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Fat Free Fitness Health, Diet and Fitness Today – Tuesday 8th December 2009 - "Obesity causes 1/3 of heart attacks and strokes"

Posted: 08/12/2009 at 08:10pm by Rich Leigh, founder of Fat Free Fitness

A new study suggests that a third of deaths from cardiovascular disease (such as heart attacks and strokes) and one in seven cases of non-fatal cardiovascular diseases could be if people weren’t overweight or obese.

The study was carried out on just fewer than 20,000 people over a period of 10 years in the Netherlands, and found a link between obesity and higher waist circumference and risk of both fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease. Unlike the study mentioned in yesterday’s HDF Today, the sample size is particularly impressive, and represented all manner of people (males and females aged 20-65, all different shapes and sizes).

The story has been featured in The Daily Mail, Mirror and Telegraph today, under sensitive headlines such as ‘Third of heart disease deaths blamed on being too fat’. No, there aren’t any prizes for guessing which of the three ran with this sensationalist headline.

I learnt of the story on the NHS UK website, where the fantastic editorial team look at stories in the news based on studies, and ask key questions such as ‘where did the story come from?’, ‘what kind of research was this?’, ‘how did the researchers interpret the results?’ and more. The benefit of this is that studies are looked at objectively, as all should be, in a bid to prevent gross misinformation leading from national media interest.

Whilst there are drawbacks to the study, (namely issues such as: because the study was undertaken in the Netherlands, is it representative of nations with higher/lower incidences of obesity?) the results are a bit like putting a name to a face.

In terms of my own personal thoughts, we all know that obesity is bad for us. If it was just an aesthetic issue, well, only particularly shallow people would have an issue with other people being obese. But this isn’t the case.

Obesity kills, and this study furthers our understanding of to what extent unnecessary deaths could be prevented by healthier diets and exercise.

In short, yes, obesity is responsible for heart disease and other cardiovascular disease in some cases. Arguing the point that there would be heart disease without obesity is valid and scientifically well founded, but to not actively seek to instil healthiness into this and other generations is a mystery to me.

If I could do everything in my power to prevent a member of my family going through the physically agonising ordeal of potentially terminal cancer, for instance, by encouraging small changes to their lifestyle, I would. To me, and many other fitness professionals, this is why we do what we do. Sure, you can buy into the stereotype that we’re all lycra-clad meatheads who like counting at the top of our voice whilst overusing phrases such as ‘no pain-no gain’ and ‘feel the burn’, but the reality is different. We’re all of the above but with a will to have a positive impact because it feels as if people are losing the ability to care about issues such as this!

It’s all about active change. Can you make small changes to your child’s life, such as encouraging more exercise, putting less food on their plate or learning about and teaching them the values of a balanced diet, inclusive of treats for the sake of their health? Government projections of a nation of obese children becoming obese adults and having obese children themselves don’t have to become reality. They can be just that: projections which never materialise, but it’s not going to happen without active change.

On that note, can you take responsibility and make small changes to your own life? Because if you don’t, nobody else is going to make them for you, no matter how much advice you seek nor blame you place.

The NHS took a look at the story here in more depth.


Yeah, we'd suggest keeping away from food like this if you can... :)

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