Causes of obesity

[Kirsty]

I subscribe to these emails from a guy called Patrick Holford who is quite well know in the UK for being a bit of a food guru .. he pioneered changing children's diets in schools and behaviour and grades rose significantly ... anyway, got another email circular today which I'll copy and paste here as some may find it informative and interesting:

QUOTE
OBESITY IS WIDE SPREAD..
And the solution is GL


Obesity is such a serious problem, with 9 in 10 adults and two thirds of children predicted to be seriously overweight or obese by 2050, that the Government have launched a £372 million strategy to cut obesity levels.

But their strategy is too complicated and it's not going to halt the obesity epidemic. The bottom line is Britain has become obese because our diets are too high in sugar and refined carbohydrates. This is a much bigger driver of weight gain than fat consumption. If the government are serious about lowering the total glycemic load or 'GL' of our diet, which is what the science shows works, we'd be talking about taxing sugar and warnings on labels.

You see it's not fat that's driving the obesity epidemic - it's sugar, refined carbohydrates and starchy foods. And limiting these, choosing instead unrefined 'low-GL' foods, can aid and sustain weight loss. The worst advice you can give is to eat less fat. Despite cutting calories from fat from 42% to 34% over the past 30 years, America's epidemic of obesity shows no signs of slowing down, with 45% of the population expected to be obese by 2025 (and the new UK figures show we Brits are not far behind).

A recent review of the evidence on popular weight-loss diets concludes that: "Overweight or obese people lost more weight on a low-Glycaemic Load (GL) diet and had more improvement in lipid profiles than those receiving conventional diets". The study, from the prestigious Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, compared the results of six well-designed trials comparing low-GL diets with conventional diets, based on reducing calories. Body mass, total fat mass, BMI (Body Mass Index), total cholesterol and 'bad' LDL-cholesterol all decreased significantly more in the low-GL groups than in the calorie-controlled diets.

GL is not the same as GI. GL is a precise measure of how much a food raises your blood sugar, based on how fast-releasing the sugars in the food are (that's the GI) and the amount of these sugars the food contains (that's the quantity of 'net carbs', which is what Atkins focused on reducing). You need to limit your daily intake to three 10 GL meals, and two 5 GL snacks, to lose weight. This regular intake of the right sort of food helps to keep your blood sugar levels even - and this is the key to successful weight loss.

The GL of a meal is further lowered by eating protein with carbohydrate. Try eating an apple on its own when you're hungry, or an apple with a few almonds or pumpkin seeds. Which makes you feel more satisfied?   There are also supplements that can help, such as chromium, HCA from tamarind, 5-HTP and CLA.

 

[Kirsty]

I think there is something in this ... just to add a point. I think a lot of us who persevered with the Atkins diets that restricts carbs found diminished appetites and lost the compulsion to overeat quite a lot, I think the link with blood sugar is a valid one  .. but Atkins can be unhealthy and extreme though .. and probably the ideal way to eat is to adopt it into a normal routine .. to make changes to what is normal eating for us rather that follow a rigid path .. deprivation always means an inevitable binge..wellf or me it does anyway. Diets dont ever work, or rarely, in the long term.

I believe that the obesity rise has gone alone with the rise is refined carbohydrates and sugar in our diets along with a more sedentary lifestyle ... but there is a huge emotional component to overeating, which is never incorporated in any scientific analysis that Ive seen, Whilst interesting, I dont think this is the whole picture!

[msdisenchanted]

It's chaper to peddle packaged processed poisons than produce an proteins, whivch have a limited shelf life.  If the ingredients on the package require a chemistry dictionary to discern, you are better off without the product. 

Sugar content is spun and suppressed on many a label read carefully...anything that says 'natural' flavor is suspect!