Change the Law and End the Obesity Crisis

What is a pandemic? A pandemic is a problem or disease that is prevalent or widespread across a whole country, continent or the world. Obesity is a global pandemic. Once thought to be a problem of the more affluent in society it is now a serious matter across all members of all economic classes.

How does obesity arise? Obesity and weight gain happens when insulin levels are high. Insulin levels rise when sugar and carbohydrates are ingested into the bloodstream. We won’t cover the science behind how it happens in this article but this is the reason we gain weight. As the Harvard Professor George Cahill said “Insulin is driving carbohydrate is driving fat.” So, when you eat carbohydrates – particularly processed carbs, sugar and fructose you’re getting fat. End of discussion.

What do supermarkets, newsagents, fast food shops and virtually every mainstream food outlet sell? Predominantly carbohydrate based foods. Why do they sell them? They sell them because that is how they will make the most money; foodstuffs that are non perishable and have a longer shelf life. Would McDonalds make any money if they started selling lamb chops, broccoli, cabbage, butter and water? No of course they wouldn’t. They wouldn’t make any money because you wouldn’t buy their products and you wouldn’t buy their products because they don’t satisfy your addiction. That’s right – addiction! You are addicted to wheat, caffeine, salt, fat and sugar and when they are all combined together in one hit e.g. The Big Mac Meal, they are lethal for your belly size and your health.

The processed food companies that dominate the aisles in our supermarkets have got you hooked. It is a stroke of genius only matched by James Bond villain Mister Big in the 1970s classic Live and Let Die where he attempts to get the world addicted to heroin. These companies are laughing it’s that easy. Want to make a lot of money? Invest in processed food.

You are getting fatter and fatter every year despite all your gym visits and attempts to be good when you wake on Monday morning because you’ve been a bum at the weekend. Because of what is happening with your hormones your will power “ain’t gonna do shit” when it comes to feeding your addiction to sugar and wheat. Billions of pounds are spent by processed food companies on employing scientists to make you addicted and they have succeeded very well. Every time you go anywhere the only choices you have for food and drink are processed carbs and you WILL eat them. If you don’t eat them when you go out you’ll eat them when you get home and if you don’t believe me then write a food diary for a week and see for yourself.

You have to understand all this and everything I have written above is ‘education’ in helping you to do so. Education is necessary. Without education we wouldn’t understand how we got fat or how to pass a history exam or how a mobile phone works. We have to have education. Education stimulates us and it is ace!

But….education is not sufficient because you have an addiction. For those of you old enough to remember Grange Hill’s ‘Just Say No’ campaign to resist drugs, did it work? No it didn’t. When you have an addiction just saying no isn’t that easy. Try it. When it gets to Friday night and you fancy a curry or a beer, just say no because you know it’s not going to help you get lean. You might say no for an hour, a day or a week but you will eventually give in and this is because you have an addiction.

So, what are you going to do about it? You’re either going to pull your finger out of your arse and research how to achieve weight loss, (and let me give you a tip – steer well clear of diet clubs and Herbal Life) or you’re going to stay fat or you’re going to ‘yoyo’. If you research and seek the help of somebody who understands how to reduce fat long term and you listen to what they say then you will succeed. If you don’t then you’ll probably fail, it’s almost guaranteed. A statistic – 95% of people who lose weight, simply regain it. 95%!

What’s the only other way you will succeed? A change in the law! If fizzy pop, chocolate, crisps, bread and cereal had restrictions on availability then you wouldn’t be able to eat them. Is everyone addicted to heroin? No. Why? Because it is not freely available. Yes we should have free will, but it won’t work.

Here’s a few suggestions that are a long, long way off happening.
1. Juice, pop, crisps or chocolate not allowed to be sold to under 18’s two hours before or two hours after school.
2. Only ‘real food’ to be sold for school dinners.
3. Anyone with bodyfat percentage over 30% forbidden to buy the ‘banned’ foods.
4. One hour everyday at school devoted to nutrition education.
5. Complete ban on bread.
6. P.E. classes compulsory one hour per day for all adults as part of their daily work programme.

Would that cure obesity? It would sure help! Is it going to happen? Probably not in my lifetime. So what’s going to happen? You’re going to stay fat because you need to action those suggested laws in order to succeed and the high likelihood is that you won’t. Once again you simply have to understand that ‘trying to be good’ for a few days a week isn’t going to cut it. You have to remap your body’s choice of where it obtains its fuel from. You can choose to fuel yourself on carbs or you can choose the half a million calories of fat from around your waist. You need to know how to do that though and the weight loss industry won’t tell you because that is suicide for repeat business.