Are Brits really eating themselves to death or is it misinformation that is the problem?

Eating ourselves to death: Britain's fat epidemic
article in the Independent on Sunday

The comments beneath the article are interesting. There are the usual sort whose writers blame fat people themselves for their obesity and there are more thoughtful contributions by people who have given the matter much more thought and realise the problem is multi-faceted. - Here are my own thoughts:

Dieting is a snare and a delusion, and the frequent exhortation thrown at fat people to 'just eat less and exercise more' has not a jot of evidence to support its efficacy. - It absolutely does not make obese people less obese. Dieting fosters malnutrition and dietary deficiencies.

Cutting down on salt and salty food reduces weight easily and safely by reducing the fluid retention which is part of all obesity. Increasing calcium intake reduces weight by increasing fat excretion in the faeces (details on the BBC's website in the BBC2 "Truth About Food" pages from a series a few years ago) and there is growing evidence that excess weight is associated with Vitamin D deficiency as well as with calcium deficiency.

Many prescription drugs cause massive fluid retention and therefore morbid obesity, including steroids like prednisone and prednisolone, HRT, tricyclic anti-depressants like amitriptyline, anti-psychotics, etc.

Obesity is a complex illness, ill-served by the simplistic 'solutions' of the uninformed.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - 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.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/story.html - my 'political' page

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html - social and economic considerations

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

See advice for pregnant mothers

Children and Obesity

Associated health conditions

and FAT RETENTION

I can be contacted via my website if you need my further help. My help is free.