Friday, August 27, 2004

Media Rant of the Day

I'd like to lodge my objections to last week's Newsweek cover article, which is no longer up at the Newsweek site, discussing for the zillionth time the fact that Americans are overweight. The article starts off admitting that the current advice to "eat less, exercise more" is a bit simplistic in light of research showing how many factors other than "calories in" and "calories out" go into determining how much a person weighs. The magazine went on for probably 8 pages or so detailing the difficulties medical researchers have in understanding the complex mechanisms of human metabolism. The box inserts go into the weight loss success stories people have with liposuction, gastric bypass and Fen-Phen (notably absent is the success story of someone who ate less and exercised more). The article concludes by saying that, until researchers make more progress in figuring out the metabolic details of why some people eat Cheetos all day without gaining an ounce while others [like me] gain 5 pounds just driving by a Krispy Kreme, people should "eat less and exercise more."

Yes. All you need to do to be thin is eat less and exercise more. And all you need to do to be an expert in theoretical physics is to read the book.

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