Award for weight loss impracticality

The BUPA Foundation in the UK (I’m not sure who these folks are) just gave $25,000 to a UK hospital for their “innovative work in tacking child obesity.”

Here’s what they came up with.

From what I can tell, their innovation is a food plate which is attached to a set of scales. The scales are then attached to a computer.

Here’s how I think it works.

Someone loads up the plate with food and programs the computer with how much food the kid should eat. The kid starts eating and the computer tracks how much food is leaving the plate and then “signals” (I can imagine a screeching alarm) when the prescribed food limit is reached.

The person leading the program at the hospital is quoted as saying “Obesity is a major threat to our children and we owe it to them to do everything we can to protect their health.”

There is so much wrong with this “innovation” that I can’t imagine how anyone could think these researchers deserve some kind of award. The most obvious problem is impracticality. Do the obese kids have to eat all their meals and snacks via this contraption? Who programs the computer and how do the programmers know how much food the child needs at that specific time?

But, here’s the more important question. What does using such a contraption do for the child’s perception of food and eating? Are they learning to fear food? And, if so, what does that mean to their long term ability to manage their eating habits?

I’m sure these researchers have their hearts in the right place and are genuinely interested in helping these obese kids. The problem is, in my opinion, they are doing more harm than good.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of The Straight Scoop About Childhood Obesity