How to fight obesity

Great Debates
21

I am trying to remember where I read this article, about a school that had hired a professional chef to completely revamp their cafeteria. The caf went from a money-losing dump to something the kids enjoyed and preferred to bringing lunch from home.

He did things like add a slice of apple to chicken sandwices, replace fried with sweet potato fries, stuff like that, to make the food more healthful but still appealing. They specifically said that it was NOT more expensive to run the caf this way, the key was treating the cafeteria like a “real” restaurant in terms of eliminating waste in every possible way.

22

And let us not even mention that more and more schools are eliminating recess, giving kids even less of an opportunity to get exercise.

[hijack]Somewhere in my vague memory I remember reading an article about the rise in ADD diagnoses corresponding with the elimination of school recess. Basically, if the kids don’t get to go outside and blow off some steam a couple of times a day, they get fidgety in class…[/hijack]

23

Urban poor do not access to the transportion needed for lugging around 19 lbs of oranges. If you have a small family, all that fresh fruit is going to go to waste. If I were buying for a family, almost ten dollars of worth of just nuts would seem crazy. I could make fifty baloney and cheese sandwiches with $8.99. And the kids will eat the baloney and cheese sandwiches while the fancy nuts stay on the shelf, collecting dust.

I like oranges, pears, nuts, and tuna, really. I’m an educated, slender person but a meal composed of just those things would make me look for something else in the refrigerator. Why? It’s rabbit food! Where’s the meat? Where’s the greasy juices? Where’s the soft bread to sop up the gravy? Where’s the gravy!

And therein lies the problem. We are addicted to grease and gravy. Talking about the virtures of oranges, pears, nuts, and tuna is great, but we’re neglecting the reality: the American palate prefers cheese, iceburg lettuce, salted peanuts, and ground beef.

If I’m poor, working two jobs, raising two kids, and I come home everyday at 7:00 PM bum tired, a two-egg omelete and a crisp garden salad is not going to do it for me. A tuna-fish sandwich on whole wheat sidled next to bean sprouts on a bed of steamed asparagus is going to require a lot of psychological energy to swallow. The kids will not eat grilled chicken breasts on brown rice without protest, and I will not have enough energy to force them to. And to be honest, I did not work all day to come home to dry-bone chicken breasts on brown rice. People come home to dry-bone chicken breasts on brown rice when they have something else to look forward to, like a three-bedroom house, a nice automobile that’s paid off, or 30 days off paid vacation. For poor people, a sloppy burger is their “something to look forward to”. I think we’re forgetting that in this discussion by putting the attention on the cost of oranges.

I think we’re more likely to shape the amount of exercise people get than what they ingest. Personally, I think the horse is already out of the barn on that one.

24

I happen to like brown rice…

I started a whole thread on this once, with mixed responses…

Don’t know about those who are financially better off, but for the poor, I would be in favor of putting limits on what a person could buy with food stamps. Don’t allow them to be used to by chips, cookies, soda, snack cakes.

This wouldn’t solve the problem, but it would definitely be a step in the right direction.

25

Why fight someone else’s obesity problem?

26

Ah, how I love hearing the “I don’t have time” excuse. Like time is some commodity that other people have more of. You MAKE time. Get up 30 minutes earlier and do some calisthenics, or lift weights for 15 minutes. Run every morning. Turn off that television or put off logging on the internet for a time. Or simply sacrafice something.

Truthfully, if it meant anything to you, you would have done it so far. What the country lacks isn’t awareness of exercise. It lacks the desire. Oh, people say they would love to get started again, but they don’t, and it is because they don’t really want to.

