Obesity experts weigh evidence - conclude the obvious

Wow, you just can't put one over on those "international health experts," can you?

According to a recent Associated Press article, a conference of 2,500 of them convened in Sydney, Australia, earlier this month and concluded - get ready for a NEWS FLASH:

That there's a global epidemic of obesity!

No, really? What was their first clue, I wonder? Was it the unbelievable increase in obesity-related mortality? Was it the ongoing slugging match between heart disease and diabetes toward contention for the world heavyweight champion killer disease? Was it the proliferation of extra-large medical equipment (beds, MRI machines, etc.), caskets, and clothing?

Or was it that they simply opened their eyes and looked around them at all the fatties everywhere - across almost all cross sections of industrialized first-world society?

Whatever the reason, these geniuses have finally come to the realization that around a billion of Earth's inhabitants (around 17% of us) are overweight or obese. This is a truly staggering statistic, considering how many millions of people in third-world nations of Asia and Africa are impoverished and bordering on starvation…

I know, because I've seen it first-hand.

These undernourished must number at least a billion worldwide in my opinion, although the AP's sources peg the number at closer to 600 million. When you factor these people out of the equation, we're REALLY a world of fatties - around 20% of us are too porky. But no matter how you add up the numbers, without doubt the world is now home to far more people with too much fat cushioning their backsides than with not enough. This is a first in history…

If you ask me, it's about time the GLOBAL problem of obesity started getting some ink. In most of the world's eyes, the U.S. is the fattest nation on Earth. Even though America probably still ranks near the top in national obesity rates, nations like Australia, Mexico, the UK and others are catching up fast. For instance, the AP article reports that almost one out of three Thai adults over 35 is at risk of obesity-related disease.

The cost of this epidemic to the global healthcare system may be incalculable - yet it's most certain to be staggering.

One of the purposes of the week-long conference, named the International Congress on Obesity, was to estimate the future fiscal burden of this growing problem on healthcare systems the world over…

The No. 1 fear of these experts is that healthcare systems will be overrun by the epidemic and be unable to bear the burden of all the obesity-related disease. In this, they have a very valid concern, in my own "expert" opinion.

It is kind of strange that I wasn't invited to this conference, though (wink, wink) - perhaps it's my stance on what's making people fat that cost me my invite. Somehow I don't think the pointy-heads are ready to hear that their gourmet breads, bagels, pastas, rice, soy proteins, energy drinks, cappuccinos, and vegetable by-products are killing us. It's just so unfashionable…

Look, everyone who's NOT an international expert invited to a global conference on the obvious (that means all the smart people - like you Daily Dose readers) already knows what's driving obesity at its most rudimentary level: Junk-food advertising aimed at kids, and the junk foods themselves they get in school, at the convenience store, and from their PARENTS.

Until we address THAT problem, we can't throw money at the health-care side of the issue. But the "experts" will push for this, of course - it means more jobs and greater influence for the healthcare industry, not to mention more power over what you eat…

In the next Daily Dose: Benevolent Big Pharma to the rescue!