State of Health
"Obesity research in the 1990's has illuminated the truth that obesity is a disease-and that most often is not the result of a person.s lack of will power, but is due to the combination of a complex genetic system, and an environment that has allowed this genetic predisposition to be expressed. The result is a national epidemic that has spread to other industrialized nations around the world."
Clinical Nutrition Practice 1998; 13:251-16
Fast forward to 2006. The latest statistics tell us that obesity affects 2/3 of the industrialized world. In the United States alone there are 17 million diabetics with millions more who are waiting in the wings to be diagnosed. Eighty percent of the diagnosed and undiagnosed diabetics are overweight or obese. Not included in this statistic are children who are quickly joining the ranks of the overweight. We are seeing youngsters with elevated cholesterol levels, and 'adult' onset diabetes who are coincidently over weight. This is the first time in the keeping of longevity statistics that we are seeing life expectancy beginning to retreat.
None of this is new information. Yet, it is disturbing every time we see the evidence of this destructive tendency in our culture. The threat of a new flu virus has our immediate attention today, and rightly so. It appears as though this new virus is a close cousin to the killer virus we know from 1917. We need to be able to put out this fire before it erupts. So too do we need to be vigilant in our efforts to put out the fires of obesity. Thinking of it as a slow smoldering campfire someone forgot to extinguish, it won't be long before it begins to consume our valuable assets.
Our need to nourish ourselves with food and water is obvious. Interestingly, most of our knowledge about food and nutrition is gained from purveyors of these items. In other words those who have a financial interest in the item they are selling it to us. As such, their opinion is biased. It is not unusual for clerks in so-called health food stores to dispense medical advice to their customers who happen to be complete strangers. The FDA has abdicated its regulatory responsibility in the supplement and health food industry back in 1994.
The prestigious British Medical Journal recently reported a research paper published by them in 1992 was fabricated. This particular document had as its premise that a diet of fiber, fruits, vegetables, and grains prevented heart attack. The editors at the British Medical Journal tried to get the data from the doctor who authored the article, but they we ignored until this year. What they found when they visited the author of this article was that there was no evidence that clinical trials ever took place. It is troubling to note that this 1992 article was cited over 200 times in many medical, nursing, and nutritional publications as fact. This is not the first case of this kind of fabrication in medical research and it won't be the last.
Blessings, Nadine Campbell, R.N.
Jan 12, 2006
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