Weight gain destroys body and mind

Being obese in middle age lowers a woman’s chance of being alive and free of chronic diseases after age 70 by nearly 80 per cent, according to new data from the landmark U.S. Nurses’ Health Study. The findings suggest every bit of weight gain between ages 18 and 50 lowers a woman’s odds of being a “healthy survivor” – living to age 70 or older, free from 11 major chronic diseases as well as physical, cognitive and mental impairment. For every one kilogram of weight gain since age 18, the odds of healthy survival decreased by five per cent, the study found. The worst odds for a long and healthy life were among women who were overweight at 18 – with a body mass index greater than 25 – and who gained 10 kilograms or more by mid-life. But even a higher BMI at 18 alone was associated with “moderately, albeit significantly” reduced odds of healthy survival at much older ages.

“When diet doesn’t work”

Here is a graphic illustration of the concept of moral hazard as applied to the drug treatment of lifestyle diseases.

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Reprinted from AdWatch

Many studies confirm that doctors’ behaviour can be influenced by drug advertising, but many of them are unaware of this.
Not only the advertising text, but also the images play an important part.
See below, for instance, the image in the Lescol advertisement published in the April 2008 issue of Rivista SIMG (Journal of the Italian Society of General Practitioners).

Lescol (fluvastatin sodium) is one of the statin class of drugs used to treat of high cholesterol when diet and other lifestyle changes don’t work.
The Summary of Product Characteristics states “for best results in lowering cholesterol, it is important that you closely follow the diet suggested by your doctor”.

What kind of advice could the doctor have given the two people on the beach?

They seem to be really happy and relaxed. The pastel colours, the calm sea and the blue sky in the background convey the impression that all is going well and no changes are needed.

The designer must have been influenced by the Colombian painter Fernando Botero, famous for his fat men and women, who generally emanate a sense of calmness and satisfaction.

What I can understand, as a doctor, after looking at this image?
“It doesn’t matter what I advise my patients to eat; it isn’t worth them trying to change their lifestyle behaviours.
Only the pill can make the difference!”

WHAT YOU EAT MAKES YOU FAT

Great article, Joe. We appreciate there are those that are confused. But there are also large numbers who know what is healthy to eat, but easily blind themselves to reality; they are junk food addicts. That “food” they are piling on their plates is specifically formulated to appeal to addictions to sugar, salt and the mouth feel of fat. Extensive advertising of these high calorie density, low nutrient density foods, “junk food,” reinforces this desire, and gives legitimacy to guiltlessly indulge the addiction. That “food”  that the cruise passengers are piling on their plates is specifically formulated to appeal to addictions to sugar, salt and the mouth feel of fat. Unfortunately, treating junk food addiction is just as hard as treating addictions to tobacco, cocaine or heroin. Doctors are not trained to and not paid to treat addictions. They are paid to “treat” the symptoms of junk food addiction, like hypertension, Type 2 diabetes and “cholesterol” and do futile gastric bypasses. “Treatment” of these symptoms deceives the addict into believing that s/he can avoid the consequences of the addiction and makes the addiction worse. Americans are inundated with direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising, claimed to be a First Amendment right by corporations with $billion ad budgets, promoting this deception and doctors are paid to prescribe those drugs.  Canada is catching up fast. Obesity rates are rising and there is pressure from the media to allow DTC in Canada, presumably guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

The solution? Each individual has to balance the transient pleasure of addiction against the long term disastrous consequences of the addiction. In our society this is the hardest thing most people have to do 24/7/52 for a lifetime and doctors must avoid aggravating addictive behaviour.

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WHAT YOU EAT MAKES YOU FAT
JOE SCHWARCZ
The Gazette
13 Sep 2009

Occasionally, I like to spy on people. Only for the sake of science, of course. And what better opportunity to do that than on a cruise ship? I like cruising. Besides outstanding entertainment, impeccable service, interesting ports, activities galore…read more…

Tech Tags: The Gazette newspaper Insight

What a U.S. food expert learned at Tim Hortons and Swiss Chalet

Read Dr. David Kessler’s The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable North American Appetite (McClelland & Stewart).

“…Kessler has considerable credibility when he discusses how the food industry hijacked our brains with three substances humans find as seductive as sex—salt, sugar and fat—and how the desire for them has overthrown thousands of years of conditioning to create an unprecedented culture of overeating. “

We have been saying much the same for years. Obesity is caused by junk food addiction. Junk food is deliberately concocted to appeal to the taste of salt and sugar and the mouth feel of fat.

Of course, junk food has been available for at least a century. Why has obesity become a problem only in the last 20 years? For our explanation see our page on obesity.

What a U.S. food expert learned at Tim Hortons and Swiss Chalet

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