Five days before Christmas the Department of Health released its official statistics on obesity. They shockingly showed that although the proportion of men classed as obese increased from 13.2 per cent in 1993 to 22.1 per cent in 2005, and from 16.4 per cent to 21.9 per cent for women.
The statistics also showed that the amount of calories we consumed has fallen by 20 per cent since 1974, and that we eat 7% more fruit and vegetables than in 2004. So how come? What is the missing factor?
An answer that makes alot of sense and clearly needs more consideration is proposed by Pat Thomas, the Ecologist's Heath Editor. She said: "The most frustrating, or perhaps underhanded, aspect of this new report is the statistician's refusal to analyse their own data. The 162-page report amounts to little more than a series of tables and figures which if subjected to scrutiny tell us that we are eating healthier, taking in fewer calories each day than in previous study periods, and yet as a nation we are becoming increasingly fat.
"The only way such figures can begin to make sense is if we begin to look at weight gain and weight loss as a result of a person's whole environment, and specifically their exposure to industrial pollutants which can severely disrupt the body's weight control systems. It's good to see that once again, the Ecologist is ahead of the game; we exposed this devastating connection in our November cover feature, 'The Big Fat Fix', and proposed that chemicals are at least as influential as calories in the fight against obesity."
All this makes it all the more disappointing that Green moves to tighten legislation in the EU have been thwarted just before Christmas by chemical companies. See letter to press on the legislation.
Another factor must surely also be the increase in our sedentry lifestyle: children walk less to school and elsewhere, there are less sports at school, more TV watching and computer playing, less cycling on our roads...the list goes on.
Of interest to anyone looking to walk more maybe the new website: www.strollinginstrouddistrict.org
This provides information on walking in the Stroud District. The site’s main role is to provide people with information on the benefits of walking, but most importantly enables people to find out what walks take place in their area. The site also offers advice on how people can become volunteers and lead walks within their own community. Additionally, the site enables people to apply for a pack of 44 circular walks from across the district.
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2 comments:
Obese Children are becoming an epidemic in America!
Philip - THE major factor in obesity that people seem to wilfully ignore is the car, aka the infernal combustion engine that is ruining our towns and countryside with roads and pollution as well.
Half the people in our failing society seem to have forgotten that they have legs, no wonder they get fat.
Like any other addiction, there is a choice. Don't get hooked in the first place. Now that IS freedom.
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