Here’s an interesting one. Most
people believe that exercise is the key to weight loss, but they might be apparently
wrong about it, research suggests. I would like to share this article written
by Alice G. Walton. I hope it can be of any hep for you folks! Enjoy it.
In a
fascinating and scorching editorial in the British Journal of Sports
Medicine, three authors argue that the myth that exercise is the
key to weight loss – and to health – is erroneous and pervasive, and that it
must end. The evidence that diet matters more than exercise is now
overwhelming, they write, and has got to be heeded: We can exercise to the moon
and back but still be fat for all the sugar and carbs we consume. And perhaps
even more jarring is that we can be a normal weight and exercise, and
still be unhealthy if we’re eating poorly. So, they say, we need a basic reboot
of our understanding of health, which has to involve the food industry’s
powerful PR “machinery,” since that was part of the problem to begin with.
The major point the team makes – which they say the
public doesn’t really understand – is that exercise in and of itself doesn’t
really lead to weight loss. It may lead to a number of excellent health
effects, but weight loss – if you’re not also restricting calories – isn’t one
of them. “Regular physical activity reduces the risk of developing
cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, dementia and some cancers by at least
30%,” they write. “However, physical activity does not promote weight
loss.”
Plus, in the last 30 years, exercise has stayed about
the same, while overweight and obesity have skyrocketed. So something else must
be at play – like the type of food we’re eating. That part has gotten steadily
worse over the years, as highly-processed sugary foods and sodas have taken
over as our go-to choices. “According to the Lancet global burden of disease
reports,” they write, “poor diet now generates more disease than physical
inactivity, alcohol and smoking combined.” This is a disturbing statistic. But
it gets worse.
The related and larger issue is that even normal
weight people who exercise will, if they eat poorly, have metabolic markers
that put them at very high risk of chronic illness and early mortality. “Up to
40% of those with a normal body mass index will harbour metabolic abnormalities
typically associated with obesity, which include hypertension, dyslipidaemia,
non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiovascular disease.”
And the crux of the issue is this: We're continually
"fed" the idea that all that's behind the rise in obesity is lack of
exercise, or sedentariness. There have certainly been a lot of studies and
popular articles suggesting that sitting is our downfall. Instead of effective
messages about diet and health that science actually knows to be true, “members
of the public are drowned by an unhelpful message about maintaining a ‘healthy
weight’ through calorie counting,” the team writes, “and many still wrongly
believe that obesity is entirely due to lack of exercise. This false perception
is rooted in the Food Industry's Public Relations machinery, which uses tactics
chillingly similar to those of big tobacco.”
What we know to be true is much simpler: "Sugar
calories promote fat storage and hunger," the write. "Fat calories
induce fullness or satiation." For every additional 150 calories in sugar
(i.e., a can of soda) a person consumes per day, the risk for diabetes rises
11-fold, regardless of how much or little we exercise. The single most
effective thing people can do for their weight, they write, is to restrict
calories – and even more, restrict carbohydrates.
So if this is all true, and research seems to suggest
it is, how will it change? It might take quite a lot of work to shift our
psychology around food, especially since advertising is so saturated with the
message that carbohydrates are good for us. The celebrity endorsements might
need to be tweaked, the authors say, and certainly the way foods are advertised
and, perhaps, created, need to be shifted. The public should be repeatedly hit
with the message that whole, natural foods, where possible and affordable is
the best way to go. If you're trying to lose weight, reduce your calories
(especially sugars) – don't think exercise alone will cut it. And even if
you're normal weight, you can't subside solely on junk and stay healthy.
The authors end with this powerful finale: “It is time
to wind back the harms caused by the junk food industry's Public Relations
machinery. Let us bust the myth of physical inactivity and obesity. You
cannot outrun a bad diet.”
Read the original text (here)
or the study “It is time to bust the myth of physical inactivity and obesity:
you cannot outrun a bad diet” (here)
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