Obesity is not due to less physical activity
June 18, 2008
Or so says a new study from Europe. If anything, the study finds that physical activity in Europe has slightly increased since the early 1980s, a result that is consistent with findings of the CDC for Americans (the chart plots the percentage of people who say they never do physical activity; that percentage is declining). What this means, of course, is that people who are gaining weight must be eating more. Big surprise.
Yes, we are eating more in terms of size of portions served. And, I think our food is getting more dense in calories as consumers increasingly eat processed foods instead of foods they prepared at home where they could have controlled the fat and sugar content.
But, I still have a clinic full of obese patients who are also sedentary, in addition to having issues with food content/amount. So, again, I want to know who are those people surveyed by the CDC.
Maybe they are folks in suburban Atlanta where they go to fitness gyms??
Comment by Sheila — June 18, 2008 @ 4:19 pm
Maybe fewer people will admit to never doing physical activity. Or they’re more active, but think that allows them to eat more. We have lots of ways to deceive ourselves.
Comment by Gillian — June 19, 2008 @ 12:36 pm
[…] Obesity and Activity 19 June 2008, 3:54 pm Filed under: Food and Health Via Marion Nestle, we have news of a study which suggests that the lack of physical activity is not the cause of […]
Pingback by Obesity and Activity « Law For Food: The law affects what you eat. What you buy to eat affects the law. — June 19, 2008 @ 2:54 pm
The causes of obesity are now believed to be dieting and genetics. Repeated dieting has been shown to alter metabolism so that a person’s natural or genetic weight increases. One can understand how this happens in a culture that is obsessed with a thin ideal - people who are gentically bigger than the ideal have great difficulty accepting themselves as they are. While studies show that 95% of diets don’t work, the dieting industry continues to flourish. We would be taking better care of ourselves and others by promoting healthylifestyles and health at any size.
Comment by blue — June 21, 2008 @ 12:12 pm
So how does this jibe with your overall, oft-stated prescription to eat less, move more?
Perhaps the better prescription is to eat less, and eat less?
The nutrition crusaders have boxed themselves into a weird position now.
How to do you make 200 or so milliion people stop eating so much.
The mission of the nutritionists is not to make people STOP eating.
How do you get 300 million people to STOP eating so much?
You’ve given yourself an interesting life’s work there.
The mission: Get people to stop eating.
Good luck with that one.
Comment by Ivan Road — June 23, 2008 @ 4:17 pm