Overweight​—How the Situation Looks

SLIMMING is big business! Little wonder, for one out of five persons living in modern developed countries is overweight. Special foods and diets, along with a bewildering choice of books, paperbacks and magazines about overweight vie with one another for the public’s attention. Medical doctors, psychologists and other “experts” work ceaselessly to cajole, encourage and even frighten people into slimming down.

Will they succeed? Does it really matter if we are fat, or even just a little overweight? What are the facts​—and how important are they for our well-being?

Cause for Concern

Since time immemorial, fat persons have been the butt of many unkind jokes. But being overweight is certainly no laughing matter. Even if you weigh only 15 pounds (7 kg) more than the average weight for your height and build, your life expectancy could be reduced by as much as four years.

“Obesity and its problems are now more pressing than cancer,” Scottish family physician Ian Richardson observed recently. Another authority has stated that being just 10 pounds (4 kg) overweight “carries a greater health risk than smoking 25 cigarettes a day.” High blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, back pains, varicose veins, arthritis, gallstones and a host of other detrimental conditions can be directly related to the problem of excess body fat. Of course, it cannot be said that being too heavy is always the direct cause of these body malfunctions. But there is a definite association of them with overweight. So there is a problem, a truly serious problem, if you carry excess fat, whatever the reason.

But why are so many people overweight?

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HOW TO REDUCE

Just What Is the Problem?

WHY are people too fat? Is it usually due to factors beyond a person’s control, such as heredity, gland malfunction or imbalance of hormones? What relationship is there between overweight and eating too much?

At the outset, it should be stated that not all overweight people are voracious eaters. “There are many cases where the appetite and food intake of the obese are quite normal; in some cases even below average,” declares Professor Jean Mayer of the Harvard School of Public Health.

At times excess weight is due to inability of the body to eliminate fluids properly. Hormone imbalance and hereditary factors may also play a part. “Many obesities in experimental animals are genetic in origin,” notes Dr. Mayer. What about humans? “In man there is also good evidence that genetics is very important.” The professor adds:

“The number of fat cells seems predetermined (except perhaps for some increase during the first year under the influence of overabundant nutrition). Obesity runs in families: in the Boston area thin parents have, on the average, 7 per cent children obese at high-school age. If one parent is overweight, the rate is 40 per cent; if both parents are overweight, the rate is 80 per cent. Children adopted from birth do not show this association with the weight of their [foster] parents, showing that heredity, not family food habits, is the crucial factor (a finding confirmed by a large-scale study in England).”​—Italics ours.

While this is true, it is evident that far too many people cite glandular disorders or heredity as a reason for being too fat. According to the Encyclopædia Britannica (1976 edition), “the body’s ability to adjust food intake to body needs can be disturbed by numerous factors. Of these, hormone imbalances and glandular defects are believed to be of least importance, being demonstrable in only about 5 percent of all obese individuals.”

Human Energy

The human body can be compared with a precision-made and finely balanced machine. Like any machine, it needs a source of energy to set it in motion and to keep it going. A person’s body draws energy solely from solid foods and liquids.

Depending upon the design, a man-made reciprocating engine can be powered by a choice of fuels. The human body too is designed so that you can select from the wide variety of foods that the Creator has made available to mankind. It has to be understood, however, that the energy values of both foods and liquids vary greatly, and this is a key to controlling body weight.

To measure the energy value of food, there has to be a common unit against which all the different sources of food energy can be checked. The term for this is “calorie,” which, quite simply, means a unit of energy. By various scientific means it is possible to determine how much heat, or energy, a given food will impart to the body when “burned” or utilized. Just as literal fuels, like coal, oil, wood or peat, vary greatly in heat output, so too the foods we eat can be deceivingly different in energy output. From the standpoint of energy, all foods may be divided into three basic kinds.

Carbohydrates, Fats and Proteins

Carbohydrates are our principal energy source. They are found as sugars and starches in potatoes and sweet foods, but particularly in cereals and cereal products, such as bread and flour. When carbohydrates enter the digestive system, they are broken down into simple sugars such as glucose, the body’s basic energy supply. In the event of a surplus of glucose, the body arranges for energy to be stored, either as glycogen in the muscles and liver, or as body fat.

Fats are of two types​—saturated and unsaturated. Saturated fats come from animals. Examples of saturated fats are lard, meat fat, milk and its products. Unsaturated fats come from fish and vegetation. They are fish oil, olive oil, corn oil, sunflower oil and the like. As with carbohydrates, so too with fats: if the energy source is not used, it is stored as body fat.

Unlike carbohydrates and fats, proteins are not usually an energy source, but are absorbed mainly for body growth or repair. The human body is unable to store in any large amounts amino acids resulting from breakdown of proteins. Yet without them a child’s development to physical maturity would be stunted. The ready replacement of fingernails and toenails, hair, skin, muscle fibres and even red blood cells would be halted. Our main supplies of proteins come in the forms of meat, fish and eggs, as well as from plant foods like beans, peas and lentils of the legume family, though not all of these are of equal value.

