Commentary: Understanding the epidemiology of overweight and obesity—a real global public health concern

Abstract

Campos and his collaborators raise some useful and important questions about the way to understand the impact of overweight and obesity on health.¹ Especially, bringing attention to some of the complexities in overweight/obesity and health relationships and covert financial interests involved in obesity research and related promotion activities is noteworthy. At the same time, however, they ignore some basic pathways linking dietary and physical activity patterns to weight dynamics to health. Furthermore, they selectively examine the literature and, as is easily done, arrive at the conclusion that there is much ado about nothing in the ‘obesity epidemic or pandemic’. A different reading of the way to study in a causal manner the role of these factors as they affect health provides us with a very different conclusion.