%0 Journal Article
%T Validity of claims made in weight management research: a narrative review of dietetic articles
%A Lucy Aphramor
%J Nutrition Journal
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1475-2891-9-30
%X A narrative literature review of journal articles in The Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics from 2004 to 2008.Although the energy deficit approach to weight management has a high long-term failure rate it continues to dominate research in the field. In the current research agenda, controversies and complexities in the evidence base are inadequately discussed, and claims about the likely success of weight management misrepresent available evidence.Dietetic literature on weight management fails to meet the standards of evidence based medicine. Research in the field is characterised by speculative claims that fail to accurately represent the available data. There is a corresponding lack of debate on the ethical implications of continuing to promote ineffective treatment regimes and little research into alternative non-weight centred approaches. An alternative health at every size approach is recommended.The assessment and management of body weight is a major preoccupation of contemporary UK health policy. Clinical interventions focus on achieving energy balance deficit and are premised on claims that excess weight/fatness (body mass index (BMI) > 25) is a significant direct cause of morbidity and mortality and, correspondingly, that weight loss in fat ('overweight' or 'obese') people will reduce risk and/or improve health outcomes. Yet at the same time, reputable organisations continue to urge caution with regard to the evidence base presumed to underpin these tenets. Thus, epidemiological data from the Center for Disease Control highlights that "even severe obesity failed to show up as a statistically significant mortality risk" and confirmed previous findings that 'overweight' people live slightly longer than people of 'healthy' weight [1]. In addition, there is a growing inter-disciplinary literature [2] that contests the effectiveness of a weight-centred approach to health and draws attention to the ethical implications of unintentional outcomes. The vigorous
%U http://www.nutritionj.com/content/9/1/30