Tackling obesity needs comprehensive action

Sounds good until you read the article.

"There is little debate that obesity presents a public health issue in North America -- obesity rates have more than doubled over a generation in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the causes of obesity -- and therefore, the solutions -- are not as obvious, according to research presented this week at a media workshop run by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

The problem of obesity cannot be reduced simply to genetics, the researchers said, and it also cannot be blamed solely on our environments or learned behaviors. Media coverage, they advised, should highlight that the obesity epidemic is the result of a variety of factors, and that change requires a comprehensive approach that tackles the problem from all sides."

There is only one side, more Calories in than out.

"'Obesity's not rocket science,' said Dr. Diane Finegood, director of CIHR's Institute for Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes. 'It's a lot more complex.'"

Wrong. It is a lot simpler when you look at the cause and not the speculations.

"For someone who discovers that his or her waist is too large, and wants to lose weight to reduce the measurement, the solution would seem to be easy: eat less and move more. 'Obesity is the outcome of a positive energy balance,' said Dr. Angelo Trembley, a professor at Universite Laval. But research done by Trembley and others has shown that it may not be that simple. A variety of biological factors that wouldn't automatically occur to us may also be contributing to the dramatic rise in obesity rates, he said."

Wrong. It is that simple. It is just that diet advice is so very, very wrong.

There is no one and no animal that will not lose weight if it consumes fewer Calories than it burns.

And it will never be possible to lose weight without consuming fewer Calories than are burned.

The rest is all garbage.

As is this:

"There is evidence suggesting that micronutrients -- vitamins and minerals found in food -- may affect fat loss or gain, Trembley said. For example, a study led by Trembley found that female subjects in a placebo group couldn't achieve significant weight loss, despite following a carefully restricted diet, while those who took a calcium supplement showed better weight loss results. It's possible that as with glucose, the brain can recognize low levels of micronutrients like calcium, Trembley said, and regulates appetite control in order to correct them.

'We cannot exclude the possibility at this time that some individuals might gain some weight due to deficiencies in some vitamins and minerals,' he said."

Clearly this possibility can be excluded with a simple multivitamin/multimineral.

And it has been, if you consider all the fat people taking a multivitamin/multimineral.

Or all the fat people who eat low-fat dairy.

Or if you want to protest a multivitamin/multimineral as "not natural" then deal with the unnaturalness of low-fat dairy products.

What did they do? Come from a naturally occurring low-fat dairy producing cow?

And how is it possible for people in cultures where cow-sourced dairy is not prevalent to lose weight?

The whole complexity issue is a smokescreen for the real issue - caloric irresponsibility.

It is also a bonanza for researchers who would rather take money for doing trash than confront the matter truthfully and deal with it directly.