The Natural Balance

What does energy drawn from foods have to do with overweight? Assume that we are to take an automobile trip. The source of energy is gasoline. The amount available at the outset of a journey will gradually diminish. As the car uses up this energy source, the weight of liquid in the gas tank will become less. At certain points it will be necessary to replenish the supply to equalize the availability of energy with the demand.

Our bodies also need enough “fuel,” or calories, to meet our varied needs. A sedentary worker may use about 2,700 calories during a 24-hour period. One who is very active may burn up an additional 900 calories or so. We may eat breakfast upon rising, and this food is readily assimilated and put to work. Then, during the course of our day, we eat other meals, and perhaps have snacks and sweetened drinks. All too often the body’s need for calories is outbalanced by the intake of them.

Hunger is the mechanism that alerts us to the need for more energy. The part of the brain that controls appetite is called the hypothalamus. Experiments have shown that if this part of the brain is stimulated or destroyed in animals, they either start eating voraciously and grow fat, or shun food and have to be forcibly fed.

Metabolism

Even when resting, or asleep, our body has a constant need of energy to keep the heart beating, the lungs breathing and food digesting. This is called basal metabolism. “Metabolism” is a term for all the chemical processes that constantly work to keep us alive. No matter what our body shape or size, we all have an individual rate of metabolism, although how it is regulated is still not fully understood.

What happens if we are unable to eat enough food to meet our calorie demand? The body is then thrown back on its own resources and has no alternative but to utilize the glycogen or fat stored for that purpose. Conversely, if we eat too much, the body stores excess energy potential in the form of fat.

Some fat is necessary both to help keep the body warm and to protect certain vital organs, such as the kidneys. It is excess fat that relates to the problems mentioned earlier.

Some people who eat well without gaining weight seem to have a naturally higher metabolic rate. In certain cases, overweight may result from a metabolic rate that is very low. However, one must beware of citing this too quickly as a reason for obesity. Dr. Judith Rodin, a psychologist at Yale University, states: “The obese person with extremely low metabolism is a rarity. Ninety-eight percent of the housewives who say they can’t lose because they have a low metabolism are wrong.”

Infant Problems

People often speak with approval of fat babies. Yet it is claimed that at least one third of all babies in the Western world are overweight, at least during the first year of life. Why is this? Simply because babies are unable to regulate their own choice of food, and many parents​—with good intentions—​overfeed them.

Does it matter if a baby is overweight for the first year or so? Yes! Some eminent pediatricians insist that such initial obesity leads to an increase in the body’s fat cells both in size and number. This means, they say, that the child will have to spend the rest of its life fighting to maintain slimness.

As an antidote to infant obesity, many recommend more breast feeding. In addition, the British Nutrition Foundation has long campaigned against early introduction of solid foods (particularly cereals), since they can be detrimental to infants. Baby-food containers in the British Isles now carry the advice that weaning foods are not usually needed before the age of four to six months. This allows the infant time for adjustment of its metabolism to the correct level.

Keeping our bodies healthy is something we all want to do. As we have seen, much depends upon the amount and the quality of our regular food supply. In most cases obesity can be prevented. But how about a cure?

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‘Excess weight may be due to inability of the body properly to eliminate fluids.’

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‘Hormone imbalance and heredity may also be factors in weight problems.’

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‘In most cases, the body’s need for calories is simply being outbalanced by intake.’

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‘Doctors say that feeding a baby too much during its first year may cause a lifelong problem with overweight.’

A Choice of Remedies

THE determination to lose weight can lead to extremes. In cases of severe overweight, a modern therapy is to wire together the patient’s jaws. In this way a compulsive eater is forced to sustain himself solely by means of fluids.

Even more drastic is an operation to bypass most of the small intestine and part of the large. Nutrients are absorbed through the walls of our intestines. So this action means that food is passed through the body without being assimilated. Fortunately, this operation is usually reversible. Even so, it carries with it a mortality rate of 5 percent.

Drugs and Slimming Pills

Immediately following World War II, amphetamines were used extensively to check appetite. But the picture changed dramatically. A Working Party set up by the British Medical Association in 1967 reported: “These drugs should be avoided so far as possible in treatment of obesity.” Why? Because amphetamine drugs can lead to serious addiction and they often have harmful side effects.

In more recent years drugs known generally as “anoretics” have been developed. But many individuals have been bitterly disappointed with them. They are advertised as a means of increasing the tissues’ utilization of glucose, leading to less fat being deposited. Are they effective? A British physician, Dr. Michael Spira, reports: “The evidence that this actually happens does not appear very convincing.”

