Each week brings a further rash of fad diets and dieting nostrums in the pages of women's magazines. In truth we know that 'grapefruit segments' or 'cultured yak milk' is not the answer to our overweight problem, but despite this we still hope that it might help and we try it. So why don't we reject them?

The answer is that trying to reduce weight, and even more to keep weight down when we have achieved something approaching our target weight, is one of the most difficult of all health promoting procedures. It is easy for the family doctor to say “Take off 30 kilos and then come back to see me again” and to offer a diet sheet to help. To actually achieve it is extremely difficult. If this were not so, the current first world epidemic of excess weight and the associated illnesses would have been conquered by now. Not only is the obesity epidemic not conquered, but the proportion of the population carrying excess weight is still rising. Even more important, the age at which the problem starts is decreasing steadily. There is now a distinct possibility that this century will be the first in which the life expectancy of children will be less than that of their parents.

Don’t mock those who are overweight. Don’t speak in a derisive fashion about it being due to gluttony or sloth. Sympathise with the overweight and try to help them. Above all recognise that the task of reducing weight is so difficult that those who need to try to accomplish it will grasp at any magic pill or potion which promises to make the task easier. ‘Snake doctors’ and charlatans who try to sell their weight reducing wares should understand that the ‘quick buck’ earned from those who are seeking genuine help is not just unkind, it is a fraud, just as much as is forging a signature on a bank account.

Regulators and advertising code monitors throughout Europe strive to protect vulnerable consumers from falling prey to slimming fraud. They are confounded by the difficulties of controlling cross-border mail order promotion, particularly those originating from outside the EU, by mail, by the internet and by hand. Vulnerable consumers are only too willing accomplices in these frauds in the hope of finding the magic cure. Disappointment and loss of pounds of money not weight are the inevitable results.

Why is it so difficult to reduce weight? The principle is easy. If we eat food that provides the same amount of energy as we utilise, we maintain a constant weight; if we consume less energy than we use, we lose weight; if we consume more energy than we use, the weight inexorably rises. We know this but very few of us can achieve the correct balance. Why not?

The problem is that we are fighting some 100 million years of heredity. For 99.9% of this time the animal kingdom in general was prey to food scarcity and famine. Not only did we need to work hard in order to gather enough food, but those who accumulated body energy reserves in the form of fat survived best and their genetic make-up became the preferred pattern. We have developed several innate mechanisms that encourage us to eat, but currently we know of no innate mechanism, which consistently prevents us from overeating.

So is there nothing that can help? Indeed there is and this will be the subject of a future article. The message of this one is that there are no easy ways, no magic bullets, no magic diet and no magic medication for the management of the weight. It requires commitment and involves hard work - in all senses.

FOOD TODAY 04/2003