CDCs diet of obesity myths

If you believe you’ve been “force-fed” a diet of obesity myths by the U.S. government, trial lawyers and the “food police,” then have I got an advocacy group for you!

In the e-Alert “Too Rich, Too thin” (5/2/05), I told you about research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that found the number of excess deaths due to obesity were considerably less than previous CDC estimates.

To some, this was a big deal (as if death was the only “health problem” associated with obesity). But apparently nobody found it to be a bigger deal than the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF).

The idea that we poor, easily duped Americans have been force fed obesity myths by the food police comes from the CCF – specifically from several full-page ads the group purchased in newspapers of six major cities. The estimated cost: $600,000 (according to the Washington Post). Warnings about obesity are “hype,” say the CCF ads.

Are you overweight? No problem! Eat up! Obesity is the new healthy.

You should know, by the way, that the CCF is an advocacy group for food manufacturers, restaurants and the tobacco industry.

We’ll hear much more on all this from the CCF, I’m sure. In the meantime, if consumers want freedom from poor health they’ll ignore the CCF hype and avoid obesity at all costs.

In many e-Alerts I’ve written about the serious health issues that go hand in hand with obesity. Here are two more that I’ve come across in just the past few days:

1) A report last month from Diabetes UK estimated that people with a body mass index (BMI) over 30 are 10 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes compared to people in the “normal” BMI weight range. (Normal BMI is 18.5 to 24.9. Overweight: 25.0 to 29.9. A BMI of 30 or more is considered obese.) The report also found that the risk of developing diabetes is 80 times higher for people who maintain a BMI over 35 for a decade.

2) A study from Maastricht University in the Netherlands examined nine years of medical records for more than 120,000 older adults and found the risk of renal cell carcinoma (a type of kidney cancer) increased by seven percent for each BMI point above normal. Doing the math: Someone who barely qualifies as obese at 30 BMI would have a 30 percent greater risk of this particular cancer.

I could fill a dozen e-Alerts with studies like these. The only reasonable, hype-free conclusion: When being overweight turns into obesity, health problems abound.

To Your Good Health,

Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute

Sources:

“The Escalating Obesity Wars” Caroline E. Mayer, Amy Joyce, The Washington Post, 4/27/05, washingtonpost.com

“Obesity Raises Diabetes Risk Up To 80 Times” Reuters Health, 3/18/05, reutershealth.com

“Relation of Height, Body Mass, Energy Intake, and Physical Activity to Risk of Renal Cell Carcinoma: Results from the Netherlands Cohort Study” American Journal of Epidemiology, Vo. 160, No. 12, 12/15/04, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov