Child obesity backlash

Oct 16 2007 by Madeleine Brindley, Western Mail

THE government’s current fixation on obesity could be harming the very children’s health it is trying to improve, US researchers claim.

Dr John Luik and Professor Patrick Basham, of the Washington DC-based Democracy Institute, have accused English Health Secretary Alan Johnson of “scaremongering”.

Johnson said at the weekend that the obesity epidemic is a “potential crisis on the scale of climate change”. But the pair claim that such a statement is irresponsible and based on little more than science fiction. They also believe:

There is no evidence to support claims that children are getting fatter or that they will suffer long-term health problems as a result of their weight;

Such a public fixation with weight and food could exacerbate the problem of eating disorders and people’s obsession with their own weight.

Dr Luik told the Western Mail, “In the US about 25% of adolescent girls are dieting constantly and 5% have anorexia or bulimia. But this fixation [with food and body image] is not just for girls, but women under 45.

“The message people are getting is one about an obsession with their bodies – 20 years ago feminists would never have allowed such a public discourse about women’s weight.

“And yet it seems that the health establishment think because it is done under the cover of talking about people’s health, it is all right.”

He also said that current research findings do not back up Mr Johnson’s claims about the extent of the obesity problem – the respected 1,000 family study suggests that fat children do not grow up to become fat adults and that there is no connection between being a fat child and subsequent health problems, he said.

And Dr Luik said that the Department of Health’s own findings from its health survey of 1995 to 2005, had shown a decline in the percentage of teenagers who were obese between 2003 and 2005 – down from 21% to 18%.

“When a minister makes a comment like this, I’d like to know what studies he is using, as obviously he is not using his own government’s studies.”

And Dr Luik added, “The people who live the longest in both the UK and the US are the pleasantly plump – the people who are most likely to die from a weight-related disorder are those who are either too thin or at a normal body mass index.

“People who are between a BMI of 26 and 32 are those who are living the longest, yet according to the obesity debate, those are the people who should be dying in the greatest numbers.”

Dr John Luik works for the Washington DC think-tank the Democracy Institute and is the co-author of the book Diet Nation: Exposing the Obesity Crusade with Professor Patrick Basham, director of the Democracy Institute.

The pair will be taking part in the Battle of Ideas 2007 festival in London on October 27.