Study also rails against sugary drinks.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A team of British cardiologists are going against the grain with their strongly worded editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that alleges regular exercise does not truly tackle obesity.
The piece claims although regular exercise reduces the risk of developing a number of health issues such as heart disease, dementia, some cancers and type 2 diabetes, it doesn’t promote weight loss unless it is paired with dietary changes.
The authors of the study say the public is “drowned by an unhelpful message” from the food industry that obesity is caused entirely by a lack of exercise, going so far as to describe the tactics used as “chillingly similar” to those employed by big tobacco companies when the links between smoking and lung cancer were first revealed, according to Mashable.
“The tobacco industry successfully stalled government intervention for 50 years,” reads the editorial. “This sabotage was achieved using a ‘corporate playbook’ of denial, doubt, confusing the public and even buying the loyalty of bent scientists, at the cost of millions of lives.”
The authors point to a study in the academic journal, Nutrition, that states the singularly most effective way to counter obesity is to restrict the intake of carbohydrates. The piece also rails against sugary drinks, saying the association between “junk food and sport, must end.”
The World Health Organization reports worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980. In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults aged 18 years and older were overweight. Of those, over 600 million were obese.