Childhood obesity is a problem in Scotland. As the Scottish Government reports, in 2009, almost a third of children (29.7%) were outwith the healthy weight range (31.0% of boys and 28.3% of girls).

The usual response is to focus on overweight children and get them to eat less and get more active. Canadian research shows that there is no marked differences in physical ac­tivity between overweight and lean children, at least not when corrected for the increased ef­fort it takes to move larger bodies. Based on actual measurements of physical activity using sophisticated accelerometric devices, only 5% of Canadian adults and children meet the recommended levels for vigorous physi­cal activity per week. It is probably the same in Scotland. If only 5%, then not just the overweight are inactive.

New research from Germany looked at why some children get fat and some remain lean, given that they seem to behave more or less the same way and live in the same environment.  They tested the following risk factors on children's BMI: maternal BMI, mater­nal smoking in pregnancy, low parental socioeconomic status, lack of breast feeding and high TV viewing time .

It turns out that the estimated effects of all risk factors (except lack of breastfeeding) on BMI were greatest for children who have the highest BMI. In other words, it is not that lean children don’t also watch a lot of TV or have mothers who smoked during pregnancy. It’s that fatter children are more sensitive to these factors than thinner children.

Thus, children who are genetically predis­posed to obesity are far more likely to pack on the pounds when spending hours in front of the TV than children who are genetically less prone to put on weight. The same could probably be said for overeating or any of the other environ­mental drivers of obesity, which have greater effects in promoting weight gain in some children than in others.

So, what to make of this then? It seems a bit of a lottery. Children who are genetically sensitive to becoming overweight will eat and behave just the same as other children, but they get fat and the others don`t. As a parent, this says one thing to me. Protect all children from the risk because we have no real way of knowing who is sensitive.

That means, going out for walks with your children, encouraging them to take up dancing or drumming or football, whatever physical exercise pleases them. Reduce the obsogenic risks in the household - that is, don`t buy biscuits, sweets, takeaways routinely. Reduce screen time to less than 4 hours a day. Our modern lifestyle provides the great risk of obesity.

Research by Kings College London shows that children with low self-esteem are overweight as adults, and this link is stronger with women.

Professor David Collier, one of the researchers, said that this is not about people with deep psychological problems, as all the anxiety and low self-esteem were within the normal range. So helping children to feel better about themselves and less anxious will help reduce the risk of being overweight as adults. For women, self-esteem is strongly linked to how we feel about our attractiveness. We can feel and be attractive even with ordinary bodies, we don't need to be perfect. But if you feel bad about yourself, your confidence low, then you can see that dieting isn`t going to deal with any excess weight. Until you feel good about yourself, any unhelpful eating behaviours, like comfort eating, will continue to defeatThis is an important message for young people, especially girls. As I have blogged before:

• don't talk about dieting in front of the children
• don't express anxiety about your body

And on the practical front, don't have fun foods like chocolate, biscuits, cakes, crisps, fizzy pop in the house all the time and available as everyday consumables. Treat treats as treats.

Yesterday the Scottish Government published summary statistics showing changes in overweight and obesity in Scotland between 1995 and 2009. It shows an upward trend of obesity and overweight. This is a serious health problem for Scotland.

In 2009 almost two-thirds of men aged 16-64 (66.3%) and more than half of women (58.4%) were overweight (including obese). I bet most people think that overweight is a woman's problem! Certainly women worry about it more than men. In 1995 the figures were 55.6% for men. So 20% more men are obese or overweight in just 14 years. In 1995 47.2% women were classified as overweight or obese, so by 2009 the number had gone up by 21%.

The increase was greater amongst those who were obese (including morbidly obese) where the percentage for men increased from 15.9% to 26.8%  (over a quarter of the population and up 68%)between 1995 and 2009 and from 17.3% to 26.4% for women. So more than a quarter of Scotland's population is obese. Obesity has risen faster than general overweight.

In 2009, almost a third of children (29.7%) were outwith the healthy weight range (31.0% of boys and 28.3% of girls). For boys, prevalence increased between 1998 and 2008, followed by a sharp decline in 2009. For girls the corresponding figures were very similar each year and did not vary significantly. The Scottish Government has established a National Indicator to reduce the rate of increase in the proportion of children with their BMI outwith a healthy range by 2018.

Well, it is great for a few weeks so you can squeeze back into an outfit for a special event, like a wedding or the summer holiday.

