This is a press release from the University of California, Davis regarding the need for a paradigm shift in our medical community's hyper-focused lose-weight-and-be-healthy theory.
Researchers Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor provide a meta-analysis of over 150 different studies on weight-focused health habits and shed light on biases found within the data-interpretation . . . pointing out that weight loss isn't a statistically significant variable in improving health.
One of the reasons I love Dr. Bacon is that I consistently find her research to be accurately structured and analyzed both experimentally and statistically. I also love that her personal interests and intent are highly transparent: acknowledging funding sources, associated groups and possible biases.
And before you dismiss the article because you're over-steeped in the current paradigm, remember that the weight-loss industry rakes in over $58 billion a year! Don't you find it just a little bit suspicious that our society spends about $160 million a day (yes, a DAY!) in an attempt to lose weight . . . and yet, according to news, media, and medical officials, obesity is still an "epidemic" . . . or at the very least, "holding steady", not declining? It's especially concerning when we know that spending has increased every year since 1992 when we were at $30 billion for the year.
I hope I'm not the only one that sees the blatant crazy here. . . if we have thousands of weight loss companies advertising how successful their product is and tons of people are motivated enough to pay $58 billion in weight-loss products and programs . . . then why do our most optimistic weight estimates show our weight stats as "holding steady".
Surely we can't blame this kind of failure solely on lack of self-control or disinterest in weight loss! Heck, even if that is the problem, our current approach is obviously failing us.
Allow yourself to have just the tiniest amount of skepticism in the current paradigm and check out the following article and linked research.
It's your health and your life, isn't it worth considering there's something you're missing?
Study Suggests Health at Every Size is Supported by Scientific Evidence; Weight Loss Focus is Ineffective and Harmful
| January 24, 2011 - Dieting and other weight-loss efforts may unintentionally lead to weight gain and diminished health status, according to two researchers, including a UC Davis nutritionist, whose new study, Weight Science:Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift, appears in the Jan. 24 issue of the Nutrition Journal, an online, open-access scientific journal.
Rather than focusing on weight loss, the researchers recommend that people focus on improving their health status.  In the new study, co-authors Linda Bacon, an associate nutritionist in the UC Davis Department of Nutrition, and Lucy Aphramor, an NHS specialist dietician and honorary research fellow at the Applied Research Centre in Health and Lifestyle Interventions at Coventry University, England, cite evidence from almost 200 studies.
"Although health professionals may mean well when they suggest that people lose weight, our analysis indicates that researchers have long interpreted research data through a biased lens," Bacon said. "When the data are reconsidered without the common assumption that fat is harmful, it is overwhelmingly apparent that fat has been highly exaggerated as a risk for disease or decreased longevity."
Bacon noted that the study findings do not support conventional ideas that:
* weight loss will prolong life; * anyone can lose weight and keep it off through diet and exercise; * weight loss is a practical and positive goal; * weight loss is the only way overweight and obese people can improve their health; and * obesity places an economic burden on society.
"The weight-focused approach does not, in the long run, produce thinner, healthier bodies," said Bacon.
"For decades, the United States' public health establishment and $58.6 billion-a-year weight-loss industry have focused on health improvement through weight loss," she said. "The result is unprecedented levels of body dissatisfaction and failure in achieving desired health outcomes. It's time to consider a more evidence-based approach."
Aphramor added: "It's the unintended negative consequences that are particularly troubling, including guilt, anxiety, preoccupation with food and body shape, repeated cycles of weight loss and gain, reduced self esteem, eating disorders and weight discrimination."
Health-focused alternative Concluding that the weight-focused approach to health is unsupported by the scientific evidence and has in fact been detrimental and costly, Bacon and Aphramor suggest the health care community should adopt what they say is "a more ethical, evidence-based approach toward public health nutrition" -- one that instead encourages individuals to concentrate on developing healthy habits rather than on weight management.
The researchers stress that evidence shows that changing health behaviors can sustainably improve blood pressure, blood lipids, self-esteem, body image, and other indicators of health and well-being, independent of any weight change and without the negative aspects of weight-focused approaches. While weight loss may result, the goal is self-care rather than weight loss, they say. This weight-neutral practice has become known as Health at Every Size.
"It is clear from our review of the data that body weight is a poor target for public health interventions," Bacon said. "Instead, the health care community should shift its emphasis from weight-management to health-improvement strategies, for the well-being of people of all sizes."
Bacon is the author of the 2010 book, "Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight," based on previously published research. She also is the founder of Health at Every Size Community Resources.
Financial Disclosure: Aphramor received financial support for this study through a West Midlands Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professions research training award. Bacon and Aphramor are both Health at Every Size practitioners and sometimes receive financial compensation for writing and speaking on this topic. |
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