Regular exercise is key to staving off serious disease, such as diabetes, heart disease, and dementia, but our calorie laden diets now generate more ill health than physical inactivity, alcohol, and smoking combined, researchers said.
The evidence now suggests that up to 40 per cent of those within a normal weight (BMI) range will none the less harbour harmful metabolic abnormalities typically associated with obesity, researchers said.
But few people realise this, and many wrongly believe that obesity is entirely due to lack of exercise, a perception that is firmly rooted in corporate marketing, said researchers in an editorial in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
They describe the public relations tactics of the food industry as "chillingly similar to those of Big Tobacco," which deployed denial, doubt, confusion and "bent scientists" to convince the public that smoking was not linked to lung cancer.
"Celebrity endorsements of sugary drinks and the association of junk food and sport must end," researchers wrote, adding that health clubs and gyms need to set an example by removing the sale of these products from their premises.
Public health messaging has unhelpfully focused on maintaining a 'healthy weight' through calorie counting, but it's the source of the calories that matters, the researchers pointed out.
The prevalence of diabetes increases 11-fold for every 150 additional sugar calories consumed daily, compared with the equivalent amount of calories consumed as fat, they said.
The evidence now suggests that carbs are no better, according to the researchers.
Recent research indicates that cutting down on dietary carbohydrate is the single most effective approach for reducing all of the features of the metabolic syndrome and should be the primary strategy for treating diabetes, with benefits occurring even in the absence of weight loss.
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