The Root Cause of This Pandemic

Shield the vulnerable and let everyone else get back to work.

That’s what I thought.

Then I realised that 30% of our population is classified as vulnerable.

It’s not just those of us with ‘underlying conditions’ who need to shield.

It’s the obese too. 30% of us. I don’t believe we can shield 30% of the country.

You see, underpinning this pandemic is an epidemic.

A food-related epidemic of ill-health that has been quietly present for decades.

An epidemic of diabetes and obesity.

Aka ‘lifestyle’ diseases.

Weight was recognised in the 1970s as a health issue.

We got some guidance from the government back then: eat low-calorie, low-fat.

Look at your friends, family, neighbours and colleagues.

Our society is steadily getting bigger, younger.

The last 50 years have shown those guidelines do not work.

If they did 50% of us would not be overweight or obese.

If those principles worked, the British people wouldn’t be being hit so hard right now.

We are the fattest country in Europe.

With the highest death rate.

Why are we still being told to eat low-calorie, low-fat?

Health does not come from eating processed low-calorie, nutritionally empty food full of artificial chemical sweeteners, hydrogenated fats and processed foods laden with colourings, flavourings and emulsifiers.

Health does not come from eating a diet based on nutritionally empty carbs, with the goodness refined out of them.

Disease does.

The truth is very few people properly understand real factors behind our crisis of obesity and diabetes.

Most have no understanding of the biology of weight loss.

We lack meaningful, practical nutritional education in this country.

Even our doctors – who we rightly hold in high esteem as regards health – have only a few hours of nutritional education in years of study.

Nutrition and lifestyle medicine are dismissed from the very top and that, in my view, is what is causing us in the UK to have such a high death rate.

Is it personal responsibility or government responsibility?

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