Thursday, July 26, 2007

OBESITY STUDIED

The government responds to the obesity epidemic:
A new Sydney research centre will be a key in battling Australia's obesity crisis, federal Health Minister Tony Abbott says.

Unveiling Sydney University's Institute of Obesity, Nutrition and Exercise on Thursday morning, Mr Abbott described obesity as Australia's "affluenza".

Sydney University professors involved with the centre predict it will become a world leader in its fields of research.

"What we hope this institute will do is look behind (obesity) factors and try to tell us why is it that some people lose weight more quickly than others. And why do some people put on weight more quickly that others?" Mr Abbott said.
I can save the researchers lots of time, money and effort: people gain weight when calorie intake exceeds calorie expenditure. In order to lose weight this must be reversed. It's a personal responsibility thing.

Regardless, researchers will soon recommend higher taxes on calorie rich foods.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Yau-ming's blog!! said...

Its simple common sense. If you exercise, and eat good food from your diet, you are fit and lose weight. Ever seen extremely fat long distance runners?

7:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Different people have different metabolic rates.. I also believe genetics plays a large role but it is a tough one. It usually goes that large mothers give birth to large babies but, a pregnant woman of healthy weight can give birth to an overweight baby depending on her diet during pregnancy. I've also witnessed overweight women who have altered their diet and eaten healthy during pregnancy to give birth to astoundingly small (but healthy) babies.

9:14 PM  
Anonymous Dave Bath said...

One thing that would help would be rewarding GPs (not at the patient's expense) a percentage extra for preventative efforts in a consultation that involved education and planning assistance, not just fixing the problem of the day.

Another is to teach people to listen to their bodies. When I did a nutrition unit, we were told that if you give a (grossly overweight or underweight) person a nutrient broth through a straw, change it's concentration, and let them eat d libitum without knowing how much they've eaten, after about 3 months in hospital with this treatment, they've learnt to listen to their body and start to normalize weight. Expensive.

The sad thing is, sheep can do it. If you give them two buckets of water, one fresh, one salty but with a concentration that varies day to day, they take just enough of the salty water to maintain sodium levels, and we covered that in physiol in the late 1970s.

Are humans dumber than sheep?

12:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I find striking similarities between this and being a [radical?]Muslim... If it's all you know from day one, then making a change (or god forbid even being optmistic on the matter) proves to be an impossible feat.

3:54 AM  

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