Half of British people will be overweight in a generation, a Government report predicts...

Half of us will be overweight in a generation - Sunday Telegraph

Extract:

"Nine out of 10 men will be overweight - half of them obese - within 15 years. And in 25 years, at least half the population will be obese, a leaked Government report reveals.

Have your say: How should we tackle obesity?

The obesity crisis is described as being as great a threat as that posed by climate change.

It is expected to cripple NHS resources, with spending linked to obesity predicted to triple in less than a decade, and rise seven-fold by 2050.

A draft analysis from the Foresight programme report, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, shows that if current trends continue, at least half the population will be obese by 2032, while half of all primary school boys will reach that point by 2050.

In less than 15 years, 86 per cent of men will be overweight, half of them obese, according to the inquiry which was ordered by chief scientific adviser Sir David King."

Actually, I wrote to Sir David King, and to other personnel at the Department of Trade and Industry, which he headed, years ago, explaining the real causes of obesity and the way to reduce it. My information and insights were not acted upon. - If they had been, the obesity crisis would have been well on the way to being solved by now, and much suffering would have been avoided. The many MPs, journalists, broadcasters, scientists, medics, etc to whom I have written over the years have also disregarded what I wrote to them...)o:

The advice currently being given by obesity 'experts' is wrong, is highly damaging, and is a major factor in increasing obesity.

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (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

Children and Obesity

See Sodium in foods and

Associated health conditions and

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

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

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

Soaring rate of childhood obesity will continue relentlessly because the 'expert' advice is catastrophically WRONG.

Half of all boys will be obese, warns leaked report - Observer

Extract:

"The government's pledge to halt the soaring rate of childhood obesity within three years in fact cannot be achieved until 2050, warns a damning report commissioned by ministers to help them tackle the problem.

The number of six- to 10-year-olds who become obese will keep rising relentlessly until the late 2040s, with as many as half of all primary school-age boys and one in five girls dangerously overweight by 2050, according to the document.

Health campaigners last night said the dramatic findings showed that Britain is facing an unprecedented public health crisis. 'They are frightening preliminary findings and the implications for both the NHS's budget and, more importantly, for children's health are really disturbing,' said Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrats' shadow health secretary. 'I'm not entirely surprised by the direction of the trend but I'm shocked by the scale of it, which is horrifying.'

The confidential document was commissioned by the former Department of Trade and Industry. The paper predicts that both adult and childhood obesity in England will continue rising unless there are dramatic changes in official policy and people's lifestyles. It foresees big increases in heart problems, strokes and diabetes if current upward trends in obesity are not reversed. Few experts expect that to happen.

The 74-page draft document, dated 22 June 2007, also estimates the NHS will have to spend billions more pounds every year on treating patients with obesity-related illnesses. 'A target on childhood obesity was introduced to halt the year-on-year rise in obesity among children aged under 11 by 2010 in the context of a broader strategy to tackle obesity in the population as a whole. As yet there is almost no evidence that the rise in obesity levels is changing.'

And the report goes on to say: 'There is evidence that among children aged six to 10 years, males will be more obese than females, with an estimate of 50 per cent being obese by 2050, compared with 20 per cent of female children. Among children aged 11 to 15, the prediction is different: 23 per cent for males and 37 per cent for females.'

I find it somewhat ironic that it was the former Department of Trade and Industry that commissioned this report, because I wrote to the Department of Trade and Industry over two years ago, explaining that obesity is caused not by overeating, but by salt sensitivity, often caused by prescription drugs, and that reduction in salt intake, rather than dieting, is the way to reduce obesity. I wrote several letters to them, including to Sir David King and to Dr Chris McFee. I informed them about the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7423/1085 which reports actual research on what happens when the standard medical advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and loads of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight. - Clearly my information was not acted upon, inasmuch as the harmful and counterproductive dieting advice continues to be given to the overweight and obese victims of the government's and the medical profession's misinformation, and parents of overweight children will no doubt continue to be blamed for their children's weight problems, when it is actually the 'expert' advice that is to blame for this catastrophic incidence of obesity and its attendant ill-health. Doctors are giving the wrong advice.

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
How to Lose weight!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html
(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

See Sodium in foods and Associated health conditions

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

Lies, Distortions and Government Spin (UK) - research is used to 'prop up' policies and inconvenient evidence is often buried.

According to a damning report by MPs, research is used to 'prop up' policies and inconvenient evidence is often buried, says Roger Highfield. - The article is here.

Here is an example of manipulating evidence:

"When the Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, told one newspaper this year that more women should have babies at home, she signalled her determination by saying that she had even commissioned research to support her case."
Another extract: "Ministers can also lack a certain scientific rigour. Sir John Krebs, former chairman of the Food Standards Agency, singled out the announcement in September last year by the then Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, that the Government planned to ban junk food from meals and vending machines in English schools.

This all sounds very laudable but, according to Sir John, the policy had been developed with no evidence that it would work, no scientific definition of junk food, no cost benefit analysis and no public engagement."

Well I've got news for Sir John! - The Food Standards Agency does not itself set a good example of scientific rigour. - When in the summer of 2005, I was seeking to apprise the Food Standards Agency of the true cause of obesity - namely, fluid retention, usually owing to salt sensitivity and sodium retention - the fellow who had rung me from the FSA, who emphasised to me that he was a Ph.D., told me rudely that people are fat because they are lazy and they eat too much! - That seemed to me typical of a much lower level of thought and sensitivity than Ph.D.s dealing with problems of obesity and advice about it should be displaying...)o: - There is, of course, NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER to support his contention. - That obesity is caused by over-eating and lack of exercise is an ASSUMPTION, unsupported by evidence or research. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ Eating fewer calories and taking more exercise does not reduce obesity. Calorie counting and advice about increasing exercise and reducing fat intake to reduce obesity are ineffective, counter-productive and often damaging. - See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 BMJ article for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fat.

It is commonly accepted now, except by the 'experts', that less than 5% of obese dieters actually lose weight, and most actually gain weight as a result of dieting.

Sir David King, the government's Chief Scientist is also quoted in today's article. He is someone else I contacted last year about obesity. He did not personally answer me, but got someone from the Department for Trade and Industry to reply to me. (The DTI is responsible for science policy.) - That reply was polite, but effectively held the same message as the FSA's ill-mannered Ph.D spokesperson. There followed some correspondence which ended with the DTI saying I should contact the FSA - with the result I have already detailed.