According to a new study published in peer-reviewed journal Neurology, being obese or overweight in middle age increases the risk of developing dementia. Being overweight, we are told, raises your risk of developing heart disease, cancer, diabetes and even eye problems. Obesity has also been connected to an increased risk in childbirth. And although this latest research sounds like a brand-new conclusion on an important concern for the overweight, it has in fact been studied before – with conclusions on the link between weight and dementia being reported in both 2005 and 2006.

A great deal of money must have been spent to support these research projects. Significant funding to tell us what we already know: that obesity is a health risk. It is undesirable. It is very bad. As someone who is both middle aged and obese, I am very well aware of the risks associated with my current size (just shy of morbidly obese with a fluctuating BMI of between 38 and 39). I don’t need more research to tell me how dangerous it is. I need to know how to cure it.

Diets don’t work. They may have a short-term effect but, unless you can maintain a celebrity-like iron grip on your eating for the rest of your life (and few can) they are not a permanent solution and can have negative effects. For some people, like me, they don’t work at all, because of complex endocrine deficiencies that are only recently being properly investigated, documented and understood

Obesity is bad, we get that | Catherine Hughes | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk