New calorie target will mean lean times ahead
Juliette Jowit
Sunday June 25, 2006
The Observer
For those who find it hard enough to keep within the government's current recommended daily calorie levels, it's bad news: experts are looking to reduce the figure even further.
As food wrappers and health advice everywhere reminds us, guidelines are that women should eat 2,000 calories a day, and men 2,500. Surveys suggest people are eating less than that - but the nation is still getting fatter.
The government's Scientific Advisory Committee for Nutrition has been asked to investigate whether the official levels are wrong because they were based on estimates that people are more active than they actually are.
'The fact that everyone's getting fatter suggests something's wrong, so it's perhaps time to look at this in a bit more detail, and there seems little doubt in anybody's minds that we are less active: we drive to work and transport ourselves on escalators and lifts,' said Professor Chris Riddoch, a member of the working group and head of Middlesex University's London Sports Institute.
'If activity levels have dropped, we have two choices: reduce your energy intake or get your energy expenditure up to where it used to be.'
The National Diet and Nutrition Survey, in 2001, found one quarter of men and one fifth of women were obese, and since the previous survey in 1986/7 average weights had risen from 10st 1lb to 10st 12lb for women and from (11st 13lb to 13st 3lb for men. 'While some of this difference between energy intake and the reference requirements can be accounted for by under-reporting of food intake, there is concern that the energy requirements as set in 1991 may be too high for the UK population,' said a spokesman for the Food Standards Agency.
The danger is that people often under-estimate food intake and over-estimate activity, or change their behaviour when they are monitored, says Joe Millward, professor of human nutrition and another member of the working group.
Based on a World Health Organisation study, the average figure would not need a huge reduction: it suggests an inactive woman of average weight would need to eat 1,932 calories a day. Health experts stress that a small reduction in calories (or increase in activity) each day can make a big difference. The British Dietetic Association calculated that if you had a pint of beer and a packet of crisps for each World Cup football match - without doing more exercise - you would put on half a stone during the tournament.
Another study by American scientists showed that teenagers drinking one can of sugary drink a day can put on a stone a year.
The BDA also used its annual conference last week to warn that the risk of fatal disease increases by one per cent for every one pound you are overweight.
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