The cause and effect of excessive weight gain and obesity are misunderstood by many professionals who should know better. Unfortunately, we live in an era that is short of great thinkers. The repeater mindset that regurgitates what it hears, after taking the information at face value has been a disaster for science (and society) and has left us with a hollow shell of our former scientific endeavours. It is staggering the amount of professional scientist that confuse the concept of cause and effect, either deliberately because of their agenda, or because they know no better. Obesity research is a good example of groupthink, where an erroneous assumption is taken at face value and propagated to other researchers, who again take the ‘fact’ at face value. The ‘eat-too-much, do-too-little’ theory of obesity has become ingrained in medical thought in this very way. Cause and effect are often inferred from observational studies in science, although in practical terms, only clinical trials should really be used to prove cause and effect.
For example, in one study1, the researcher investigated the association between television watching and sleep patterns in relation to obesity and blood pressure in Brazilian children. The researchers sampled 4452 adolescents aged 10 to 12 years and used questionnaires to determine their sleep patterns and television viewing habits. Body mass index, skinfold measurements and blood pressure were measured by a qualified professional. The results, as might be expected, showed that short sleep duration and television viewing were associated with higher body mass index, increased skin fold measurements and increased blood pressure. The authors wrote that ‘Our study shows that behavioural factors associated with metabolic risk in industrialized populations exert similar deleterious effects in a population undergoing nutritional transition and suggest options for public health interventions’ Therefore the authors, without evidence decided to ascribe the cause and effect of the associations to their conclusion.
This is typical of some of the obesity literature. The actual data in the paper does not allow inference of a cause and effect, but the authors have contributed an opinion that shows their allegiance to a belief, not supported by the relevant scientific literature. The ‘eat-too-much, do-too-little’ theory of obesity states that any food ingested must be either oxidised as a fuel or will be stored. It assumed that greed or laziness is the cause of the obesity, and that activities such as television watching are the cause of the weight gain. However, obesity is a metabolic disorder of energy regulation and the literature clearly shows that being overweight is able to cause an inability to perform physical activity to a high intensity. It is known for example, that the hypothalamic leptin resistance found in obese individuals causes the central nervous system to down regulate physical activity. In addition, obese individuals have lower iron statuses than lean counterparts, which may affect the ability to perform physical activity.
RdB
