We all know that being overweight carries some serious health consequences. Heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, even cancer have all been linked to carrying around those extra pounds – and the more we carry, the greater our risks.
Still as important a health condition as being overweight is, when it comes to products and services designed to help us beat it, all sense of propriety seems lost.
In short, nowhere do we see more unproven, untested “remedies” for a serious health concern than we see being offered to those who are overweight.
Indeed, the Federal Trade Commission recently reported that more Americans are duped by phony weight loss claims than by any other types of products they evaluated.
In fact, as anyone whose tried to find a weight loss solution can tell you, there are a litany of dietary supplements, quick fix electronic exercise equipment, fat burning teas, nose spray appetite suppressants, as well as any number of lotions, potions or treatments alike, all promising to get rid of the fat - without any real evidence they can deliver on the promise.
Among the biggest offenders of all: The book publishing industry. I’m speaking about the barage of diet books published each year, most without so much as a chard of evidence that they work.
Think about it … be it large publishers or small, these books are continually offering us treatment plans for a serious, life threatening condition - obesity - devised by celebrities, super models, or self-proclaimed experts in the field! Most have little or no formal nutritional, dietary or weight loss education or experience, and I’d venture to guess almost none of the protocols have ever been subjected to the kind of double-blind, placebo controlled testing required of treatments for other serious illnesses.
Would you even dream of subjecting your child, your spouse, your siblings or yourself to a untested, unproven treatment for cancer or heart disease devised by a movie star?
And yet, somehow the book publishing industry seems to have convinced us it’s okay to try these largely unproven regimens if we are obese - and to blame our selves, and not them, when their plans fail. As almost all do.
But all this however, may soon change, thanks to one group of health professionals determined to give obesity – and those who seek treatment - the same kind of respect offered to other serious health concerns.
At the core of the movement: The American Dietetic Association, the Obesity Society, Shaping America’s Health and the drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, who have joined forces to create a “citizen’s petition” – a request made directly to the FDA calling for greater scrutiny of products aimed directly at those struggling to lose weight – particularly dietary supplements.
“ Specifically, petitioners request FDA to treat weight loss claims as disease claims because such statements purport to prevent or treat an abnormal or unhealthy condition that, while not itself a disease, is a significant risk factor for disease, “ write the experts in their letter to the FDA.
In short, they are asking the government require those who offer treatments for obesity to be held to the same strict standards of scientific validation now required for treatments of the very diseases linked to obesity - namely, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. And to force those manufacturers whose products don't cut the mustard to stop peddling their wares with promises they know they can't keep.
But while the petition is a great start, there has to be more.
Yes, government legislation will help, but perhaps even more important is that, as a whole, industry, society, and yes, all of medicine, must begin to treat those who are fighting the battle with obesity with the same kind of compassion and respect afforded to those who succumb to it’s consequences. And that respect must trickle down to treatments and solutions.
Indeed, only when we get to the point where it’s no longer okay to view obesity as a condition anyone can "cure" or "treat" - that we will know we are truly on the road to solving this health crisis and all of the complications that go with it.
To read more about how you can make a difference, click here to visit RedDressDiary.com
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