CNN: May 15, 2012
Weight of the Nation falls to cup cakes
Efforts to end the U.S. obesity epidemic have been too slow, resulting in millions of Americans suffering from chronic, debilitating and deadly diseases, according to a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
Released Tuesday at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Weight of the Nation” conference, the report outlines critical goals that must be put in place to address the complex and unrelenting problem of obesity.
The IOM – an independent nonprofit arm of the National Academy of Sciences – offered the following recommendations for individuals, schools, government and industry:
Include physical activity in daily life.
Ensure everyone has access to healthy food and drink choices in all settings.
Change the message and the marketing about the importance of nutrition.
Make schools a gateway to healthy weight.
Motivate employers, doctors and other health care professionals to get on board and champion healthy lifestyles.
“As the trends show, people have a very tough time achieving healthy weights when inactive lifestyles are the norm and inexpensive, high-calorie foods and drinks are readily available 24 hours a day,” said committee chair Dan Glickman, executive director of congressional programs, Aspen Institute, Washington, D.C., and former U.S. secretary of Agriculture. “Individuals and groups can’t solve this complex problem alone, and that’s why we recommend changes that can work together at the societal level and reinforce one another’s impact to speed our progress.”f you eat the right kinds of food you can consume a broad range of calories without storing extra fat.
May 14, 2012 at 17:44
Dr. Wilson comments:
William L. Wilson, M.D.
Although “The Weight of a Nation” focuses a light on a serious national health crisis, I agree with Gary Taubes that this effort will be unsuccessful because it focuses on the same old tired remedies for obesity that clearly are not working—reducing calories and increasing physical activity.
Let me explain. Although consuming excessive calories can cause you to store more fat, calories are not the actual cause of excessive fat storage. If you eat the right kinds of food you can consume a broad range of calories without storing extra fat.
Our current obesity epidemic is driven by the consumption of two food elements: excessive fructose mainly from sucrose (sugar) and high fructose corn syrup and high glycemic carbohydrates mainly from grains. It is now clear that excessive fructose is the primary driver of insulin resistance and central obesity. When you have insulin resistance and consume high glycemic carbohydrates your brain is subjected to magnified glucose spikes. Because high levels of glucose are toxic to nerve cells, over time these glucose spikes trigger a chronic brain disorder called Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. Because the brain plays a critical role in auto-regulating total body fat stores people with CARB syndrome begin to store extra fat even as they lose lean body mass from dieting.
Thus a calorie is not a calorie. To solve our obesity epidemic we need to change the type of food people are eating.
To read the rest of the story: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/08/weight-of-the-nation-declares-war-on-obesity/comment-page-1/#comment-303940