What is the solution to obesity?

To battle obesity effectively, governments must take the side of the citizen over the corporation for the health of the populace, by doing things like:

Subsidizing the right foods, and taxing the wrong ones
A 2012 release from the US Public Interest Research Group determined that government subsidization of treat-food additives pay for 21 Twinkies per taxpayer per year, but those same taxpayers only get half an apple paid for. There is something seriously wrong with that math. Making healthy food less expensive and treat food more expensive can go a long way to improve eating habits.

Placing tighter restrictions on food labeling
The average consumer is easily fooled; they don’t understand how often they are misled by food corporations via tactics such as “health washing” (also called nutritionism): making an unhealthy food seem healthy by promoting a certain ingredient it contains. Sorry, but macaroni and cheese from a box where the noodles are made from hyper-refined cauliflower is just as bad for you as the regular kind, and just because the cereal with the cartoon character on the front says it is made with whole grains doesn’t mean it makes for a healthy breakfast. And we’re supposed to believe that Fruity Pebbles are healthy because they have added Vitamin D? Come on!

Corporations also mess around with their labeling so they include four different types of sugar to keep sugar from being listed as the first ingredient.

Restricting food advertising to children
Again, it will require government intervention to do this, just like they did with smoking. Right now it’s the Wild West, where anything goes. Food advertising to children of unhealthy treats is over the top. Not only that, but it’s all about making food fun. Food that tattoos your tongue, is shaped like bugs, has cartoon promotion … and don’t forget about the movie partnerships with fast food restaurants. You can’t get the latest Avengers toy unless you buy the kids’ meal at the burger joint, and all their sports and movie heroes are chugging Coke these days, so if you want to be like them, just drink this sugar water.

Stop corporate-government partnerships and rein in lobbying
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association) is funded by myriad food companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Kellogg’s, and the National Restaurant Association is a strategic partner to promote the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) “MyPlate” (which replaced the “food pyramid” in 2011). Restaurants, like food corporations, are also vested in repeat business, which means making food taste great, which translates to “irresistible and high in calories.” Having an association whose raison d’être is to promote the interests of restaurants partner with the USDA on guidelines for how Americans should eat is ludicrous.

These are just a couple of examples. The dairy industry has a long history of influencing the food pyramid, and Coca-Cola is very active in lobbying government to keep regulations lax around the sale of sugar water.

Revamp home economics in school, and make it mandatory
Cooking at home using fresh ingredients purchased from a grocery store is a powerful tool for battling obesity. My kids had the option to take home-ec, and mostly what they learned how to make was cookies and cinnamon buns. Here is a better approach.

Place tighter controls on the weight loss industry
As I pointed out in this piece, the weight loss industry is so full of crap its eyes are brown. Outlandish weight loss scams run rampant, making it the #1 form of fraud in the US many years running. Consumers are brainwashed into believing the quick and easy miracle cure from people such as Dr. Oz, and so rational and evidence-based approaches to weight loss (the kind that actually work) have a hard time reaching the public through all the noisy snake oil.

Stop promoting physical activity as the solution for weight loss
While exercise can play an important role in sustained weight loss, much of the messaging that persists gives a false impression that it is possible for you to outrun your fork. The amount of exercise it takes to compensate for poor dietary choices is impossible for most people.

Create better access to evidence-based weight management programs
“Better access” means government funding. It’s a worthwhile investment that will not only decrease healthcare costs, but also improve productivity, as obesity is shown to have a negative effect on workplace productivity.

Create national advertising campaigns that promote healthier eating
Some campaigns exist, but they could be done better, and they could be done more. Like with smoking cessation, the message needs to be hammered home again and again.

Make prejudice against people with obesity against the law
As it stands, we have laws to prevent prejudice against people based on race, religion, gender and sexual orientation, but no laws exist to protect the obese against unfair treatment. The reality is that shaming and mistreatment of the obese has the opposite of the intended effect; it leads to weight gain, not weight loss.

What is the solution to obesity?

Here's what your food would look like if it wasn't genetically modified over millennia

Genetically modified foods, or GMOs, inspire strong reactions nowadays, but humans have been tweaking the genetics of our favourite produce for millennia.

