Epidemic
Problem
Threat
Issue
HYPE

Americans have been force-fed a steady diet of obesity myths by the “food police”, trial lawyers, and even our own government.

Learn the truth about obesity at:
CONSUMERFREEDOM.COM

I saw the above advertisement in the USA Today the other day, so I thought I’d take a look at the site. According to Consumer Freedom, there has been a new study that refutes the CDC’s (Center for Disease Control) statement that obesity is reponsible for 400,000 deaths annually and that the actual number is closer to only 26,000. Furthermore, they state that

According to the new study, being technically “overweight” — a distinction enjoyed by more than 60 million Americans, including President Bush — carries no mortality risk. The real problems occur only among the small percentage of Americans with a Body Mass Index of 35 or more. To put that in perspective, Kirstie Alley and Anna Nicole Smith both had a BMI of 31-before they lost weight.

The federal government sure has latched on to the CDC’s original finding, what with the further regulation of food labelling and rumors of further food legislation pending.

Even the food service industry has gotten involved. McDonalds no longer offers the Supersize. Wendy’s has a bazillion “healthy” alternatives, including fresh fruit.

What’s interesting is how there was such a discrepancy in the numbers. The original CDC study included data going all the way back to 1948 and didn’t figure in on improved healthcare in the last 50 years. The new study includes only more recent data and is more relevant to our current health situation.

In the Myrtle Beach Sun-Times:

Who’s pushing the high numbers? Skeptical bio-statisticians blame drug companies and reporters for much of the hype. They also blame research institutes and disease foundations seeking more public spending on particular diseases … These days, prevalence statistics often are part of a larger effort to convince people that what they consider a human condition is really a disease.

But do you think the CDC and the federal government will end the obesity scare anytime soon? Don’t count on it. There is too much at risk to do that. Too many exercise books, health clubs, Atkins dieters, Weight Watchers, etc are making way too much money preying on the minds and wallets of the “unfit”.

Yes, if being overweight is a disease instead of a human condition, then there has to be pills to fix it, right? Pills always fix diseases. At least, that’s the way the broad mindset of America works.

In fact, there have been a couple of reports that being slightly overweight can work to your advantage! According to Dr. Williamson, a co-author of the recent study, Having a bit of extra fat in old age appears to be protective, he said, giving rise to more muscle and more bone. “It’s called the obesity paradox,” Dr. Williamson said.

According to the editors of the Des Moines Register

It’s true that Americans are fattening up. But federal researchers apparently have plumped up how many people die from it … “Counting deaths is not an exact science,” a federal researcher told reporters. Apparently it’s not even an approximate one.

Did anyone stop to think that those who werefalsifying these studies in this post Memogate Dan Rather world wouldn’t be caught?

So, in who’s interest is it that America needs to lose weight? Why the secrets and the lies? Why is obesity such an “epidemic” that’s “worse than the Black Plague”?

It must be the drug companies, pushing their pills. It’s sad how many little pills we take in a day and how many of them might be unneccessary simply because we call a normal human condition, a “disease”.