For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Health Issues page.

    The documentary film
Hungry For Change
is another revolutionary look at food and nutrition from the creators of the best-selling film
Food Matters.

    Exposing food industry secrets and strategies designed to keep you coming back for more, it reveals why so many are suffering with weight issues and poor health despite their best intentions.

    The importance of this topic cannot be overstated, especially in light of recent developments.

    In mid-June, the American Medical Association (AMA) declared obesity a disease, officially opening the door for a range of medical interventions to “treat” this modern scourge. Yet the root causes of obesity remain wholly ignored…

    As reported by
USA Today

:

        “Experts in obesity have struggled for years to have obesity recognized as a disease that deserves medical attention and insurance coverage as do other diseases. Previously, the AMA and others have referred to obesity as ‘a major public health problem.’

        ‘The American Medical Association’s recognition that obesity is a disease carries a lot of clout,’ says Samuel Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

        ‘The most important aspect of the AMA decision is that the AMA is a respected representative of American medicine. Their opinion can influence policy makers who are in a position to do more to support interventions and research to prevent and treat obesity.'”

    We don’t need to throw billions of dollars into drug-based obesity treatment and prevention research. Well-educated nutritional experts already KNOW what’s causing obesity and how to fix the problem!

    The truth is that the processed food industry needs to change, agricultural subsidies need to be updated to promote healthier fare, and the public needs to be told the truth about nutrition.  

    We also need to stop the dangerous marketing of junk food to children with their favorite cartoon characters or celebrities. Junk food companies know exactly what they are doing, and many children are pointing towards these unforgettable characters in the grocery aisles before they can speak.

    Yet none of these factors are being addressed. Instead, money is being spent on obesity drugs and obesity
vaccines, of all things! This truly is madness, if you ask me. Obesity is no more a disease than smoking is.

Who Benefits from Obesity Being Declared a Disease?

    As Rob Kall, executive editor and publisher of
OpEdNews.com
recently stated:

       
“What is clear to me is that the medical profession, in an unholy alliance with corporations, is moving the healing profession further and further down the slippery slope of pathologization, just as psychiatry is doing. Cui bono is a question I like to ask—Who benefits?”

    I believe it’s fair to assume that the biggest beneficiaries will be pharmaceutical companies, along with medical institutions at large. Meanwhile, it’s highly doubtful that their inventions will make a real dent. I would not be surprised if the medical treatment of obesity turns into another “war on cancer” fiasco.

    Instead of focusing on low-cost lifestyle changes that address the root cause, the “pathologization” of obesity, to use Kall’s word, is only going to lead to more problems, not to mention drive health care costs skyward as expensive drug treatments are introduced and paid for by insurance companies.

Can You Really Cure Obesity with a Vaccine?

    Last summer, media outlets circulated the news that not just one, but two obesity vaccines were in the works, which makes the AMA’s decision to recognize obesity as a disease all the more convenient. Additionally, two brand new obesity drugs are now being unveiled, just in time for the AMA’s decision. Amazing how such coincidences just “happen,” isn’t it?

    As explained by GlobalResearch.org, one of the obesity vaccines would target the peptide hormone somatostatin. This hormone has an inhibitory effect on the action of human growth hormone (HGH) and insulin-growth factor (IGF), both of which increase metabolism. By engineering a vaccine to
remove the chemical inhibition of somatostatin on HGH and IGF, and create antibodies against somatostatin, the researchers believe weight loss could be achieved.

       
“…[T]he drug corporations see the obesity market as an untapped monetary resource – as one executive explained: ‘Can you imagine the potential for vaccines?’ Globalresearch.org writes.

       
‘A study published in the Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology claims that vaccines are the answer to the chemical and psychological issues that surround obesity. The co-author of the study was also the president and chief scientific officer of a company called Braasch Biotech LLC… which specializes in the development of human and animal vaccines. Essentially, by inhibiting natural hormones, researchers hope to stop people from eating…

        Because somatostatin is secreted in the digestive system, the hormone would eventually be carried to the brain where it would have a great likelihood of interacting with the chemical makeup of the brain and thereby have an encompassing psychological reaction.’”

    Another route being investigated is a vaccine that targets the hunger hormone ghrelin. In my view, the whole idea of an obesity vaccine is nothing short of insanity.

    Remember the old nursery rhyme about the old lady who swallowed the fly and in turn swallowed a spider to catch it? Modern medicine appears to use the same mistaken strategy for addressing many of our health care concerns. Take this drug for that symptom, take another drug to take care of the side effects from the first drug, and it goes on and on – until, well you know how it ends.

    They truly do not know what they’re meddling with… Case in point: In September of last year,
The Atlantic
published findings that put a serious damper on the anti-ghrelin vaccine theory, as researchers discovered that knocking out ghrelin leads to an exaggerated anxiety response to stress. As reported by
The Atlantic:

        “[T]his is the first study to show that ghrelin ‘prevents a hyperactive, over-anxious response to acute stress.’ So the reduced appetite caused by ghrelin suppression might come at the cost of increased anxiety…

        The authors point out that an evolutionary response to stress is to eat more, hypothesizing that ‘under conditions of acute stress, ghrelin limits excessive anxious behavior by promoting the feeling of reward to ensure appropriate food-seeking behavior and maintain energy homeostasis.’ With enough stress, compensatory eating could end up counteracting the vaccine’s effects, leaving us right back where we started.”