Every New Years, you can expect to see filler articles about dieting resolutions and how they are destined to fail.
This one from CNN is particularly stupid and irresponsible.
"Why Dieting is So Much Harder than it Looks"
http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/02/health/body-fights-dieting-food-partner/index.html
The gist: obesity is caused by genetics and there is NOTHING you can do to fight it, so you should stop trying.
Literally, this article offers NO hope. It portrays normal-weight people as genetically superior. They naturally eat the right amount of food, don't suffer cravings, and have willpower to spare. Fatties, on the other hand, have low metabolisms and irresistible cravings. Any attempt to "diet" is not only destined to fail, but will make the situation worse.
"The cruel irony is that after someone has been dieting for some time, changes happen that make it hard to succeed at dieting in the long run. It is physically possible, and a small minority of dieters do manage to keep weight off for several years. But not without a demoralizing and all-encompassing battle with their physiology the entire time."
So what should you do? Give up!
"If you are a dieter, remind yourself that you aren't weak, but that you were in an unfair fight that very few win. Change your focus to improving your health with exercise (which doesn't require weight loss), and resolve to choose a different New Year's resolution next year."
Wow, thanks for that. Of course, they provide no place to add comments so the public can respond to this idiocy.
POINT 1:
(1.) Look in your family scrapbooks, and find a group shot of your relatives who lived in the 1950s. They are skinnier than us, aren't they?
They had YOUR SAME FATTY GENES, and yet they were much thinner. Thirty pounds thinner, on average.
Why?
Duh.
Because those people did not live in a toxic food environment.
So what CNN is REALLY saying:
We should continue submit to the poisoning of America and the world by massive, inhumane corporations who profit off our misery, because resistance is futile.
Precision of language, please.
POINT 2:
Interestingly, if you track down the source of this "information" at TheConversation.com, you will find starkly different conclusions from those CNN chose to present:
...Our country needs a greater systematic effort in the realms of public health, the government and industry. For starters, our political leaders should make combating obesity a top priority.
...Students should receive additional education in schools on good eating habits and how to control stress.
...Health care insurers need to be more willing to pay upfront to manage obesity before it becomes a much more expensive disease to treat.
...Each of us needs to become an advocate for a healthier way of life. Adults can start by teaching our youngsters about good dietary habits, by insisting on a better balance in the workplace, and by demanding more accountability from the food and health industries, and our government.
https://theconversation.com/our-fight-with-fat-why-is-obesity-getting-worse-86601
Yet another example of why we need a real, not-for-profit news service in this country.