Child Obesity Course

From the desk of:
Allen Oelschlaeger
Pharmacist, father of a diabetic child, drug-
company executive, weight-loss researcher

Tuesday
2:17 PM

Dear Friend:

My name is Allen Oelschlaeger and I've been studying issues related to childhood obesity for over 35 years.

I must admit, I'm almost ready to pull my hair out. Here we have a worldwide epidemic on our hands and the people who set public policy for such things …

… don't know the cause!

For example, in the U.S. childhood obesity rates have tripled over the last 20 years and our public policy folks haven't yet figured out why this has happened – despite several hundred million dollars of research.

But here's what's worse. They don't know the cause so they make one up.

Yep, in the absence of any scientific evidence, U.S. public policy officials have decided the reason why kids are becoming more overweight is sedentary behavior and unhealthy eating.

This conclusion is so widely held and promoted I'm sure you've heard about it. In fact, given everyone's concern about childhood obesity, you're probably reminded of this conclusion every single day via news reports, magazine articles, new books, and TV specials.

But, there's one problem – there's no scientific evidence to support this theory.

As logical as it may sound that kids are overweight because they don't get enough physical activity and don't eat enough healthy food, no research has ever shown this to be true. In fact, almost all the scientific data suggests that physical activity and healthy eating have nothing to do with the obesity epidemic.

Consider these facts

1.) In the U.S. over the last 20 years or so:

Fat consumption has decreased from over 36% of calories to under 33%
Fruit and vegetable consumption has increased 24%
Red meat consumption has decreased in favor of leaner meats such as chicken and turkey
Whole grain consumption has increased
Skim milk consumption has doubled while whole milk consumption has dropped by half
There has been a significant increase in the availability of low- and no-calorie foods
Population-wide physical activity has increased
Percentage of people reporting no leisure-time physical activity has decreased from 32% to 25%.

2.) Despite decades of research, there is no scientific evidence that sedentary behavior and unhealthy eating cause childhood obesity.

Again, common sense says some relationship should exist between these two factors and weight status, but it just doesn't show up in the results. In fact, the data often argues against such an association.

3.) When researchers implement initiatives to increase physical activity and healthy eating among a group of children (many which are quite elaborate, expensive, and totally impractical), they can't produce any positive impact on weight status.

Despite what your common sense might tell you, there is just no evidence that sedentary behavior and unhealthy eating are the cause of the childhood obesity epidemic or that increasing physical activity and eating healthier have any positive effect.

But I know you hear the opposite almost every day. A day doesn't go by without some media story that the increase incidence of overweight and obesity in kids is due to one or more of the following factors:

Infrequent gym class
Kids aren't walking or riding their bike to school
Too much screen (TV, computer, video game) time
More automobile use
Prevalence of junk food
Advertising of foods high in fat and sugar
Unhealthy foods in schools
Large and cheap portion sizes
High percentage of meals eaten in restaurants
Not enough safe places to play

I agree, on the surface these factors sound like very plausible reasons for the increased incidence of childhood obesity. The problem is that there just isn't any evidence to support these reasons.

Actually, a basic understanding of human physiology easily explains why physical activity and healthy eating aren't related to weight status. Despite what you have probably heard

Energy burned through daily activity is a small percentage of total energy expenditure so no matter how much someone increases their activity level the impact on total calories burned is minor. More activity increases fitness levels but it has almost no impact on weight status.
Energy consumed is a function of how much you eat, not what you eat. To the body, 100 calories is 100 calories, whether they come from candy or carrots, white or whole wheat bread, low-fat or high-fat ice cream, steak or potatoes, corn oil or olive oil. "Healthy" eating improves overall nutrition but it has no impact on weight status.

So, can you understand why I'm almost ready to pull my hair out?

Schools, communities, governments and non-profit groups are spending a fortune to increase physical activity levels and healthy eating among our nation's youth even though the evidence argues against these two factors being the cause of the obesity epidemic and all past initiatives to meet these two goals have failed miserably.

