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!
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