Obesity: a taxing issue

Headline news on The Guardian today is that doctors are calling for a 20% tax on sugary soft drinks to help tackle the obesity epidemic. I cheered with relief and then tweeted the news. Maybe the establishment is finally waking up to the real problems behind obesity!

But hold on… if you make an appointment to see your GP with the intention of losing weight, you can expect to be told to reduce your fat intake – especially saturated fats – to achieve your goal.

So which is it? Do sugary drinks make you fat? Or fatty foods?

In a nutshell, this simple story shows why so many people can’t lose weight. The information is confusing, and the people we rely on to help us be healthy are giving conflicting advice.

Supermarkets promote low fat foods while medics want to impose a tax on high sugar drinks. If they succeed it would mean that your healthy shopping list would be simultaneously discouraging the consumption of both sugars and fats – leaving only protein as an ‘safe’ macronutrient (unless it’s of equine origin). That can’t be right.

Most of the nation are unsure whether to reduce fats or carbs to lose weight. A moderate person might answer that moderation in everything must be the key, but moderation doesn’t work to reverse obesity, because obesity is a biochemical imbalance that needs a clear and effective strategy.

If the government wishes to impose food labelling restrictions and tax accordingly they absolutely must be able to justify their actions. Which would mean being clear, once and for all, why we get fat*, and being able to provide enough evidence to support their position. 

If you don’t want to wait for them to get their story straight, The Dissident Diet unravels the dilemma, explaining the role of both fats and sugars in the quest to lose weight and allowing you to understand and take responsibility for the way your body stores fat. It’s the ultimate diet empowerment, and the end of diet confusion.

It explains why, for example, when it comes to tackling obesity, soft drinks are worse than alcohol; and why, on the other hand, saturated fat is more useful to the body than the polyunsaturated fats that are so beloved by food manufacturers.

If you’re tired of the obesity debate, fed up with the political issues around it and confused about your body; and if you want to understand, once and for all, why your body puts on unwanted pounds and how you can lose them, then I wrote The Dissident Diet for you. You can find it on Kindle or, if you want the all-singing, all-dancing colour version you can click on eBook above and buy it here.

* Which is also the name of an excellent book by Gary Taubes.

A weight off your mind in 2013

We’re coming to the time of year when food is on everyone’s mind. Most of us are planning some sort of gastronomic indulgence over the next few days, and many of us are expecting to pay for it when January comes around. Hands up all those who want to lose weight in 2013!

Some of us are obsessed with food all year round. Picking our way from meal to meal trying to lose, or at least not gain, weight in a world that makes it more and more difficult to stay slim.

This time last year I was one of those people who was still baffled by my body. Despite following an abnormally ‘healthy’ diet and watching my weight all the time, my body was getting bigger and bigger. Although I had tried and failed many times before, and I was almost ready to admit defeat, I devoted most of my attention in 2012 to finding a way to lose weight.

A radical rethink of the weight loss ‘wisdom’

They say the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results. With that in mind, I determined to look at everything I ‘knew’ about weight control with fresh eyes.

What I discovered was exciting. I learned that the biggest difference between fat people and thin people isn’t how much they eat – it’s how much they store. While there is a distinct absence of research that shows how cutting calories can help you lose weight, there is some interesting research – only carried out with animals to date – that shows that some bodies store more than others on the same diet and activity levels. There are even studies showing that fat rats (not to be confused with fat cats who have also been much in the news this year), when food is withheld, will die of starvation while still obese. Work that one out.

Why fat bodies might be starving

I applied some of the theories I read about in human experiments. Firstly on myself and then as part of a trial I set up with a team of 16 volunteers, and I finally discovered how to lose weight in a predictable and controllable way.  I was so excited that I decided to write a book.

I know from personal and professional experience that there are thousands of people out there who are baffled by their body’s refusal to shed weight. Just as I know that there are people who eat a very healthy, even frugal, diet but whose fat cells are not getting the message.

The Dissident Diet is for everyone – it’s a safe and healthy way to lose weight – but it is particularly suitable for people who have had a lifelong struggle with a body that just won’t obey the rules. On my experimental trial the volunteers lost an average of 17lbs in 12 weeks and 3 inches around the waist. Most of them had tried a range of well-known diets in the past with less than spectacular results. They were delighted with this one.

Junk information is more of a problem than junk food

The diet isn’t just a different way of eating, it’s a whole new understanding of why your body behaves as it does. It overturns what we think we know about weight control, and shows you what’s really happening. It’s a breakthrough in understanding that puts you back in control of your body, and gives you the information you need to be the size you want to be.

If you want to lose weight in 2013 then you can buy the book or book in for coaching if you prefer to be supported (in which case the book comes free).

As one of my volunteers said,  “As soon as I read the book, it all made sense to me.  I ‘know’ that’s how my body works, and now I know how to be slim.”

Wouldn’t you like to know too?

Will you throw the first stone?

The news is full of shocking stories about Machiavellian antics of our politicians, our press, and our bankers. It’s difficult not to experience a thrill of Schadenfreude as people who thought they could get away with it are brought to account for their actions. Tempting, too, to think we are rooting out some of the endemic corruption in our society.

Sadly, when I observe what we are doing to the next generation, I fear we are making things worse. My misgivings have crystallised as I’ve helped my daughter choose her university options and consider writing her ‘Personal Statement’: the one personally written piece of the application that is supposed to reflect who you really are and why you deserve a place at college.

Everyone says it needs to be really upbeat and positive, projecting yourself in an exciting and persuasive way. Tick. A few people have told me it’s normal to exaggerate. OK… One or two have told me it’s fine to lie: everyone does. Wot? Except, they say, you can’t lie on an Oxbridge application because you have an interview and you might get found out.