What about “slimming pills”? Some drugs mentioned above come into this category. Also, the market is flooded with pills of all sorts and sizes containing things such as gland extracts, vitamins, methyl cellulose, hormones​—or simply just laxatives! The choice of pills is wide indeed, but the proved effectiveness for general treatment in weight reduction is much in question.

Exercise?

Does the answer to weight reduction lie in exercise? Yes, to an extent. After all, we live in a labour-saving world. Normal expenditure of energy in such routine matters as climbing stairs is often set aside for an elevator. Walking to shops, or even to and from school, is exchanged for a ride. Machines undertake much of the energy expenditure in housework. Similarly, sedentary occupations call for little physical effort. In many lands today, bodies tend to be underused, muscles grow flabby and much of the body’s energy supply turns into fat.

To help restore balance, various ideas hit the market from time to time. Some years back “hula hoops” were the rage for reducing midriff bulge. Rowing and bicycling machines, vibrator massagers and a host of other gadgets using ropes and pulleys are always available for buying or are used in clubs, and health clinics.

A very popular form of exercise today is jogging. However, for an obese person to engage in strenuous exercise can indeed be very dangerous. Even for an active person to push himself at jogging without an adequate buildup is hazardous. For persons not in condition to jog, a vigorous walk can be beneficial​—yet face the fact that walking an extra mile a day will result in weight loss of less than one pound (0.45 kg) a month! Obviously, however, exercise does help in reducing weight, since any physical exertion means that calories are being used up rather than being stored in the body as fat.

On the whole, many advocates for various methods of losing weight disagree on vital points. Is there no common factor in the maze of weight-reducing remedies? Yes, there is one.

The Fundamental Issue

“Overweight comes from overeating.” Those four telling words are repeated a number of times in This Slimming Business by John Yudkin, emeritus professor of nutrition, University of London, England. The following table is self-explanatory:

INTAKE OUTPUT RESULT

In all but a tiny percentage of cases, overweight can be solved by regulating food intake. Persons who wish to reduce must consume less calories, either by eating less food or by avoiding high-calorie items such as sweets. If you seek medical advice about a weight problem, chances are that the doctor will recommend some form of diet that will enable you to have an intake of calories commensurate with your expenditure of energy. Initially, though, a stricter form of diet may be needed to bring your weight down to the limits for those of your height, age and build. These figures are readily available from life insurance companies or from diet books or magazines.

There is a great variety of diets. A vegetarian diet obviously will be more expensive (unless you grow your own fruits and vegetables), as will a high-protein one. Bear in mind too that special “diet foods” are usually more costly and of doubtful value, except as temporary food supplements. Beware of any “crash diet” program. Such methods can be very dangerous and lead to serious health problems, such as ulcers.

Some Practical Tips

One way of limiting your intake of food energy is to take note of all that you eat each day, including all snacks between meals. Assess the total caloric content of everything you eat and drink. Train yourself to understand food values and then plan how to cut down systematically each day. There is one danger in this approach. Beware of becoming overly absorbed in the undertaking. It can rob you of time needed for other essential things.

Many find calorie counting far too tedious and soon lose interest. A much simpler means of losing weight is to continue with your normal diet, to enjoy what you eat, but to eat less of it. Instead of three slices of bread, eat two. Take one less potato. Instead of two teaspoons of sugar in your tea or coffee, put just one. If you drink five cups of these beverages each day, that will be a reduction of about 1,000 calories per week​—no mean saving! Give special attention to cutting down on calorie intake in the evening, because physical activity is usually limited then. Do not expect spectacular results with this approach. But over a period of time you will lose weight slowly​—and that is the best way to do it.

Such an approach to the situation is in harmony with the Bible’s counsel to ‘eat and drink with rejoicing’ but to avoid “overeating and heavy drinking” because of the adverse effects that such abuses produce, not only physically, but in a person’s response to important spiritual matters of life.​—Eccl. 9:7; Luke 21:34.

At this point it may be helpful to consider some tips that have proved useful in certain cases. Eat only when you are hungry. Having a light snack instead of a full meal from time to time will do you no harm. Avoid “nibbling” when watching TV, reading or just chatting with friends. Drinking something about half an hour before a meal will take the edge off your appetite and drinking a little with meals will help you to feel full with less food. Thorough chewing brings greater eating satisfaction, and you will find that by so doing you will also eat less. Give yourself time to enjoy meals. Eating slowly can help you to shed excessive fat. Dr. Theodore Van Itallie, a specialist on obesity, said in an interview published in Psychology Today: “The rate of eating may be a factor. There are some people who gobble down their meals very rapidly. Some researchers believe that if you bolt your food, the satiety signals that ultimately tell you it’s time to stop may not have time to go into action.”

Determination and self-control are essential in any progress toward weight reduction. Reading about the problem or consulting doctors is no substitute for personal effort.

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SLIMMING PILLS

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EXERCISE

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EATING LESS