Can we cure obesity by picking one item in the grocery cart and saying avoid it and you will be fine? No, says the latest research.
A new study from Cornell found that a person with a “healthy” BMI eats "junk food" about as many times in a week as an overweight person. That means that the “consumption of soda, candy and fast food is not linked to Body Mass Index for 95 percent of the population" according to one of the study’s authors, Dave Just.
“This means that diets and health campaigns aimed at reducing and preventing obesity may be off track if they hinge on demonizing specific foods," Just said in a statement. "If we want real change we need to look at the overall diet, and physical activity." Narrowly targeting certain foods is not just ineffective, "it may be self-defeating as it distracts from the real underlying causes of obesity,” says the author.
When talking about obesity, we have to look at solutions that consider the whole picture. Obesity results from an imbalance between calories in and calories burned. Beverages account for only 6 percent of the average daily calories we get - the other 94 percent must be accounted for too if we want real solutions.
Our Balance Calories Initiative encourages Americans to balance everything they eat, drink and do. It seems like common sense but some food police are trying to tell us otherwise. Mom always told us, “Everything in moderation." Sounds like a cliche but maybe it’s a cliché because it is true.