Be honest... how much do you eat?

On the 18th August 2014 the Institute of Economic Affairs in the United Kingdom published a report called The Fat Lie... you can download it here.  Basically I'm having a hard time digesting it.

The Summary of the report is as follows:

• The rise in obesity in recent decades is popularly believed to be the result of increased consumption of calories in general and sugar in particular.
• Campaigners have called for product reformulation, fat taxes and other anti-market policies to reduce calorie consumption at the population level.
• All the evidence indicates that per capita consumption of sugar, salt, fat and calories has been falling in Britain for decades.  Per capita sugar consumption has fallen by 16% since 1992 and per capita calorie consumption has fallen by 21% since 1974.
• Since 2002, the average body weight of English adults has increased by 2 kilograms.  This has coincided with a decline in calorie consumption of 4.1% and a decline in sugar consumption of 7.4%.
• The rise in obesity has been primarily caused by a decline in physical activity at home and in the workplace, not an increase in sugar, fat or calorie consumption.

Basically, the report published by the Institute of Economic Affairs is saying that the undeniable rise in obesity is NOT RELATED TO WHAT WE EAT, but to a lack of exercise.

I'm sorry but I really can't swallow this one.  Yes physical exercise is very important to health, but if you are eating junk food on a regular basis and your diet is high in carbohydrates (especially of the sugary kind), it doesn't matter if you are active, you will put on weight!

One of the arguments against the report is that the report is based on till receipts from supermarkets - so basically it tells us what people are taking home with them.  It doesn't take into consideration WHAT those people are doing with the food they take home, as in are the frying it or is it being made into cakes?  It is also based on members of the general public reporting what they have eaten over various days.

Well, Dr. Michael Mosely did a documentary on eating habits and different diets (I can't for the life of me remember the name of it, sorry!), in that documentary a woman was asked for one week to write down everything she ate and drank at the end of each day.  She was then asked the following week to write down everything she ate and drank at the time of eating or drinking it... not later on.  The difference in the amount of food she'd really eaten (second week) compared to what she had remembered eating (first week) was incredible.  We really do not remember eating things.  You can try this yourself, for one week write everything down at the end of each day.  The following week, write everything down as you eat or drink it, then compare the two.

So if you base a report on other people's memories it isn't going to be reliable.

There is no doubt that there is a serious obesity problem which is costing the public health services a fortune in new equipment for hospitals to cater for obese patients, in the treatment of diseases related to obesity such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, school uniforms are having to be made larger to cater for obese children yet according to The Fat Lie, it's not because of what we are eating just a lack of exercise.

For an adult to burn fat through exercise there has to be an absence of glucose in the body.  If there is glucose present, the body will burn that BEFORE burning fat.  This means roughly 40 minutes of high energy aerobic exercise - such as running BEFORE you even start burning fat.

I am convinced that our sedentary lifestyles are damaging our health to a huge degree and if you add junk food, fried food, carbs, sugary desserts, sugar filled drinks, etc to that sedentary lifestyle, then you have a recipe for disaster.

A plant based diet and a regular exercise program are, in my opinion, the only way to go.  So, my apologies to Christopher Snowdon, but I just can't stomach that report.

These two short videos on this topic are well worth a few minutes of your time.


I can help you improve your health.  If you would like to make an appointment with me either in person or via Skype, just send me an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com