It is laziness. We don’t want to do something that is hard. We don’t want to make sacrafices because it takes work. We don’t like exercise because it “hurts.” We like to eat what we want, and what we want is within easy reach. It isn’t a willful laziness though, I would disagree there. It is a cultural thing. It is all around us and we don’t notice it because everybody participates. I see people walk 10 feet out of their way to go in a door somebody else just opened because they are too lazy to open the door in front of them. (ok, this is a pointless laziness, because you burn more energy walking the 10 feet than you do opening the door, I doubt, however this is going through their minds)

27

Sorry, but leisure time is a commodity. People do have more leisure time than others. A single person who works 7 hours a day has more leisure time than a mother of four who works 7 hours a day, who has more leisure time than a mother of four who works 12 hours a day. You oversimplify the problem by giving everyone equal leisure time.

The more well-to-do tend to have more leisure time–or at least more control over how they partition their leisure time. Thus, it’s not surprising that gyms, bike trails, and jogging paths are dominated by the well-to-do. They not only have more money to nurse these hobbies, but they have more time.

Maybe if we could increase the amount of leisure time allocated to low-wage earners, we’d narrow their waistlines? As for people who have plenty of leisure time but don’t exercise (like myself), then yeah, maybe we are lazy. But I don’t think everyone who cites having no time as an excuse is necessarily lazy.

28

Ok, some people lack the intelligence to create leisure time. I don’t think it has anything to do with rich or poor. Gyms are dominated by the well to do because gyms are expensive. Exercise doesn’t need 900 dollar gym contracts to benifit, and one does not need a gym to exercise.

I work 30 hours a week, take 15-18 credit hours of classes, study at least 2 hours for each credit hour of classes a week, and still manage 30 minutes a day of exercise. It is called time management, and anybody that has the skills to run a business can easily find 30 extra minutes a day, the obviously have the skills and the intelligence, they just lack the desire. I work out 7 days a week, 30 mins a day, and truth be told, I still find time to watch TV, spend several hours on here, and go out with my friends. Now, of course I am not a single mother, but babies take naps, perhaps if the mother is worried about her health, she could stop watching a soap opera and have plenty of time to exercise. Or get up before the husband leaves for work and go run.

Most people have plenty of leisure time. They would just rather spend it watching TV or reading a book. Not necessarily bad things, but they have nothing to complain about lack of time.

29

I have to go with Epimetheus on this one, with monstro’s notable qualifier. Laziness, more than anything else, is the biggest determinant of obesity. At least in comparison to the cost of food. I always have more money free when I stick to buying groceries and preparing healthy meals than when I go get fast food frequently.

I know laziness hits me and I hate it about myself. I never really like cooking for one person, but on days when my girlfriend is out and I’m alone for lunch or dinner, it’s so easy to go to that KFC across the street (wretched place, it’s a blight on the landscape of what is otherwise a fairly up-scale, urban neighbourhood - even the used clothing store across from it looks more classy). I know it’s bad for me, and I always regret it afterwards, but it smells soooo good, and it’s super easy to cross the street and grab something quick. But that’s entirely my fault.

Epimetheus is right, laziness is a serious problem for way too many people. We’re all used to the instant feedback of a TV, or the internet, or the speed of a microwave, or having a cell phone at the ready, and so on, that we don’t have our minds effectively set for the methodical preparation of food. We want it now and we don’t want to have to make a big effort. Yes, I know that many people really are pressed for time, but there are always ways around that. It’s a question of will, and I think we have weak wills more often than not. That’s laziness.

Also, as someone mentioned, our education systems do a wretched job of teaching children the value of exercise. When I was in school (although I graduated 10 years ago) you only had to take 1 phys ed course for the full 5 years of high school (in Ontario we used to have a grade 13, does anywhere else still have that?). Otherwise, there was absolutely no phys ed necessary. And in elementary school, we got phys ed classes whenever they were convenient, which wasn’t often. I personally think this is a horrible situation that needs to be addressed.

30

Oops, obviously a single mother isn’t going to be doing the things listed above. They can, however, have the babysitter come by 30 minutes earlier and do thier running or exercising before or after work. If it is important to them of course. (I am not saying it will always be important to them, just that if it is, they will find a way to get it in)

31

Chiefly because government forces you to pay for other people’s obesity problems. Perhaps it is time for government to impose upon us a new food polygon.

