the science is there now...
There have been a number of illuminating documentaries around the "exercise/diet" industry on the BBC.
What is amazing is that no one denies the obvious - "you are eating too much and eating crap". It is simply that people want quick fixes and the misinformation put out by corporate advertising feeds into this.
E.g. the special "waters", smoothies with enormous calories counts, low-fat/high sugar...
The science is in, and in case you ever had a doubt, you cannot beat physics and biochemistry. If you eat more food than your body can burn off (literally) your body has to store it somewhere. If you eat highly processed foods, they are easier to absorb. All non-glucose gets processed by the liver though exactly the same molecular pathways. Many things are toxic if not handled by the live. Many things BECOME toxic if handled too often.... you get the picture.
Time for an anecdote. A friend of mine here who I had not seen while I was in Oxford for 18 months, lost 100lbs (45Kg) soley through diet. I almost didn't recognize him. I enquired how he achieved this, he said "He had his metabolic rate directly measured". This is one of those tests you see on treadmills and breathing apparatus. He's 6ft and it was measured at 1200 k cals. I should add he has a sedentary occupation, like most of us...:-(
There may be a huge discrepancy between human phenotypes and there is a lot of exciting research into gut bacteria, disease, glucose update, ketosis etc...
The simple fact of the matter is we all eat like we work on the farms pre-industrialisation, and we don't. We evolved for millions of years on sparse food sources. But we are sold food now in enormous quantities as it is a Business, and the Govt are too scared to tackle the lobbies around food+bev.
If you are wondering why you got that gut that you didn't have when you were at school, perhaps they should have sports on wednesday afternoon at UK companies... ;-) Yeah, that's going to happen anytime now.
McD's may be a poster boy for the ills of Fast food, but they are far and away not the only one, and there is far too much money in the status quo being maintained.
Note the icon - it starts there.
P.