"Sugar to blame for obesity crisis - not a lack of exercise"
Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2015 12:53 am
Too much sugar and carbohydrates instead of a lack of exercise are responsible for the obesity crisis, say health experts.
Poor diet is responsible for more disease than a lack of exercise, alcohol and smoking COMBINED - according to experts writing in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Levels of obesity have surged over the last 30 years but, they write, there has been little change in levels of physical activity.
“This places the blame for our expanding waistlines directly on the type and amount of calories consumed,” they said.
The "false perception" that exercise matters more than healthy eating is due to how the food industry is marketed, they argue, describing it as "chillingly similar" to the tobacco industry.
They use the example of Coca-Cola associating its products with sport, "suggesting it is OK to consume their drinks as long as you exercise".
They claim the public health messaging around diet and exercise, and their relationship to the epidemics of type 2 diabetes and obesity, has been corrupted by "vested interests".
Celebrity endorsements of sugary drinks and the association of junk food and sport must end, they write.
Meanwhile the writers also point out that the type of calories you consume is just as important as the number you consume.
“Sugar calories promote fat storage and hunger. Fat calories induce fullness or ‘satiation’," they explain in the report.
According to research, for every excess 150 calories of sugar, there was an 11-fold increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes, in comparison to an identical 150 calories obtained from fat or protein, independent of the person's weight and physical activity level, said lead author Dr Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist at Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey.
This means that sugar is linked to a huge number of health problems in people of healthy weight.
Malhotra says that up to 40% of those with a normal body mass index will have metabolic abnormalities typically associated with obesity, which include hypertension, fatty liver disease and heart disease.
Cutting down on carbs was also found to be the single most effective intervention for reducing all the features of the metabolic syndrome and should be the first approach in diabetes management, with benefits occurring even without weight loss, he said.
Instead, fat appears to be the ideal fuel for most exercise.
"It is abundant, does not need replacement or supplementation during exercise, and can fuel the forms of exercise in which most participate," says Malhotra.
"Let us bust the myth of physical inactivity and obesity. You cannot outrun a bad diet," conclude the authors.