Despite improved nutrition education, availability of more no and low-calorie foods, governmental nutrition and activity guidelines, more physical activity promotion, and detailed food labeling, the incidence of childhood obesity continues to rise at a dramatic rate.

So, what is going on?

Well, that's what I've been trying to figure out for the last 35 years and what I've learned is the topic of this rather lengthy report.

There's a lot to read here, but I really hope you stay with me long enough to hear what I've discovered ... and what I so desperately want to share with you.

If you have a child that struggles with weight issues, the next several pages may be the most important information you've ever read.

Get ready to abandon what you thought was
true about weight, eating well, and exercise
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The weight-loss industry is set on confusing us

Researching childhood obesity over the last 35 years has been difficult. In fact, it's been ridiculously difficult.

See, the $60 plus billion dollar weight-loss industry wants to continue to sell their weight-loss programs, diet pills, books and videos, club memberships, diet foods, and exercise contraptions.

So, what do they do?

They bombard us with confusing and contradictory information
because they know, the more confused we all are
--- both adults and kids (their future customers) ---
the easier it is to convince us their weight-loss methods work ...

.... even though ALL the evidence proves they don't.

Then, whenever inklings of the REAL answer surfaces, they do their very best to suppress it.

That's just the reality of doing research on weight-loss --- and is the reason figuring out the true cause of the increased obesity incidence and what would really work to address the problem is so ridiculously difficult.

Yet, we all know there's an approach that does work -- and that has worked for decades. Otherwise, there'd be no examples of kids who maintain a normal weight throughout childhood.
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Despite the weight-loss industry's efforts to confuse me, I wasn't about to give up

Amazingly, on the topics of weight, nutrition and fitness, the more you research you do, the more confused you get. If you've done any reading on these topics, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

But I wasn't about to give up -- I had too much passion for coming up with some answers.

See, I have a daughter with Type 1 diabetes, the incurable disease requiring insulin injections several times a day and careful management of eating and exercise. Because the physiology of diabetes control and weight management are so tightly linked, the confusing and contradictory information offered up by the weight-loss industry has the potential of seriously impacting her long-term health and well-being.

So, in 2004 I decided to get serious and, for the next three years, I became a fanatical researcher about everything having to do with weight, nutrition and fitness.

I read hundreds of books written for the lay public and medical professionals, spent hours and hours in our local medical college library, an equal amount of time in our city library, and had discussions with various experts in the field. I read studies dating back to the 1800s, investigated almost every new study reported by media, and became a regular reader of several online medical newsletters.

Most of what I read only added to my confusion due to the overwhelming number of contradictions I found -- but, not all of it.
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The secrets to weight management have been known for more than a century

As I got deeper and deeper into my research, I noticed a small subset of information about weight management that had been clearly and consistently presented for over 100 years.

This information pointed out the failure of traditional approaches to addressing the childhood obesity epidemic and described a single, coherent strategy that has worked for hundreds of thousands of kids.

I was shocked.

A strategy to address childhood obesity had been
around for decades -- yet few people knew about it.

But, worse, whenever an attempt is made to bring this strategy to light, it is shamelessly suppressed by the $60 plus billion weight-loss industry.

Instead of the truths, the weight-loss industry feeds us myths, misinformation, and misdirection --- and, in some cases, downright lies. Disappointingly, their profits are more important than our health.

The diet, fitness and food companies know that confusion drives sales so that's the nature of the information they continue to deliver.

Frankly, they should be ashamed of themselves.

Well, I decided I wasn't going to take it anymore. So I sat down at my computer and started typing. Surprisingly, within a couple of months of working just at nights and on the weekend, I had over 300 pages of material structured in the form of a course on weight, nutrition and fitness.
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Here is what I heard from some of the people who read the first draft of my course

I thought I had written something with real value so I shared it with a few people. And, over the next year and a half, I got comments back like these