The data on the health effects of obesity—and statistics show that children who go through adolescence overweight ce lifelong battles with the bulge—are stark: Obese kids risk developing type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and associated causes of obesity Commentary: Our growth in girthheart disease and even certain types of cancers at a much higher rate than their non-obese peers.
For example: A 5-foot-4-inch woman weighing 174 pounds is considered obese, but few women that size would acknowledge it. A 5-foot-9-inch man, weighing 203 pounds is considered obese, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a guy that size who didn’t see himself as merely hefty. And among 12-year-old children, a 4-foot-9 inch boy weighing 118 pounds or a 4-foot-8 inch girl weighing 115 pounds are both considered obese.
None of that is easy; none of it succeeds all on its own.
All that said, obesity has at the very least leveled off, if not declined, over the past decade. The question is why? If public health authorities could pinpoint the reason, obviously, that would become a national priority.
And of course, for those of us approaching middle age, adults 60 and older are now more likely to be obese than younger adults.
A review of the history of anti-smoking efforts is revealing. Fifty years ago, it was well-known that cigarettes caused serious health problems for heavy smokers. In 1964, the Surgeon General came out with a landmark study that clearly linked smoking and lung cancer. For those who were aroundcauses of obesity back then, most people’s response to that revelation was, Duh. That’s why they call them coffin nails.
causes of obesity Commentary: Our growth in girth,The obesity findings were released last week as part of CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted in 2009 and 2010.
But which ctor is the most important? Where do we put the public health emphasis? And are there other, perhaps overlooked ctors, that need to be considered?
The meat and poultry industry’s leadership needs to make sure they don’t get lumped into that category.
Could it be the increasing national attention to our ongoing national battle with obesity and the health problems it causes?
But here’s the bad news: Some 36% of American adults and nearly 17% of children are considered clinically obese, and even worse, what people consider a normal weight has moved upward right along with the growth in our national girth.
Here’s the good news: According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national rate of obesity among American adults and children is slowing down, perhaps even leveling off, after several decades of not-so-slowly increasing.
But most milies with those kids wouldn’t consider their children to be suffering from a serious health problem.
That question’s r easier asked than answered, however.
The contributing ctors
Or could it be the combination of manucturers providing leaner, lower t food choices, coupled with the relentless pressure to improve our diets with less junk food and more fruits and veggies?
Therein lies the answer on obesity, as r as I’m concerned. Like smoking, the consumption of st foods and junk foods and snack foods is addicting. Bad habits are hard to break, but cutting out the foods we love—no matter how badly they affect our weight and our health—is even tougher.
People knew that smoking was bad news, just like we know that being obese is a huge health issue, no pun intended. But smoking rates took a generation to slowly recede and even today millions of people take up the habit with full knowledge that it doesn’t do them one bit of good.
Ultimately, though, we will see progress, and many of the foods we now wolf down without conscience will one day be considered to be culinary coffin nails.
Obesity is a multiceted, lifestyle-related, nature-and-nurture intertwined challenge that, like smoking, is going to take a generation or two before we see any real progress.
Getting a handle on obesity is about curbing junk food consumption, it’s about increasing activity and exercise, it’s about the investment in shopping and food preparation to serve healthier meals, it’s about kids learning—and adults teaching—the cts of life regarding the vast sea of bad food choices available in the marketplace.
And like stop smoking programs, a whole diet/anti-obesity industry has sprung up, some of it medically legitimate, some of it outright quackery. The ct that you can’t spend more than 10 minutes online or half an hour watching TV without a diet or weight-loss product or procedure being hawked and hustled underlines how difficult it is to deal with our No. 1 national health issue.
Heck, obesity is even becoming commonplace among innts and toddlers, with CDC data showing that nearly 10% having higher-than-recommended weights.
Right now, we’re at the point the anti-tobacco forces were 50 years ago: Unassailable data showing the practice is harmful, widespread agreement that we shouldn’t be smoking and millions of people unable (or unwilling, depending on your view of human nature) to stop.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dan Murphy, a veteran food-industry journalist and commentator.
Could it be the various campaigns to increase people’s activity levels and promote healthful exercise?