Oh, right, I get it. It’s OK to lie unless there’s a risk of getting caught.

Sounds like something I’ve been hearing in the news.

Of course, this puts us all in an impossible situation. As parents we rightly want our children to have their fair share of the world’s resources. We’re genetically hard-wired to help them compete and to sniff out ways to fast-track them to the top. It’s called survival of the fittest. If you know everyone else is exaggerating, are you really going to encourage modesty? What’s wrong with a little exaggeration?

But where is the line?

As we did our mini-tour of a couple of universities last week the tutors we met were, quite honestly, scathing about personal statements. ‘Sorry, but we’re not interested,’ said one Oxford tutor, ‘ in whether or not you’ve been away saving Bolivian orphans.’ In Bristol, they told us they’re only interested in why you want to study your subject and not to ‘waste words on why you want to save the world.’

Why? Because they’ve heard it all before and they’re intelligent enough to know that most teenagers don’t organise trips to Bolivia off their own bat and that they, and we, are being exploited and manipulated to build juvenile CVs that look exciting before they’ve had their first legal pint. Our expectations of our 17-year old population are so crazy it’s no wonder they feel the need to lie.

Why am I sad? Because underneath the sophistry that encourages our kids to start ‘exaggerating’ their good points is another, even more damaging, message. We’re telling them they’re not good enough, not special enough, not unique enough to impress us. They must pretend to be someone bigger, better and more accomplished than they really are.

Frightened? Because we can see all too clearly the effects on our society of lying and cheating to get ahead. Most of my generation were brought up to tell the truth; imagine what havoc can be created by a generation brought up to lie from the cradle!

Of course, you won’t want to put your child in harm’s way, or make an example of them. So you may tell them they have to do it like everyone else because that’s the way the world works. Which is another way of telling them that they are not strong enough to change the world.

And that, I’m afraid, is the message that will set the example for yet another generation that cheats really do prosper.

In a world were everyone has done something ‘amazing’ it takes something very special to be exceptional. That would be the person who is brave enough to tell the unadulterated truth about themselves.

But how would they get anyone to believe them?

__________________

There is a spooky similarity between mine and the wonderful Neil Crofts’ Monday Morning message this week. Maybe there’s hope after all.

Get Real… Really?

…is a phrase that gets used a lot when people want you to adopt a tougher approach to life.

Typically, people use it to show that they consider you a little naive. When people say you’re not living in the real world they mean that your plans or expectations don’t tally well with the harsh reality that we all ‘know’ is the way life is.

Or parents use it to indicate that they are trying to help their children come to terms with the bleak reality of life… ‘When you live in the real world, you’ll find that you have to work hard to earn money’. Or some equally inspiring thought.

But really… what’s real?

The world you live in is the direct result of the set of choices you made along the way. It’s only one option among thousands of ways humans choose to inhabit the earth. You might say that the Sumatran father who has to spend all day fishing just to gather enough food for his family is far more real than you. Or you might consider that Cheryl Cole has the monopoly on ‘Reality’. There really are a billion and one ways to engage with reality – and what’s so good about your way?

Our ‘Real World’ is a world we create for ourselves. We choose it and perpetuate it every day, consciously or subconsciously. Even if we don’t much like it. (And how bizarre is that?)

Telling ourselves and our children that it’s tough out there is one way to ensure it stays that way.

What do you value most: time or money?

Is it me? I’ve never known so much worry about money, and I’m tired of hearing that our economy isn’t growing as fast as it should. As though a fast-growing economy is the solution to our financial perils. It seems to me that the desire to seek ever-expanding economic opportunities is what got us into this mess.

Money troubles seem to be everywhere – personal finances, national bailouts, the global economy. Our spending patterns are under scrutiny and it feels like the world order is on the brink of change. It’s quite possible that some of the financial security we have taken for granted and built our lives around may be at risk. Imagine!

Funny how so many people worry about how they spend their money – but so few people give any deep thought to how they spend their time.

Time is the ultimate scarce resource. No matter how hard you work or how clever you become you can’t create more of it. You can’t save it and you can’t invest it. There are only 24 hours in a day and we can’t expect much more than 80 years in a life – if we’re lucky.

I suppose it was cancer that really opened my eyes to the value of time. I realised that I hadn’t done what I wanted to do and I hadn’t always used my time carefully – packing too much stuff in that I ‘should’ or ‘ought’ to do – and not leaving enough space for the things I really wanted to do. I also saw that no amount of money now, or in the future, could make up for that loss.

I began to understand that I have choices around the way I spend my time in exactly the same way that I make decisions about how I spend my money. I became more generous towards people and things that lit me up – and miserly about some of the boring and dutiful things that bring me down. (The things that I did to get cosmic brownie points but leave me feeling tired and cross.)

For example, I refused to sit on any more committees because I hate them. On the other hand I now spend more time outdoors and in the garden – something I tend to think of as a treat, only when all the chores are done.

The biggest change though is refusing to spend my work time feeling uninspired. I was no longer capable of renting my time to someone else in return for a salary (unless the cause was totally aligned with my beliefs). I needed all my time because there was so much I wanted to do.
I don’t kid myself that my decision has made the slightest difference in the big wide world. Although I do have a few clients who would argue with that. But it makes the most enormous difference to me.

The nagging feeling I used to have of not quite being on the right track has completely gone. I know that if I die tomorrow I will have spent this day well. I will have owned my time and chosen my path and lived my own life in a purposeful way. And for me that is more valuable than anything else.

I believe the world would be a better place if we were more aware of how we spend our time and less aware of how we spend our money.

What do you think?