But there are a few problems with dieting if your goal is long term weight reduction. One is that once you reach the desired weight, you stop the diet. It is a bit like stopping the medicine once the symptoms go when you have a chronic illness. As soon as you stop taking the medicine, the symptoms come back. Restraining your eating, as when you are dieting, is a risk factor for bingeing as well as more serious eating disorders. You will know that when you are dieting you are fixated on food, your weight and your body image. Restraining your eating (being good, missing lunch to save the calories, depriving yourself of foods you enjoy) tends to result in major lapses – the What the Hell effect. One breach of your diet and you feel that you have blown it, a failure. This social stress results in us eating significantly more food than when we are feeling okay. You might as well eat the rest of the packet of biscuits and indeed, most of us in these circumstances stuff in the equivalent of a big meal. And this overeating becomes another stress, because it makes you feel that you are completely unable to control your eating, making you feel bad about yourself, lowering your self esteem

Research has shown that dieters tend to describe themselves in negative terms, and have low self-esteem, heightened social anxiety, and body dissatisfaction.

So, if you want to lose weight, is there an alternative to dieting? Yes, there is. Come and see me and find out. (Or read some more of this blog for some free tips!)

Cravings seem to arise out of the blue and we are overcome with the need to eat the craved item, often sweet things for women. Well, the key thing to know is that like a screaming child, if you ignore them, they eventually stop, and if you keep ignoring them, they will stop for ever altogether.

So how to ignore cravings.

Well, one way is to identify what is triggering them. It is not hunger. It could be your routine. For example, if you have always had a snack at 3.00pm your cravings will arrive on the dot. If you always eat in the car on the way home, they will be there too. If you walk past a sweet shop and always buy chocolate or crisps with your paper, you will repeat the actions on and on. So these are environmental and habit-based triggers for cravings. Change your route, have no food in the car, stop snacking at 3.00pm. And if the trigger is boredom, develop a portable hobby so that you can distract yourself. And if I might bang on about this again, if you always munch away at chocs and crisps in front of the telly, just turning the telly on turns your belly on.

Changing behaviour in these relatively small ways is quite easy. You don't have to deal with everything all at once. One or two a week is quite enough. Then what?

When cravings come, ignore them. Distract yourself. This could be by going for a walk, phoning a friend, washing the car. Just tapping your finger onto your hand for a few minutes is also quite distracting.

Cravings disappear in only a few minutes. You can handle that!

I tend to say weight management rather than weight loss. Why is that? Well, management sounds more active and involved, whereas loss doesn't sound very purposeful to me, in fact I feel there is a little hint of accidental and by chance. As well as that, for many people, losing weight is step 2. Step 1 is stopping the increase.

Purposeful weight management involves behaviour change. Eating differently. And in fact it is not really about managing weight either. It is about managing our eating. So with my clients I try to move the goal away from demanding their bodies to weigh less and be slimmer and towards changing their behaviours, focusing on all aspects of their eating-related behaviours.

And that is not just about eating less, though that will be result. It is about the daily routine, the shopping, where you eat, who you eat with. And of course how you feel about yourself. When you are feeling confident then you less likely to eat for comfort.

And it is not about losing a certain number of pounds every week. It is about changing to more helpful eating behaviours. It is about action. They may tell me that their goal is to achieve a better BMI or lose a certain number of pounds. To do this, requires action, and that is what I focus on, taking into account their lifestyle and work and home responsibilities etc.

And it is not about losing a certain number of pounds by the end of a particular period. When the eating behaviours change, the weight will change. But by how much and when?

Who knows? Setting a target may seem like a good idea, but if we continually fail, then it is likely we will just start on the cream buns again. And if there is a target you will be on the scales time and again, constantly checking and always finding the results unsatisfactory.

But what if you do lose weight? You achieve a target. What then? Do you go off the diet? Back to your old routines?  Or set yourself an even more challenging weight goal constantly chasing a moving target? Continuing the cycle of diet, deny and deprive. And if one day you will see the pointer on the scales go up and you might abandon your diet as a complete waste of time and go back to the cream buns. And some people believe their lives will suddenly become fabulous when the scales are friendly. More boyfriends, more money, more fun. And when the weight is just right for these magical happenings, disappointment sets in as reality strikes. Back to the buns.

But changing eating behaviours in a way that suits you is likely to be sustainable, and eventually automatic. Eating in the way that keeps your weight managed, without constantly having to think about it or worry about it. And this will make you feel in control, more contented and stop the constant fretting about your weight.

So the goal is to change eating behaviours bit by bit. Making little changes every month and bedding them in. Starting with the ones that are easiest or give the most rapid results. That success buoys you up, and keeps you on track. So losing weight is not the goal. Changing the way you eat is.

American researchers found burgers, chips and sausages programmed a human brain into craving even more sugar, salt and fat laden food.  Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida found laboratory rats became addicted to a bad diet.

