# How would YOU solve the obesity crisis? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 28, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746 "2015-04-28T21:13:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/41 "2015-04-29T02:49:31Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Home economics: Make the student document all calories and fat consumed each day. (Seriously, once they see in print how much they are consuming compared to how much is normal; if that doesn’t motivate them, I don’t know what will.) > > Bring back PE. (All the way til graduation.) > > No more fad diets. Any proposed diets by a would be entrepreneur would have to be pier reviewed and accepted by the AMA. > > Massive media campaigns aimed towards children. Make junk food uncool in the same way they’ve made smoking uncool. Fad diets work. The problem is that people can’t maintain the weight they lose. If eating nothing but grapefruits for 3 months causes you to lose 40 pounds that is great. The problem is that the person will probably gain 50 back over the next 3 years and end up worse than when they started. Until medical science comes up with ways to help people maintain a weight loss in a way that works in the real world with real people, nothing is going to change in the obesity issue. People can and do lose weight all the time but they can’t keep it off. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/42 "2015-04-29T03:10:41Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Fad diets work. The problem is that people can’t maintain the weight they lose. If eating nothing but grapefruits for 3 months causes you to lose 40 pounds that is great. The problem is that the person will probably gain 50 back over the next 3 years and end up worse than when they started. > > Until medical science comes up with ways to help people maintain a weight loss in a way that works in the real world with real people, nothing is going to change in the obesity issue. People can and do lose weight all the time but they can’t keep it off. This is my problem with fad diets. They lead people to believe that you can do this diet until you reach your goal weight and then go right back to bacon double cheeseburgers five days a week. Diets are a lifestyle choice. Which means, whatever diet you choose, you need to be comfortable with that diet until the day that you die. So far, the only sensible diet I’m aware of that one can stay on indeterminately is the good old fashioned diet that’s been around for decades. A well balanced diet that has lots of vegetables, fruits and proteins. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/43 "2015-04-29T03:10:45Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Is that because of lifestyle changes stopping the rise in obesity or because people just aren’t genetically capable of getting much fatter at that age? The vast majority of people will never be 500 pounds as an example no matter how shitty their lifestyle, if obesity levels are leveling off it is due to lifestyle or the fact that the kids in general can’t get much fatter? > > Also this article says the rates are still going up because the methods of measurement are different. > > [Severe Obesity May Be on the Rise in Kids](http://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/severe-obesity-may-be-rise-kids-n73991) First off, what a horrible news article review of [the actual article](http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1856480). No nothing about change in measurements (which they totally butcher btw); that is trying to explain that in kids obesity is defined by percentile for age (compared to norms formed from data collected in the 60s and 70s) hence 95%ile and above is considered obese and class 2 and 3 are defined in relation to the 95%ile cut-off for age, 120 and 140% of the 95%ile number respectively. No change there, just different than for adults. Definitely not an upper limit as only a small number (2%) are class 3 obese. Actual article does not contradict the statement made. It specifically states: > [@the actual article](#): > > the prevalence of obesity may be stabilizing. Shocking news that _over the last 14 years_\* obesity has increased in all classes but it does not contradict other data that it has leveled _in the last few years_ and decreased over the past few years in a few subgroups. Yes, in particular in regions that have made an effort to address the issue. \*Really that is all that article did. It took the same data set and said sure it is level to down over the past several years but it is higher than it was 14 years ago, so it isn’t decreasing … Huh? ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/44 "2015-04-29T03:13:32Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > It’s not like there’s no shame attached to obesity, at least for women. As Americans have gotten bigger, models have gotten smaller; the disparity between the anorexic models and the general population is staggering. Just like with smoking, obesity has the stigma of being caused by lack of discipline. And being fat doesn’t even have the “cool kids” factor. > > I honestly don’t think this country is so fat because people don’t care. Diet has become a huge industry; recently I even read an article on the resurgence of the tape-worm-diet, something people used to laugh at. The problem is people are obsessed with cutting fat out of their diet, and that fat is replaced by over-processed, sugary food. I don’t see the same stigma. Of course the mass media presents unrealistic ideas of beauty. That’s their stock and trade. But in real life, it seems more a matter of personal preference. Lot’s of guys want to go after the waify model types. Others like more buxom women, others BBW, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/45 "2015-04-29T04:11:30Z")
In a certain sense, obesity is self-penalizing. It comes in the form of diabetes, heart disease, a variety of other health problems, loss of mobility, etc. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/46 "2015-04-29T04:33:09Z")
