Who's to Blame? Obesity in America

abcnews.com ^ | 12/08/03 | ABC News

[LurkedLongEnough]

"He heard of villagers driven to eating the flesh of children. He also began to study Marx and Engels more closely."

This isn't a public health issue - it's a political one.

Remember the famines of China's Great Leap Forward. That's what happens when the gov't gets all the way to your mouth.

[.38sw]

You are correct about portion size. Just go to a resaurant and order pasta - you'll get a platter of it. A serving of pasta (using Weight Watcher's old system) is 1/2 cup. You can figure that the platter in front of you could be five servings of pasta. I can feel myelf ballooning up just thinking about that...

[sarasota]

You are correct. Studies have been done on the addictive qualities of food. Food scientists have been at it for decades. Processed foods are all about taste and mouthfeel and our palates have become desensitized. Try going without processed foods for a week (shopping the perimeter of the store for real food items) and then go back to the stuff in boxes and cans. Sugar and salt and food that is dead, dead, dead. No fresh enzymes to help digest the food, just sugar and salt to fatten us up.

[sarasota]

Users. Stop buying and production would tank.

[cyborg]

Have you ever been to an International Buffet??? Just go to one and you will see the reason for obesity. It's called good ole fashion gluttony.

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""We're besieged," said Michael Jacobson, director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "Wherever we go, we're encouraged to eat junk food."

OK, Mikey. We hereby encourage you to do a three-and-a-half gainer from the Golden Gate bridge. Go ye in peace and do as "encouraged," for your fate is sealed and beyond your control. <p. But try not to land on any Coast Guard cutters. Coasties are good guys and gals and they're trying to keep us out of harms way in these troubled times......

[Constitution Day]

I'll have to get the print issue from home, but she basically details NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) and other groups who preach that "density is destiny".
They say that a person's obesity, or lack thereof, is totally genetic and it's actually HARMFUL to diet.

Here's another related article that Grossman wrote earlier this year. It covers a lot of the same points.

CD

"Vogue vs. Health: When image trumps nutrition", by Jennifer Grossman

[sarasota]

Dr. Phil's son was on Larry King over the weekend and he's written a book for teens that relates portion size to cd's, a handheld calculator and the like. Made sense to me.

[.38sw]

I've gotten to where I eat very little prepared or processed foods after having modified my diet to more fresh foods. Canned soup now just tastes salty to me. I occasionally make my own soups out of all fresh ingredients, and they are so good in comparison. And another problem with the processed stuff and baked goods is the trans-fatty acids. Talk about your bad fats...Better to use butter than that artificial junk.

[brewcrew]

When one sells widgets for a living, one makes a better living when one sells more widgets. It might even become beneficial to make widgets addictive.

This all works because people have become soft (both in the middle and in the head). One thing and one thing alone will put an end to all the crap in the stores that passes as food - and that's when people stop buying it.

[.38sw]

No, I haven't been to one of those, but I've been some others - all you can eat. Ugh. The food isn't very good, but there's plenty of it, and I saw people consume mass quanitities of it. Scared me away for good.

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"Joe LIEberman says we're all being held hostage by jelly donuts."

And hostage Teddie K. has been suffering from the "Stockyard Syndrome" and identifying with his captors for decades.....

[sarasota]

We got sold such a myth when margarine was introduced. Same goes for "diet" drinks and "low fat" products. I'll wager that most overweight people consume this fraudulent food and think they're doing their body a good thing. Food has become so processed that people think preparation from scratch is "from the olden days". Think about it. The obesity problem has corresponded with the advent of processed foods.

[cyborg]

Scared me away for good.

** Glad to see I'm not alone in the 'never go there sentiment'. Olive Garden also is a 'buffet' type establishment. People who are 400 lbs shoveling mountains of pasta is enough to make me throw up. Of course, people are fat because most are LAZY and inactive.

[discostu]

8 ounces?! Meals no bigger than my fist?! There is a middle ground between obesity and being an Etheopian. While I can agree portion sizes have gotten a little too big let's not go crazy.

[.38sw]

Also consider that Olive Garden just isn't that good. If you want good Italian, better to go to a small, local establishment than one of those chains. You still need to watch your portions though.

[Roughneck]

>>>The problem is Americans are choosing foods with more sweeteners and more calories, drinking more sodas, eating more candy, and snacking all day. Is the food industry simply giving people the products they want?<<<

Food not not found in my house:

Watered down, low cal Mayonnaise or Whip Cream nor Sour Cream nor butter, nor salad dressing. No low-carb, low-taste cookies, candies, nor bran muffins nor granola, nor banna "chips". No sugar free sody pop, tea, nor decaff coffe at all.

I like my eggs fried in the bacon grease and served with a big side of hash brown or corned beef hash and a big stack a toast with real butter - none of this all-fruit spread neither! Its pure jams jellies or preserves.

When I start puttin on the punds I just CLOSE MA MOUTH after the first serving. I show some self-control..Geez!

[bush8years]

What about "if you build it they will come".
Seems like the producers might be to blame. I just don't know.

On the other hand, you might go so far as to blame the entire capitalist system for America's rampant obesity in that they're simply exploiting the marketplace but with products that while definitely are detrimental to one's health is not as quantifiably simple to measure.
So, here again is that giant dilemma we face that I mentioned in an earlier post; Is it Supply or Demand (that is ultimately culpable)?

I suppose only the trial lawyers know for sure. :-)

[The Toll]

I had been fat for years then after 9-11 I could no longer justify being soft. I have lost 85 pounds from 220 to 135. I work out, run and swim.
As far as diet goes, NO SUGAR! Don't eat anything that comes in a box. It is packed full of chemicals. No soda or (coke)as we call it down here. There are tons of healthy things to eat. I have also noticed that TV commercials can make you feel like you are starving to death 10 minutes after dinner!

[Hildy]

Dr. Phil's son. What a scam these two have. Did you know that Weight loss books are the biggest money makers for that industry? Do you REALLY think that Dr. Phil's SON wrote that book and how is it different than the 65,000 other books written on the matter. Here, I'll tell you how to lose weight...Eat less...exercise more. Oy.