http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1868359
All my life I have been hearing how dangerous/deadly being overweight or obese is. The message is loud and clear "all you fatties are going to die die die!!!!" The diet/weight loss industry is worth millions of dollars and just keeps on booming. Plus, let's be honest teeny-weeny bikinis do tend to look a little better on smaller shapes and sizes, or at least that's what we have been socialised to accept in our culture.
So I am a little disturbed today to find numerous research articles suggesting that weight loss is correlated with an increased mortality risk-rather than the other way around. Once again I am not a fan of scare tactics and I strongly recommend people do make their own decisions based on their own research but I have to admit it kinda scares me that this research (even if it is in the minority) even exists.
Even in my lifetime, scientists have discovered many things that we once all accepted as safe to be quite dangerous, if not deadly-smoking, asbestos, sun exposure etc etc. Could dieting, weight loss etc be proven in the future to be just as dangerous?
Currently, the overwhelming consensus is that obesity is detrimental to our health-leading to the conclusion that weight loss=increased health & longevity and I have to admit to me that makes intuitive sense. I can't help though but keep my ears open to the few voices shouting otherwise.....For now I suggest keeping our eyes and ears open, not just blindly accepting whatever is thrown at us. It seems silly to me that we would ignore some voices just because they are quieter.
2 comments:
My opinion is that it is not the weight loss that increases the mortality, but the dieting. I don't quite believe that the organisations conducting the obesity studies have separated weight loss and dieting, nor have they separated obesity with sedantry lifestyle. I think if one is obese or overweight form a sedantry lifestyle, then the sideproduct of weight loss as a result of healthy eating and exercise (not dieting), then it's good. Trouble is, with the frenetic nature of the diet industry, I'm not surprised that dieting-related weight loss is more dangerous than staying obese.
HI LJ, I've been off the radar a bit lately, and teetering on the brink of throwing in the IE towel and, gulp... dieting. Finding you here today might just have saved me. Lots of IE bloggers seem to have hit a wall lately and given up on IE or gone private, making it harder to find them and share information. So pleased to see you are back typing out loud again!
I will admit, I dont want to diet, but I also know I have so far to go in really gaining acceptance of myself, and creating a healthier life. Thanks for reminding me :-)
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