They tested rats and the rats which ate as much junk food as they wanted became very fat and started bingeing. When researchers electronically stimulated the part of the brain that feels pleasure, they found the rats on unlimited junk food needed even more stimulation to register the same level of pleasure as the animals on healthier diets.

"They always went for the worst types of food and as a result, they took in twice the calories as the control rats,” said Dr Kenny. "The change in their diet preference was so great that they basically starved themselves for two weeks after they were cut off from junk food." Read  more here.

This is what Dr David Kessler identified. He was a commissioner with the US Food and Drugs Administration. He claims that manufacturers have created combinations of fat, sugar and salt that are so tasty and trigger addictive neural pathways in the brain that many people really cannot stop eating these foods even when they have just eaten a full meal.  He argues that manufacturers are seeking to trigger a "bliss point" when people eat certain products, leaving them hungry for more, so that they gain weight.

To help you overcome these addictions, try hypnosis.

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I have been recommending yoga to my clients for some time now. There is lots of research which shows that it helps reduce anxiety. I am keen on it because of the breathing techniques. Shallow rapid breathing is implicated in anxiety and panic attacks and yoga can teach you deep diaphragmatic breathing, the sort actors and singers use. But as well as that, new research shows that stretching exercises, such as with yoga, increases the level of antioxidants in our blood, protecting us from cell damage. Antioxidants are also found in those superfoods - essentially any bright coloured fruit or veg. So for all these good reasons, read what Caroline Smart, a yoga teacher in Glasgow, has to say about yoga.

I was very lucky to discover yoga when I was 17. A TV series in the 70s called Yoga for Health hooked me and now, over 30 years on, I am a trained Yoga Scotland teacher. The great thing about yoga is that it is a journey to good health and it offers many different types of path to get there. May be you just want a gentle incline. Or perhaps you are after the challenge of a steep climb. You need to decide which path suits you best. Ultimately the goal is well being (both of body and probably more importantly, of mind). Sometimes people are put off by the strange sounding names: Iyengar, Bikram, Ashtanga, Dru. These are just the different teaching methods and may refer to the name of the teacher who inspired it (Iyengar) or the style (Ashtanga). See the glossary below for further information. All these types of yoga are essentially hatha yoga which means your route to total wellbeing is through a physical approach. You may have already come across some of the poses: cobra, tree, mountain, etc. Many are named after the natural world and the shape the pose makes.

Practising the poses gets your body a bit more supple and under your control. This doesn’t mean getting your feet hooked behind the back of your head stuff. A back bend might be simply lying on your tummy and lifting your head and shoulders off the ground. An upside down pose could be lying on the ground with your legs leaning up against the wall (believe me, this is very refreshing!).

And yoga can help you quieten your mind. Anyone out there with grasshopper concentration? No, it’s not a yoga technique! It is probably where most of us are today with the hundreds of distractions that fill our minds with a ticker tape of worrying thoughts. The quickest way to still an overworked mind is simply by turning your attention to your breath. Just focus on the breath being drawn in and out through your nostrils. Feel it on the inside of the nostrils as it enters the body, and then, when you are ready to breath out, feel it as it leaves the body. See? Everything else has been blocked out. Yoga teaches you how to fill your lungs with nourishing oxygen-rich air and then how to empty them completely.

Many of the problems associated with hyperventilation and panic attacks come from bad habits in breathing. Maybe over the years and leading a stressful life you have forgotten how to breathe properly and any breathing takes place in the top of your lungs. Yoga teaches how to relearn good habits. Visualise a jug filling a glass full of water. As you pour the water in, first the bottom of the glass fills, then the middle, then the top. To empty the glass, first the water comes out of the top, then the middle and then the bottom. So it is with belly breathing. As you fill the bottom of the lungs with air, it forces the diaphragm down leaving no room for the belly except to push outwards. As you empty the lungs and the diaphragm is drawn back into place, so your belly is drawn back into its usual position.

Your experience can often depend on the teacher. It may take a few tries to find both the style of yoga and teacher that are right for you. It is wise to find out whether the class is right for you - beginner or advanced.

For classes with me here in Glasgow, email ninianetta@yahoo.co.uk. For hatha yoga classes in Scotland visit www.yogascotland.org.uk.

Hatha: Classes with this name are probably more suited to beginners who want a gentle introduction to the poses and basic breathing techniques.
Dru: A graceful form of yoga based on flowing movement using the breath. Good for beginners.
Vinyasa: Relatively fast paced combining breath and movement. Salute to the Sun often introduces the class.
Bikram: A sequence of 26 poses carried out in sauna-like condition so that toxins are sweated out of the body. Better for advanced students who know the poses.
Iyengar: Usually quite physically challenging, using props such as belt and blocks. Often suited to men because of the physical strength aspect.
Ashtanga: Power yoga. Even more physical than Iyengar. Suits people with lots of energy to burn and who want a body like Madonna’s.

