A Desired Epidemic: Obesity and the Food Industry

The Washington Post ^ | February 20, 2007 | Deborah Cohen

[Eric Blair 2084]

In the Middle Ages, alchemists sought to turn common metals into gold. Today some doctors and scientists seeking to prevent and treat obesity in the United States are attempting an equally difficult transformation. They want to change people, their willpower, their lifestyles, their metabolism, even their DNA to make it harder to gain weight and easier to lose it. However, transforming people with drugs, weight-loss surgery, genetic engineering, hypnosis and other extreme steps is not the answer to obesity, because people are not the problem. The problem is the food industry, which provides us with the calories we consume but washes its hands of responsibility for causing the worldwide obesity epidemic. Food industry marketers say they are only offering people what they want and that individuals choose what they put in their mouths. Is it plausible that two out of three Americans have an eating disorder? And if we really believe that people are choosing to eat foods that are making them fat, does that mean we think that two-thirds of Americans are foolish, stupid, and lazy? Or that overweight and obese people have weaker characters and are morally inferior to people who have a normal weight? The food industry spends billions of dollars each year to develop products, packaging, advertising and marketing techniques that entice us to buy more food because selling more food means making more profits. And businesses exist to make profits.

[Eric Blair 2084]

Article #2

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Let me be the first at FR to suggest we ban FOREVER Girl Scout Cookies.

< /sarc>

[Eric Blair 2084]

Big Brother, Nanny State, Grant Junky, Bogus Study, Junk Science, Social Engineering, Sheeple Control, Health Nazi Ping!!!

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Preamble:

We the People Sheeple of the United States Nanny State, in Order to form a more perfect Union Socialist Utopia, establish Justice Socially engineer a country of non smoking, physically fit, tea totallers, insure domestic Tranquility Smoking bans in bars, limits on unhealthy food and social drinking, provide for the common defense Universal Healthcare, promote the general Welfare health of the population whether they like it or not, in order to save above mentioned Universal Healthcare entitlement program from bankruptcy, and secure the Blessings of Liberty Dependency to ourselves progressive liberals and our Posterity Hitler Youth who we brainwash through public school education, do ordain decree and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Nanny State of Liberals.

[Mr. Jeeves]

The problem is the food industry, which provides us with the calories we consume but washes its hands of responsibility for causing the worldwide obesity epidemic.

Yes, they make crap - but people have to learn to classify KFC and Little Debbie as "recreational calories".

Cheap food kills. A good rule of thumb is never eat anything from Wal-Mart - and buy the best quality you can find. Not only will your health improve, you'll have to eat less to keep the bill down.

[CheyennePress]

Is it plausible that two out of three Americans have an eating disorder? And if we really believe that people are choosing to eat foods that are making them fat, does that mean we think that two-thirds of Americans are foolish, stupid, and lazy? Or that overweight and obese people have weaker characters and are morally inferior to people who have a normal weight?

It's worth repeating: step foot in Europe, and you don't see the tubs you see here. Nor the average overweight person nearly as frequently. This is a problem of the American people and culture. With so many things we do right, this is not one of them. Blaming the food industry for an obese fourth grader is just ridiculous.

[Mase]

Welcome to the next class action lawsuit. With state revenues from smokers declining they need to find a new source of revenue.

Food taxed by the calorie is coming soon to a restaurant and grocery store near you. American ignorance of nutrition is astounding. The only other subject that could possibly eclipse nutrition is economics.

Unfortunately, we're going to get what we deserve.

[Disambiguator]

The substitution of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) for old-fashioned sugar in practically everything isn't helping matters.

[dangerdoc]

People are fat because for the first time in human history we have plenty of tasty food.

If you want to blame the food industry for providing a steady supply of what their customer demands then all businesses are evil. They are a perfect example of what all industry should be. They closely follow customer preference, they introduce new more desirable products and they do so in a way that the average customer can afford.

Do you remember baked potato chips? Wow corn chips? Nonfat cookies? The food industry thought there would be a market but people refused to buy. Unless the government steps in, people will eat bad things, drink too much, smoke and sit on their fat behinds. You know what, it's their life.

Unfortunately, people will not take responsibility for their choices. The tobacco lawyers are looking for even greener pastures and soon the food industry will be "big food" and the government, plaintiffs and lawyers will be trying to suck cash out of the industry forcing the price up for everybody. Unfortunately, you can't avoid this tax like you can the tobacco taxes by simply quiting.

As long as there is plenty of food, people will be fat. When you are standing in line at the grocery store and see that 3 foot wide bottom in front of you, be thankful that you live in the age of "big food". Our forefathers feared starvation, we are extremely lucky.

[Lizavetta]

Is it plausible that two out of three Americans have an eating disorder?

Gluttony is not a 'disorder'.

I am no fan of the food industry which is just as guilty as any other industry of using deceptive practices and unhealthy additives et. al. to increase sales and boost the bottom line, but people CHOOSE what to put in their mouths.

[Mase]

The substitution of High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) for old-fashioned sugar in practically everything isn't helping matters.

Even though they're made up of the same two ingredients in almost identical proportions and that HFCS usage has replaced sugar by an almost one-for-one basis over the past 30 years?

[AnotherUnixGeek]

step foot in Europe, and you don't see the tubs you see here.

You increasingly do. Obesity is growing worldwide, though the US leads the way. I saw some report recently that there are more obese people in the world than malnourished people.

[staytrue]

A good rule of thumb is never eat anything from Wal-Mart

Have you been to a super center walmart

I have and the rotisserie chicken is excellent at 4 dollars so is the chicken caesar salad. There is also a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.

[Old Professer]

The worst thing about people who write like this is that they believe what they are writing; if we are to accept her premise, we must admit that we are but dupes, only fit to follow cues, except for hers, of course.

[Old Professer]

People are kept alive in hospitals for years with nothing more than a glucose solution and supplements.

You can't buy immortality.

[raybbr]

The worst thing about people who write like this is that they believe what they are writing; if we are to accept her premise, we must admit that we are but dupes, only fit to follow cues, except for hers, of course.

Maybe not you and I but millions upon millions of Americans are slaves to marketing. Just look at how many diamonds are sold each year.

[Gorzaloon]

Maybe not you and I but millions upon millions of Americans are slaves to marketing. Just look at how many diamonds are sold each year.

Diamonds are a special case. They convert River Gravel into sex.

[Gorzaloon]

The problem is the food industry, which provides us with the calories we consume but washes its hands of responsibility for causing the worldwide obesity epidemic.

Yes, it is always the Running Dog Capitalists that do what their customers DEMAND of them. It's all the food industry's fault that we are one of the few countries where the POOR are obese.

The people I saw shopping with food Stamps needed backup alarms.

[Freee-dame]

To paraphrase Jack LaLanne: If man made it, don't eat it. You will get all the nutrition you need.

[Eric Blair 2084]

I had a different take on that part of the article:

"And if we really believe that people are choosing to eat foods that are making them fat, does that mean we think that two-thirds of Americans are foolish, stupid, and lazy?"

Uh, yes, at least two-thirds. How else would liberal, Socialist Democrats ever get elected?

[kaotic133]

Our food industry is guilty of taking subsidies and returning a below average quality product.

The artificial price floor basically means they can sell us junk at jacked up prices.

It doesn't help that the public education dependency factories make sure most Americans are ignorant of nutritional issues; suddenly, it makes these socialist health-nazis look like our saviors.