Healthy, Wealthy and Wise? at C3 Collaborating for Health’s Breakfast Seminar
In the summer, members of the CCH team attended C3 Collaborating for Health’s July breakfast seminar with Dr Robert Lustig of the University of California, San Francisco. Dr Lustig, author of Fat Chance, a controversial book about the toxic role of sugar in health, spoke about de-bunking the 3 ‘myths’ of non-communicable diseases in his talk ‘Healthy, wealthy and wise?’. The first of these myths outlined by Dr Lustig was that the metabolic problems attributed to obesity can’t be wholly responsible for obesity, as the number of people with a BMI less than 30, and who are metabolically unhealthy is greater that the number of those who do have obesity and are unhealthy. The second myth that Dr Lustig sought to debunk was that ‘a calorie is not a calorie’ and that calories from sugar, particularly fructose, are the biggest problem. The finalmyth to be de-bunked was that of personal responsibility, and that we often do not have the means, access or knowledge to purchase healthy products. The talk generated a lively debate amongst attendees and sparkedsome thought provoking questions.
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ASO Congress 2014 – Birmingham
The Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO) held its first two day Annual National Congress at the University of Birmingham in September. The meeting comprised a series of plenary lectures from leading obesity researchers with topics ranging from ‘Can we blame our genes when our jeans don’t fit’ by Dr Giles Yeo to ‘Are all calories equal’ by Professor Ian Macdonald. In between lectures there were breakout sessions which explored issues such as early life (0-6 years) obesity: determinants and interventions; weight loss maintenance-what works for whom?; new insights on obesity from neurobiology, as well as exploring food addiction as a useful concept to tackle obesity. CCH was particularly delighted that Professor Pinki Sahota of Leeds Beckett University, and a member of our Academic Advisory Board, was elected Chair of ASO.
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