32

I’m glad this thread came around to leisure time. I really think that’s a major root of this complex problem. How many of us are just exhausted? We all have different reasons for not taking care of ourselves, and ourselves are usually the last priority.

–We may be working constantly to keep up our lifestyle.
–We may be exhausted from working a full day and taking care of the kids.

Isn’t it easier in an urban area to just drive through the drive-thru on the way home? I can’t possibly see how making homeade bread, excluding even shopping for ingredients, can take less time than picking up pre-made food on the way home.

Isn’t it a treat to stuff delicious, unhealthy food in your mouth to make you feel less drained? Or less crabby? Or less hungry? Because despite our “fatness”, we probably still ignore our hunger during the day, then when we finally have a moment to rest, we realize how hungry we are, and we need calories…fast!

I happen to be a person that makes time to work out at the gym–and I work hard, ask my (free for now) trainer. My vitals are above acceptable. I try to watch what I eat, but I’m not as good about that as I (sh)could be. I’m still fat. I’m not lazy or stupid. I’m just tired and somewhat compulsive. But my resolve is strong when I’m rested. I don’t sleep well because my mind races with thoughts of what my (non-lazy) self has accomplished for the day, and what I still need to do. I need more free time, and I’m working to make that happen. That’s my personal solution and even if I don’t lose weight, I’ll still be the better for it.

My point is that there is no generalized solution that will make everyone suddenly become slim, and we’ll not figure it out here. I think if parents had more time and energy, they would make feeding their children healthy food a priority. I think if people had more downtime, time to think, sleep, relax, they would be more apt to take better care of themselves. I could go on and on.

I hope that any “solution” that is implemented is done so with compassion and understanding towards, parents, children and just plain ol’ fat people.

33

I think that it basically boils down to economics and time. If we take a look at society and examine what is different about it now, I think one of the more striking things would have to be the advent of the two-income family (both parents working) and the greater number of single parents.

Leaving gender politics aside, my take is that a household really needs for there to be someone there running it. Now, most people do a pretty good job of juggling job and family, but I think that most of us feel too busy and that there just isn’t enough time to do the things that we need.

Add to this mix the ready availability of convenience foods that are stuffed with the things that we seem to be hardwired to crave (sugar, fat and salt) and the results are pretty predictable.

I would guess that solving the problem will involve increasing prosperity for folks so that we can return to the norm of having a parent that does not work (man or woman (I for one would love to be a man-wife)). Chances are that an educational component would help as well so that kids going through school would learn how to cook, what foods are good for them and so forth.

34

I don’t have any kids but it seems to me that kids are a lot less active these days than they were 20 years ago. Sure we had Atari and books when I was growing up, but we still spent a lot of time outside riding bikes or playing football or street hockey and stuff. The automobile-centric layout of neighborhoods these days pretty much eliminates any chance of kids doing anything but going over to a friends house and playing Playstation.

Most people in general don’t realize how sedentary they are. I thought about it one day - on a typical day, I would walk to my car, drive to my office, sit for most of the day, drive home, and unless I went to the gym (or went out with people), sit and watch tv until bedtime. If kids are starting to do this at an early age, it’s no wonder that half the country is a bunch of fatbodies.

I look at these people who are Midwest fat and I have to say it disgusts me. Waddling around in an oversized T-shirt and fanny pack, carrying the results of a life spent eating pizza by the foot and never exercizing. This doesn’t happen overnight. It comes from years of taking no pride in your appearance. But you can’t make someone put down the Big Mac. You can’t force them to walk for an hour before bed or take the stairs instead of the elevator. You can’t make someone take pride in themselves and their appearance.

35

Not only are kids less active, but those who do choose to be physically active are often treated as though their behavior were somehow aberrant. It is now regarded as normal for a kid to spend all his/her time indoors glued to a Playstation or Game Cube, and kids who spend their leisure time outdoors, rollerblading, skateboarding, riding bikes are looked on with a jaundiced eye.

