The Fast Track Trial Part 1: Emma's Story

The “Fast Track to Health” trial is a year long semi starvation experiment aimed at Australian teenagers. Protest against the trial has been immense, with 20,000 people signing a petition to stop it, multiple complaints lodged to the Ethics Committee who approved the trial, numerous protest statements from eating disorder organisations, and substantial media attention. But the protest has fallen on deaf ears, and the trial looks set to go ahead. This week on All Fired Up, I speak with Emma Hagan, who was 10 years old when her parents took her to a paediatric “O” clinic to help her lose weight. Within a year, Emma was hospitalised with Anorexia, and 13 years later, she is still battling to find recovery. According to the Fast Track team, stories like Emma’s simply don’t happen - they believe that any risk is ‘minimal and manageable’. To which we say: BS. Stories like Emma’s need to be heard. Don’t miss this important conversation!

Shownotes The “Fast Track to Health” trial is a weight loss experiment running out of 2 childhood obesity clinics at Children’s hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia. The trial is aiming to recruit 180 larger bodied teenagers aged 13 -17. In the trial, teenagers will be placed on a very low calorie diet (less than 800 calories a day) for a month, and then subjected to 3 days per week of fasting (less than 700 calories a day) for 11 months. The severity of calorie restriction on kids in growing bodies over such a prolonged period of time has alarmed thousands of health professionals around the world. We know that intermittent fasting is very trendy right now, but the research shows that in the long term, this kind of diet produces no different results than any other diet. On this type of diet, people lose a little bit of weight in the short term, and then the weight comes back. When Louise heard about the trial, she was horrified, and submitted a group complaint to the Ethics Committee who approved the trial which was co-signed by 29 health professionals and 2 organisations. The complaint detailed the lack of research evidence to suggest any efficacy for intermittent fasting, and called for the trial to be stopped on the grounds that it is dangerous and risked the physical and mental health of the teenagers. Dieting in adolescence is the number 1 risk factor for development of an eating disorder. And the more restrictive the diet, the higher the risk. There is a huge body of longitudinal research in the eating disorders literature to show that this risk is significant. Eating disorders health professionals spend a lot of time trying to prevent eating disorders. In teenagers, we really try to emphasise helping kids of all shapes and sizes to take pride in the bodies, to develop a relaxed and attuned relationship with food, and to discourage crash dieting. This trial flies in the face of all known advice usually given to kids. Of course, this intervention is being justified by saying that well, these kids are in larger bodies, they ‘need to lose weight for their health’. So suddenly, something that is extremely dangerous for an adolescent is ok if your body is above a certain number? Louise’s complaint was ultimately rejected by the Fast Track trial’s Ethics committee. They consulted with an anonymous panel of ‘experts’ who agreed that the risk was there, but said that the risk was worth it in the hope that the kids might lose a bit of weight. Louise then started the change.org petition, which has been signed by 20000 people. This petition is calling for the trial to be stopped. This is unprecedented - a weight loss experiment really hasn’t had this level of protest against it before. Numerous complaints to the Fast Track Trial's Ethics committee (more than 60) have been submitted, in groups and by individuals, and all of these complaints have been rejected. Unfortunately, all of these complaints have been dismissed, with the research team consistently justifying their trial. They have