The food industry seems to love finding new ways to tell people that it is their fault they are overweight.
According to new research from the British sugar lobby, obesity is due to people not knowing what their daily intake of calories should be. Education is clearly the answer.
How this is passed off as science beggars belief. Did our grandparents walk around with abacuses to work out their daily calorie intake in order to avoid getting fat? No, because they ate real food, not fake food.
People haven’t suddenly forgotten how much to eat. What has changed is that our bodies are fooled by fake food that contains a lot more energy and doesn’t satisfy our appetite.
Studies have shown that calorie restricted diets (like Weightwatchers) don’t work in the long term. That is because people can only starve themselves for so long. Eventually they cave in and eat until they are full. Eating real food instead of fake food allows us to feel full without taking in too many calories.
Calorie counting is only useful in highlighting problem areas in someone’s diet – bad habits that might be the source of those extra calories. Invariably they come from fake foods – manufactured nasties that are short on nutrients and stacked full of refined sugar, refined grains, fat and salt.
Given this fact, how would everyone knowing their recommended calorie intake help? It wouldn’t. But it is a useful distraction for a food industry desperate to avoid being regulated.
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