Re-inventing the wheel?

I'm a sucker for breakfast programmes. I just cannot start my day, do my hair, dress up without the BBC Breakfast droning in the background. Do you talk back to the telly too? Especially when they force silly issues on screen just to fill the time up? There is really nothing more important happening in the whole wide world? Hmm...

This morning I had a – I felt – very justified reason to talk back at the little screen, thus robbing hubby of his last minute snoozing. There was a piece on a new research going on about what makes people obese. If you feel  inclined, here is the link – but be warned: you’re not going learn much... 

Ok, my issue: someone please tell me how is this a new research? I mean we (the general population) already know since Horace Fletcher (1849–1919), that chewing your food more thoroughly and taking smaller bites makes you eat less. That – in a very basic level – makes you take in less calories, therefore lose weight. And I’m all for educating the public, but this university is taking in big grants for reinventing the wheel! That money could possibly be much better spend like – I don’t know – giving free training courses to kids or overweight people who cannot afford the gym, etc.

But that was just one little point. What made me shout a bit louder at the telly, is when they report that at the end of the scientific trial the woman comes out of the pod and they gauge her appetite by offering her all kinds of foods to eat and watching her choice. Now you tell me: how are they going to get any useful information out of that? Because I can guarantee you that no one will go for the Snickers bar or the cake on offer when watched by researchers! They are going to go for the salad. Or lean meat.

So that was my point this morning: you will not get reliable results, as the fact that you are watching your subjects will change how they decide. THAT’S fact! Even subatomic particles behave differently under the scrutinising eyes of the scientists, never mind human beings! ((Stick a candid camera in our homes and watch us filling up on Hob-Nobs after we get home or ordering a curry on Friday night: that’s how people get obese.))

Oops, have I been too hard on them?