" Sugar and Carbs are the Obesity Cause, Not Exercise"
Bad diet is a lifestyle cause of obesity, but a lack of exercise is not, says editorial reviewing controversial questions about this established health risk. The article published in a journal from The BMJ says the problem "cannot be outrun by exercise."
woman at gym drinking juice
Commercial messages that say
sugar and carbs are OK as long as you exercise are not true, say the authors.
Even the exercise done by
athletes cannot counter a bad diet, say the authors, who cite evidence that
while obesity has rocketed in the past 30 years, "there has been little
change in physical activity levels in the western population."
Excess sugar and carbohydrates,
not physical inactivity, are to blame for the obesity epidemic, says the
editorial.
The review, which aims to lead
the opinion of sports medicine researchers and clinicians, is written by Dr.
Aseem Malhotra, a UK cardiologist and consultant to the Academy of Medical
Royal Colleges in London, with Prof. Tim Noakes of the Sports Science Institute
of South Africa in Cape Town, and Dr. Stephen Phinney, professor emeritus of
medicine at the University of California Davis.
But poor diet is a bigger risk -
it "generates more disease than physical inactivity, alcohol and smoking
combined." The authors support this claim with information about the
global burden of disease published by The Lancet.
The editorial, published in the
British Journal of Sports Medicine, continues by citing a 2013 review of the
medical literature for metabolic syndrome, which asks why children are
developing this cluster of cardiovascular risk factors.
That article, first-authored by
Dr. Ram Weiss, a pediatrician at the Hadassah Hebrew University School of
Medicine, Jerusalem, Israel, concludes that while obesity contributes to the
syndrome, it is "unlikely" to be an "initiating factor."
And the present authors cite that
"up to 40% of those with a normal body mass index will harbor metabolic
abnormalities typically associated with obesity, which include hypertension,
dyslipidemia, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiovascular
disease."
Malhotra, Noakes and Phinney -
who are well-known for their opinions on diet, exercise and health, having
published widely through popular books and the media - add about the phenomenon
in normal-weight people:
"This is little appreciated
by scientists, doctors, media writers and policymakers, despite the extensive
scientific literature on the vulnerability of all ages and all sizes to
lifestyle-related diseases."
Food and beverage industry 'lies'
The concluding remark of the
editorial reads: "It is time to wind back the harms caused by the junk
food industry's public relations machinery."
As an industry example of
providing "misleading" information, the authors say that Coca-Cola
spent 3.3 billion US dollars on advertising in 2013, and that the company
"pushes a message that 'all calories count;' they associate their products
with sport, suggesting it is OK to consume their drinks as long as you
exercise."
"However, science tells us
this is misleading and wrong," says the article, adding:
"It is where the calories
come from that is crucial. Sugar calories promote fat storage and hunger. Fat
calories induce fullness or 'satiation.'"
The authors further lambast the
food industry by blaming it for creating a public perception that "obesity
is entirely due to lack of exercise."
Malhotra, Noakes and Phinney
argue: "This false perception is rooted in the food industry's public
relations machinery, which uses tactics chillingly similar to those of big
tobacco."
In March, we looked at a report
that similarly alleged the sugar industry "behaved like tobacco
manufacturers" when it came to taking action against tooth decay.
The BMJ, the lead journal of the
group publishing the present opinion piece, is positioned against commercial
bias in health issues, and in February published its own investigations against
the sugar industry, publishing claims that companies have attempted to
influence public health policy.
Source: medicalnewstoday.com
Source: medicalnewstoday.com
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