Toms View of the World

In the latest news reports focusing on the health of the nation, it’s now been announced that overweight people who diet are reducing their life expentancy. Confused - you will be!

So now, it’s unhealthy to be fat. It’s unhealthy to be fat then lose weight. It’s no doubt unhealthy to be too thin either - next they’ll be proving that being thin and gaining weight is also dangerous.

The Guardian newspaper reports:

It is well proven that losing weight reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes among the obese, but the new study suggests that dieting also causes physiological damage that in the long term can outweigh the benefits

“Analysis of the data showed that those who wanted to lose weight and succeeded were significantly more likely to die young than those who stayed fat.”

So it would seem that for people like me, who are already overweight the cause is already lost - however that won’t stop me trying to lose some weight to get comfortably into Hydro again - to quote another famous TV character: You’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t Bart Simpson.

So where are we now - a short list things that are now considered “bad”:

• Being Fat
• Being Too Thin
• Being Fat, then losing weight
• Drinking too much alcohol
• Not drinking enough alcohol
• Sugar
• Salt
• Carbohydrates (see the Atkins Diet)
• The Atkins Diet

How is anyone supposed to know what is a “healthy lifestyle” when the rules keep changing… I’m waiting for a report that a “Beer and Pizza” diet is healthy… oh, wait here it is

Full Article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1515455,00.html