Me, I like watching kids skateboarding or bikeriding. I get a kick out of watching them perform the stunts (although I do occasionally fear for their safety, but hey, life is full of risks). Of course, the past decade or so, parents and society have decided that kids need to be sheletered and protected from anything that might lead to them getting a bruise, and so playground equipment is being uprooted the nation over and being replaced with what? large piles of cotton batting? So, since getting on an object with only two skinny wheels and no protective frame that moves forward at a fairly high rate of speed is considered extreme risk-taking behavior, and therefore abnormal.

36

Because the lard-asses where I work had a 20% increase in insurance payments last year, which is being directly passed on to me for this year. So their obesity problem is hitting me right in my take-home pay.

And it doesn’t help that the firm offers free donuts and pastry every morning, and people take sacks with them back to their desks.

37

Well, its my view that anything short of a pharmacological ‘magic bullet’ will not work to stop obesity.

Obesity is treated differently than other medical conditions. Many medical conditions are, in part, due to the poor lifestyle decisions of the sufferer.

Take cancer for example, 2/3 of cancer deaths are due to lifestyle and therefore controllable by the individual.

http://www.hbns.org/news/cancer10-16-03.cfm

When people say ‘how do we stop the cancer epidemic’ they don’t say ‘diet, exercise, tobacco and screening’ as if they are the cure alls that will bring cancer to a screeching halt. They say them and that we should do them, but they also agknowledge that they are just part of the cure and that medical cures like surgery and pharmacology are necessary. Sadly obesity is the only medical condition (that i know of) where lifestyle changes are the only ‘cure’ most people will allow. Everything else is considered ‘cheating’. What if AIDS were treated this way, no research on vaccines or retrovirals and just ‘wear a condom or its your own fault’ mentalities running wild?

Sorry if this is a hijack, it wasn’t meant to be. Im just trying to show why i dont think that encoraging (just) lifestyle changes and not medical solutions is fair to obese people (we don’t chastize cancer or AIDS victims who make poor decisions and suffer the consequences), and that they are at best a semi cure. Even 50 years ago when people ate better and did more exercise, people were still fat. Just not ‘as’ fat. Besides people are lazy by nature you can’t expect people to live off of vegetables and exercise if they don’t have to. most people have trouble taking pills 3x a day, let alone living a lifestyle that contradicts billions of years of evolution.

38

When have my taxes (I’m assuming that’s what you’re talking about) gone towards obesity problems?

39

Ummm…I work three jobs. I just found out I work eight shifts in the next four days- in other words, I work nearly what people work in two weeks in less than one week. I can go three or four weeks without a full day off. And I don’t have a car so you gotta add an hour of transportation there and back to each of those shifts. I don’t get enough sleep. I hallucinate from lack of sleep at work sometimes. My free time in a week (time not working, traveling to work, getting ready for work, or sleeping so I can go to work) often measures in the single digits.

Which hour of sleep do you want me to “sacrifice”? The fifth or the sixth one?

Not that this is relevent for most people, but the concept still stands. Households used to have at least one person dedicated to making sure people get fed. Single people lived in boarding houses where meals were provided. Even people renting a room would expect meals. Now it’s every-man-for-themselves and it does mean that we have less time than we used to.

40

Obesity and depression. When I had gastric by-pass surgery, some people objected to our insurance paying for it. The same is true for some mental illnesses. Even one of my lifelong friends resents that I receive both a disabiity pension and social security because of something that appears to be simply a matter of attitude and self control.

There are people who are ignorant of the complexity of eating disorders and particularly compulsive eating behaviors (which often respond to medication, BTW). They smugly label others with crude nicknames.

I had rather have a problem with weight control than to be smugly ignorant.

I am in agreement with banning coke and snack machines at school. And no more bake sales, doughnut sales, and candy sales to raise money. But the taxpayers will have to make up the considerable difference.

Then I would put up signs all over the schools saying, “DO NOT EAT CARROTS OR APPLES ON SCHOOL GROUNDS.” That would insure that that students would be sneaking healthy food in.