Obesity epidemic? Apparently we’re not eating enough!
One story that dominated the nationals this weekend were results from a recent draft report by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) which concluded that the current daily calorie intake- 2,500 for men and 2,000 for women- may be wrong. SACN are now suggesting that the recommended daily intake could be increased by up to 16%.
But surely this will lead to serious misinterpretation?
According the The Times on Saturday, 60% of us are already eating more than our daily allowance. In addition, Amanda Ursell, nutritionist and writer for The Times, suggests that those people currently maintaining a normal and steady weight consuming the current daily allowance, could gain up to two stone in a year by following the new suggested intake! Currently the NHS is spending an estimated £4.2 billion on over-weight and obese individuals, a figure that could rise dramatically, should these new guidelines be put in place.
Worryingly, it won’t be those maintaining a healthy weight who take any notice of the increase in daily allowance. Unfortunately many of the 60% already eating over the daily allowance, who may be unaware of how many calories they are consuming, may start to think it’s ok to eat an extra two packets of crisps a day, fuelling the forever growing ‘obesity crisis’ in the UK.
Should this report really be taken seriously? Should the National Obesity Forum not be trying to persuade people not to believe this outrageous new proposal?
Tags: Amanda Ursell, calorie, calorie intake, diet, exercise, health, health eating, National Obesity Forum, obesity, SACN, Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, The Times
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Comments (1)
November 19th, 2009 at 5:32 pm Posted by Annabel
To be honest, I’m not sure how much weight (totally unintentional pun) this news will have with the public - and especially with those who are seriously overweight. Surely once people get to the obese stage, they are clearly not considering their daily calorie intake and will continue to eat just as much as they want?
I think the National Obesity Forum would do better not to waste their efforts addressing this report…the calorie counters are not their problem….the ‘non-counters’ may well be!
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