Читать книгу Freedom from the Diet Trap: Slim for Life - Jason Vale, Jason Vale - Страница 19

Never in history have we seen so many drugs being handed out so willy-nilly to so many people for so many different things. Every pill sold, means more money for BIG PHARMACEUTICALS. And one particular ‘disease’ is now more of the holy grail for BIG DRUGS than almost any other – obesity. With millions of people getting bigger by the day while craving the land of the thin more and more, the desperate need for a ‘quick fix’ is now at an all time high. And what better quick fix than a simple pill?

In 1998, the NHS (National Health Service) gave out 20,000 anti-obesity pills. Just seven years later in 2005 that figure rose to 880,000 pills, the figure will almost certainly be over 1 million pills today. This annual cost to the NHS was £690,000 in the late 1990s and is now nearly £40 million. Yes FORTY MILLION POUNDS of your tax money going directly into the hands of the pharmaceutical companies, and the figure is growing daily. The government justify the ever increasing costs by claiming, ‘… the benefits to the economy outweigh the cost to the NHS’, they go on to explain, ‘… a lot of illness can be avoided by using these pills to aid weight loss’. Exactly what illnesses have ever been ‘cured’ as a direct result of the introduction of so many weight loss drugs I don’t exactly know, but no doubt there will be some ‘scientific data’ to back up such claims and if there aren’t it wouldn’t be too difficult to get some. I also haven’t seen a reduction of people gaining weight either, which given all you have to do is take a pill, is surprising. If these weight loss drugs are, as they often purport to be, ‘the easy solution to fat and obesity’, and given we are in an obesity epidemic, why don’t they simply give them to everyone so we can all live a ‘fat free’ and disease free life?

Well the simple answer is they aren’t exactly the ‘magic bullet’ some purport them to be. What is extraordinary is that each anti-fat drug comes with a little side note explaining something along the lines of ‘can help to lose weight in conjunction with a diet and exercise programme’. Now, stop me if I appear nuts here, but doesn’t that defeat the whole argument of these fat drugs? Aren’t they apparently there as a last resort for those people who have tried everything else and now have no choice but to seek medical help? Aren’t they surely designed for people who have failed on the diet and exercise front? People who, for whatever reason, cannot tap into the right mind set to change their diet and exercise more? If that is the case and they are only meant to be given to such desperate people (after all, drugs should always be the last resort) and if these drugs are only effective with a change in diet and an increase in exercise, how can they possibly work for the group for which they are intended? Do these pills somehow miraculously inspire people to change their diet and get on the treadmill? If so, they really are miracle drugs. I get images of perhaps a three-dimensional tablet acting like a motivational cheerleader/speaker inspiring people to eat well and exercise. Seriously, think about it. If these drugs don’t help people lose excess weight by simply taking them, regardless of any change in diet or physical movement, then what’s the point of them? Even if they did enable an odd few to lose a little weight without changing anything else, are the potential risks of taking any drug and changing the fine chemical balance of the body worth it and what on earth do these pills do to get to the cause of the problem?