OBESITY 143had strikingly less cancer, lower blood cholesterol levels and longer
lives. They also consumed slightly more calories but burned them off
as body heat.
Some of us had noticed over the course of these experiments that the
5% casein animals seemed to be more active than the 20% casein ani-
mals. To test this idea, we housed rats fed either 5% or 20% casein diets
in cages equipped with exercise wheels outfitted with meters to record
the number of turns of the wheel. Within the very first day, the 5% casein-
fed animals voluntarily "exercised" in the wheel about twice as much as the
20% casein-fed animals.^31 Exercise remained conSiderably higher for the
5% casein animals throughout the two weeks of the study.
Now we can combine some really interesting observations on body
weight. A plant-based diet operates on calorie balance to keep body
weight under control in two ways. First, it discharges calories as body
heat instead of storing them as body fat, and it doesn't take many calo-
ries to make a big difference over the course of a year. Second, a plant-
based diet encourages more physical activity. And, as body weight goes
down, it becomes easier to be phYSically active. Diet and exercise work
together to decrease body weight and improve overall health.
GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Obesity is the most ominous harbinger of poor health that Western na-
tions currently face. Tens of millions of people will fall prey to disability,
putting our health care systems under greater strain than has previously
been seen.
There are many people and institutions working to reduce this prob-
lem, but their point of attack is often illogical and misinformed. First,
there are the many quick-fix promises and gimmicks. Obesity is not a
condition that can be fixed in a few weeks or even a few months, and
you should beware of diets, potions and pills that create rapid weight
loss with no promise of good health in the future. The diet that helps to
reduce Weight in the short run needs to be the same diet that creates and
maintains health in the long run.
Second, the tendency to focus on obesity as an independent, isolated
disease^32.^33 is misplaced. ConSidering obesity in this manner directs our
attention to a search for specific cures while ignoring control of the other
diseases to which obeSity is strongly linked. That is, we sacrifice context.
Also, I would urge that we ignore the suggestion that knowing its
genetic basis might control obeSity. A few years ago,34-36 there was great