Here's what your food would look like if it wasn't genetically modified over millennia

How This Common Drug Can Have Lasting Effects on Kids

Compared to the mice taking the placebo, the antibiotic-treated animals had less diverse communities of bacteria, and the proportions of the bugs living in their guts were also different. The macrolides seemed to have the biggest effect on reducing microbial richness, while amoxicillin led to abnormally large bones. The changes in the microbiome persisted even to the animals’ death, nearly four months after their last antibiotic dose.

“There are really long-term, probably permanent effects on the microbiome from antibiotics,” says Blaser. “We showed changes in the richness and the community structure, and also the genes present in the bacteria.”

How This Common Drug Can Have Lasting Effects on Kids

Antibiotics Are Linked To Type-2 Diabetes

“When you take antibiotics,” he says, “you change the composition of the microbiota”—your personal collection of bacteria in the body that communicates with human cells. Blaser has a hypothesis for how this might work in children who develop type-1 diabetes: the change in composition from taking antibiotics also alters metabolism, possibly making people more likely to become diabetic.

Antibiotics Are Linked To Type-2 Diabetes

I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here's How.

Or as one prescient reader of the 4 April story in the Daily Express put it, “Every day is April Fool’s in nutrition.”

I Fooled Millions Into Thinking Chocolate Helps Weight Loss. Here's How.

Once Again, The Media Is Overhyping The Health Benefits Of Chocolate

“There does not appear to be evidence that chocolate should be avoided in terms of impact on cardiovascular risk.”

Once Again, The Media Is Overhyping The Health Benefits Of Chocolate

Trials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing Us

Although the scientific process tries to makes sense of problems by isolating every variable—imagining a blood vessel, say, if HDL alone were raised—reality doesn’t work like that. Instead, we live in a world in which everything is knotted together, an impregnable tangle of causes and effects. Even when a system is dissected into its basic parts, those parts are still influenced by a whirligig of forces we can’t understand or haven’t considered or don’t think matter.

Trials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing UsTrials and Errors: Why Science Is Failing Us

Really-low-fat vs somewhat-lower-carb - a nuanced analysis

As usual, don’t bother with media headlines -- this study is NOT a blow to low-carb dieting, which can be quite effective due to factors such as typically higher protein and more limited junk food options. Rather, this study shows that a low-carb diet isn’t necessary for fat loss and that lowering carbs and insulin doesn’t provide a magical metabolic advantage.

[…]

… weight loss does not rely on certain carb levels or manipulation of insulin, it relies on eating less. Don’t be scared that eating carbs will cause insulin to trap fat inside your fat cells.

Really-low-fat vs somewhat-lower-carb - a nuanced analysis

Regular Mealtimes Make You Eat More Healthily, Study Finds

In a new study published in the journal Public Health Nutrition researchers found that college students who made their meals at home and regularly consumed breakfast and an evening meal, had overall better diets. They avoided fast food and sugary drinks and ate more vegetables and fruit compared to people who did not keep an eating routine. People who ate on the run, or used media while they ate or purchased food often ate less healthily.

Regular Mealtimes Make You Eat More Healthily, Study Finds

Work Hard, Live Well

Several of them asked me about things I wish I had done or learned earlier in life, or regrets I had from earlier in my career. Again and again, I came back to the idea that I wish I had lived my life differently.

I wish I had slept more hours, and exercised regularly. I wish I had made better decisions about what to eat or drink — at times I consumed more soda and energy drinks than water.

Work Hard, Live Well

Sugary Drinks Take a Deathly Toll

Worldwide, they estimate that sweetened drinks cause 133,000 deaths from diabetes, 45,000 from cardiovascular disease, and 6,450 from cancers.

Sugary Drinks Take a Deathly Toll

Once Again, The Media Is Overhyping The Health Benefits Of Chocolate

“There does not appear to be evidence that chocolate should be avoided in terms of impact on cardiovascular risk.”

Once Again, The Media Is Overhyping The Health Benefits Of Chocolate

Sugars intake for adults and children

In both adults and children, WHO recommends reducing the intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake (strong recommendation).

Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2015.

Candy brain

When faced with stress, just ‘‘think about an action path that improves your choice,’’ says Todd Hare, lead author of the study. Go for a walk instead of eating. ‘‘If you know you will have a hard time resisting,’’ he adds, ‘‘don’t store snacks at home.’’

Candy brain

The Lure of Forbidden Food

… it’s almost impossible to binge on apples. But process the apple into applesauce or juice, and it becomes a junk food that is easy to overeat.

The Lure of Forbidden Food