Obesity researchers can do little but repeat an eternal truth: we lose weight by eating less and moving more. During the recent transit strike many Ottawa residents discovered how well that works when they started walking to the office and the grocery store.
Yet maintaining a healthy weight is hard work and many Canadians are not succeeding, as suggested in rising obesity rates and all the related illnesses -- chief among them diabetes and heart disease -- that are straining the country's health system. Some medical professionals see obesity as the biggest health-care challenge on the horizon, one that the public health-care system is poorly equipped to deal with.
Ottawa obesity expert Dr. Yoni Freedhoff, of the Bariatric Medical Institute, and his colleague Dr. Arya Sharma, professor and chair of obesity research and management at the University of Alberta, should be congratulated for initiating an important discussion on these issues. In an editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the doctors say that while health professionals have done a good job raising public awareness about the dangers of obesity, most patients don't know how to lose weight or where to get help doing so, making them vulnerable to "weight-loss" entrepreneurs who promote unrealistic claims.
The obesity doctors would like the government to step in and help consumers determine which weight-loss programs are of real benefit. Among their suggestions is an accreditation or seal-of-approval system. They would also like the government to regulate non-prescription weight-loss supplements.
Clearly the doctors are fed up with companies that make false promises, but it's unrealistic to expect the federal government to protect consumers from their own wishful thinking, beyond existing legislation that prohibits unsafe drugs and false advertising.
A more productive approach would be for governments to work with colleges of physicians to set up a system in which evidence-based weight management programs are widely accessible. Currently, doctors do not have enough time to give patients the counselling and lifestyle help required to help them lose weight. Community health centres are one system already in place that is suited for this role. The centres, which include doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and dietitians, are designed to provide preventive medicine as well as lifestyle counselling and nutritional help.
Indeed, as the incidence of obesity-related diseases continues to rise, investing in prevention makes the most sense from a cost-benefit perspective. The public health-care system should pay for patients to attend private weight loss programs that can prove they offer quality services supported by credible research.
Ultimately individuals need to take responsibility for their own weight loss, but if health officials can make it easier for Canadians to get effective help then it might reduce the demand for quack claims.
