggling to find why this article is newsworthy. Maybe they just needed to fill space? If you think about it, the BBC can’t post on their site:
Nothing much happened today, in our opinion, so surf someplace else.
I mean, they have to write something.
I guess this is something. The sad fact is – if this is the kind of quality health journalism the public receives, the public will continue to get fat and stay fat.
Low Carb Confidential 
Even if exercise doesn’t have 100% proof that it helps weight loss, it has so many other benefits to cardiovascular and sense of well being. Also if you do build muscle, that will definitely help fat loss as lean muscle will literally burn the fat while you sleep.
I agree that exercise is good. Problem is that to tell an obese person that hasn’t exercised in 20 years that they need to exercise a minimum of an hour each day to lose weight will prevent them from trying *anything*.
You need to give people a reasonable chance of success. Tell them the truth – you don’t necessarily have to exercise to lose weight – and if that works and they drop some pounds, the exercise will be a more realistic goal.