If you get deeply involved in yoga you may be interested in its traditional beliefs. For example, that yoga breathing directs energy (prana) around the body to ensure that the main energy channel travelling up the spine is free of blockages. To move energy upwards, there are 7 wheels (chakras) located from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. These wheels are also associated with emotional states: any blockages (or, indeed, too open a chakra) can cause problems. A blockage in the throat chakra (associated with communication) might mean that you find it difficult to express what you feel. Too open a heart centre (associated with compassion) might mean that you are taking on everyone else’s problems and becoming overwhelmed by them.

While these beliefs might not fit in with your view of the world, research does show that yoga practice reduces anxiety by reducing the levels of cortisol in the blood. Well worth a try.

Do you remember the Roly Polys? They were Les Dawson's dance group. Most of them were overweight, one certainly obese, but they danced really well. Overweight maybe, but fit, supple and energetic.

Research has shown that obesity doesn't necessarily make you ill. Just measuring your BMI is not going to tell you whether your weight is a health risk. So concludes research by obesity expert Dr Aryan Sharma of Canada. He has now developed a scale of risk, from stage 0 where the risk is low to stage 4 where surgical interventions might be needed.

So what is the difference between healthy obese people (stages 0 and 1) and obese with health risks or damage (stages 3 and 4)? He found 3 key differences. People at stages 0 and 1 had (1) better cardiovascular strength, (2) ate more fruit and vegetables and (3) they had no history of weight cycling. So what does that mean?

Cardiovascular strength comes from physical activity. Dancing like the Roly Polys, walking to the shops, gardening, standing rather than sitting. Weight cycling is where your weight goes up and down, usually through intentional weight loss (dieting). People at stages 0 and 1 were not seeking intentional weight loss. However, those at higher stages were found to have had many episodes of weight loss and regain. They were on diets, losing weight, only to put it all back on again. This is also known as yo-yo dieting. Dieting has been shown to cause weight increase. (There are other ways of managing your weight, which may surprise you.)

So those people who were at health risk as a result of their obesity were inactive, going on and off diets and not eating fruit and veg (and this begs the question, what were they eating instead? It tends to suggest little cooking since cooking uses veg, which might make you think it might be snack foods, but that is just a supposition.)

So, if you are obese, you don't need to lose weight to reduce your health risk. Eat a greater proportion of your daily food as fruit and veg, get up and about a bit more and don't diet. Come and see me abo

In the Devil Wears Prada, Glenn Close explains to Ann Hathaway that her choice of a blue sweater (not blue, cerulean) was not her own personal choice, but the result of the decisions by hordes of designers and marketers. Our eating choices are similarly directed. We are not on our own when making food choices.

There are lots of psychologists and neuroscientists helping the food industry to get us to make their choices. At its most simple, the smell of the bakery wafts at the supermarket door making us feel hungry. Hungry people shop more. All that delicious food waiting for us in Marks and Spencer. Just waiting to be eaten. Beautifully packaged and tempting us as we shop after work, when we are hungry.

But when we know how the all-pervasive food environment with all the little cues and triggers to eat combines with the reward systems in our brain to encourage us to eat, then we can at least start to make active food choices.

I have blogged before about the the concept of ‘food reward’ involving the brain’s mesolimbic reward circuitry (as in addictions). And I have blogged about the importance of the prefrontal cortex part of the brain -  the hard- working area that does all the decision-making and is involved in  motivation, impulsivity and self-control. My approach is to help you to avoid buying the foods that trigger this mesolimbic reward system and to protect you from the huge array of eating encouragements that bombard us through the day. In the house is in the mouth.

I am delighted that recent research by Bradley Applehaus and colleagues from the Rush University Medical Centre, Chicago, published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, supports my approach. They agree that you can help yourself by not making yourself face temptation every day. And they agree that it helps to avoid situations that weaken your self-control, such as all-you-can-eat buffets, where variety stimulates overeating.

Of course, each client is different. And so these ideas need to be presented in a way that fits your concerns. Another point the researchers raise is that the goal of being slim again is a long time in the future and it is hard to focus on long-term goals in our busy lives. They agree here with Peter Gollwitzer that focusing on those short-term goals will help lead to the long-term outcomes.

It is just not a matter of willpower. It is not a lack of moral fibre. It is not about buying special foods. It is about understanding how our own lifestyles and workloads interact with our brain circuitry and the obsogenic environment. And then what actions we can take to reduce the risk, making it easier for us to behave in the ways which will help us to take control of our eating. In a sustainable and automatic way. Come and see me and get back in charge. Read my longer article.