Obesity message screwed up once again
Taubes: HBO Documentary missing key points
I feel this is important to share.
HBO Documentary Films has a new production out entitled “The Weight of the Nation,” and our insane obesity epidemic. Sounds like it’d be a powerful, insightful film coming from the slick crew at HBO, right?
Well – not so fast. Highly respected low-carb author Gary Taubes pokes more holes in this movie than swiss cheese over at The Daily Beast.
It’s a must-read article that will set the record straight. He sheds light on the blaring omissions of scientific facts – and how it just continues the same, tired myths about why America is so damn sick & fat.
“The authority figures in obesity and nutrition are so fixed on the simplistic calorie-balance idea that they’re willing to ignore virtually any science to hold on to it.”
Taubes, being fair, does actually point out one “positive” aspect of this documentary: “If The Weight of the Nation accomplishes anything, it’s communicating the desperation of obese Americans trying to understand their condition and, even more, of lean (or relatively lean) parents trying to cope with the obesity of their offspring. Lack of will isn’t their problem. It’s the absence of advice that might actually work. If our authorities on this subject could accept that maybe their fundamental understanding of the problem needs to be rethought, we and they might begin to make progress. Clearly the conventional wisdom has failed so far. We can hold onto it only so long.”