Reasons or excuses - it's a bit of both.
The link is to an article citing 20 reasons why losing weight is allegedly more difficult now then ever before. While some of these reasons may be just excusing laziness and lack of discipline, there is some truth to many of them. One common thread is the increasing acceptance of obesity, and accommodation of it in society. Therefore, the fact that so many people around us are overweight/obese "normalizes" the condition, so that physiques that decades ago would be clearly recognized as abnormally overweight are now the "new normal." Also, as indicated in the article, clothes sizes are being adjusted so that larger waistlines are being redesignated as smaller sizes, again accommodating and normalizing unhealthy weight gain.
The ever-changing dietary guidelines are cited, and there is some truth to that. On the one hand, science is all about keeping an open mind and changing paradigms when presented with new evidence, so we perhaps should not be too surprised when guidelines change (although in some cases, the radical changes and complete "U-turns" are indeed disconcerting). One thing that may make these changes more palatable is for any guidelines to be presented somewhat less rigidly, less definitively. To tell people one day that it is absolutely true that "eating X,Y,Z" is unhealthy for you, and then to tell these people five years later the exact opposite, with equal certitude, is going to confuse and discourage them. I understand that some people may say that "hedging bets" about conclusions will make dietary guidelines and health suggestions less powerful and will weaken their ability to alter peoples' behavior. That may be true, but the constant changes in "this is definitely true" probably does more damage. Also, explaining to people why the changes were made would help, and also explaining how and why some evidence is stronger than others may help as well. To just radically change guidelines without explanation or discussion is going to, as I said before, confuse and discourage.
The link is to an article citing 20 reasons why losing weight is allegedly more difficult now then ever before. While some of these reasons may be just excusing laziness and lack of discipline, there is some truth to many of them. One common thread is the increasing acceptance of obesity, and accommodation of it in society. Therefore, the fact that so many people around us are overweight/obese "normalizes" the condition, so that physiques that decades ago would be clearly recognized as abnormally overweight are now the "new normal." Also, as indicated in the article, clothes sizes are being adjusted so that larger waistlines are being redesignated as smaller sizes, again accommodating and normalizing unhealthy weight gain.
The ever-changing dietary guidelines are cited, and there is some truth to that. On the one hand, science is all about keeping an open mind and changing paradigms when presented with new evidence, so we perhaps should not be too surprised when guidelines change (although in some cases, the radical changes and complete "U-turns" are indeed disconcerting). One thing that may make these changes more palatable is for any guidelines to be presented somewhat less rigidly, less definitively. To tell people one day that it is absolutely true that "eating X,Y,Z" is unhealthy for you, and then to tell these people five years later the exact opposite, with equal certitude, is going to confuse and discourage them. I understand that some people may say that "hedging bets" about conclusions will make dietary guidelines and health suggestions less powerful and will weaken their ability to alter peoples' behavior. That may be true, but the constant changes in "this is definitely true" probably does more damage. Also, explaining to people why the changes were made would help, and also explaining how and why some evidence is stronger than others may help as well. To just radically change guidelines without explanation or discussion is going to, as I said before, confuse and discourage.