Oh if you want to get into the weeds [this article](http://advances.nutrition.org/content/2/1/23.full) has some good detailed graphs breaking out the pediatric population by sub-groups going back to the 70s. What is clear is that there was a consistent pretty rapid increase from the late 70s until about 2003 and overall flat since then. Drops in particular have occurred in preschool boys and to a lesser degree preschool girls from that peak. In teens there are significant differences with Black boys and Hispanic girls still increasing and other groups leveling off or dropping slightly consistently over the past decade. (Same data set as the study referenced in the article.) BTW as has been pointed out in these sorts of threads many many times … once an adult is obese becoming and staying “normal weight” is rarely achievable and for health not required. The more reasonable goal of a 10% weight loss maintained with healthier nutrition and exercise habits will capture the lion’s share of the health benefits … even though the person will likely still measure out as obese. Preventing obesity by impacting the environments children grow up in, by a combination of regulation and education at various levels (media messaging equating giving kids high added sugar foods … and many other highly processed packaged foods … to giving your kid a cigarette or a hit of heroin; regulating ads aimed at kids and what foods can be in schools; at the healthcare system hitting parents at toddler years on, especially on sweet beverages and other added sugar foods and promoting active lifestyles … so on) is the more effective long term strategy. Of course a child raised such a way can still become an obese adult. But a child who reaches adulthood not obese, and with good nutrition and exercise habits in place, has much better odds of surviving our obesiogenic environment without becoming obese that one who already _is_ an obese adult. Having stopped the overall rise in pediatric obesity and slightly reversed the trend for some subgroups is a significant accomplishment and the result of a significant public health effort that the public health system should be proud of, but it clearly is not enough. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/47 "2015-04-29T04:41:19Z")
First their is NO PROBLEM. This whole thing is just made up by screwing with the statistics. Notice how they lump together “overweight” with “obese”. So a kid thats 1 ounce overweight is in the same label as a kid 100 pounds overweight. Oh and BTW, who exactly makes up this BMI list of who is overweight? Also the stats dont take into account ethnic variations. For example many Asian kids are thin as rails while kids from Guatemala are just naturally short and (somewhat) plump. They also dont take into account body types. I’ve many a young man playing football who can consume I swear a whole cow a day. They are deliberately putting on weight and they wear it well. I work with all kinds of kids and frankly, they are NOT all that fat. Oh sure a couple are but not all kids like they like to make it sound. Not to mention we parents arent stupid. We know what our kids need and we try to feed them right and get them to exercise. Almost every kid I know is involved in sports or some other physical activity. So find some other problem. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/48 "2015-04-29T04:43:26Z")
Most of what you want to do involves either taxing, giving away free meals in school, regulating and going against corporate interests. I doubt any of these measures will be enacted. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/49 "2015-04-29T04:49:53Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > I’d implement every single idea that had the remotest chance of being useful, and keep evaluating them. Stop subsidizing corn farming, start subsidizing vegetable and fruit growers, make physical ed an important part of school curricula, no junk food in schools, healthy school lunches, a blitz of advertising about exercise and good food, ban junk food advertising especially in venues where there are children etc etc. > . What good is subsidizing fruit and vegetable growers when nobody eats the stuff? What good is cutting calories in school lunches and offering “healthy” items when the kids dont eat them. Have you ever gone to a school cafeteria and saw what was thrown away? It wasnt the pizzas or cookies. It was the brocolli and other vegetables. What, you going to force kids to eat crap they dont want to eat? And where have you been? Schools have been preaching healthy diets for decades. People just choose not to follow them. Quick story. A few years ago they put in this big youth soccer complex where I live. They ordered that the concession stands be healthy food only. So no hot dogs, soda, or candy. Know what? They dropped it a year later because sales were so bad. Nobody wanted all that “healthy” food. They would rather walk across the street to the Sonic. Now keep in mind these kids are soccer players. And their parents damn well know about healthy eating. They just preferred the junk food. ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/50 "2015-04-29T04:54:43Z")
I personally have a hard time believing lack of nutritional knowledge plays more than a middling part in obesity. I can think of no functional adult who doesn’t know fruits and veggies are better than chips and cookies, baked is better than fried, etc. People like bad food in large quantities. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/51 "2015-04-29T05:16:28Z")
> [@Waymore](#): > > I personally have a hard time believing lack of nutritional knowledge plays more than a middling part in obesity. I can think of no functional adult who doesn’t know fruits and veggies are better than chips and cookies, baked is better than fried, etc. > > People like bad food in large quantities. bad habits trump proper knowledge. the measures the OP outlines from good habits. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/52 "2015-04-29T05:43:49Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > First their is NO PROBLEM. > > This whole thing is just made up by screwing with the statistics. Notice how they lump together “overweight” with “obese”. So a kid thats 1 ounce overweight is in the same label as a kid 100 pounds overweight. > > Oh and BTW, who exactly makes up this BMI list of who is overweight? > > Also the stats dont take into account ethnic variations. … All untrue. Stats are in fact kept for “overweight” (which includes many athletic kids and some chubby), and overweight of various levels including the extremely overweight, and for various ethnic groups. The list is again based on percentiles which were normed before the rapid increase in the late 70s. > [@Urbanredneck](#): > > What good is subsidizing fruit and vegetable growers when nobody eats the stuff? What good is cutting calories in school lunches and offering “healthy” items when the kids dont eat them. Have you ever gone to a school cafeteria and saw what was thrown away? It wasnt the pizzas or cookies. It was the brocolli and other vegetables. > > What, you going to force kids to eat crap they dont want to eat? > > And where have you been? Schools have been preaching healthy diets for decades. > > People just choose not to follow them. > > Quick story. A few years ago they put in this big youth soccer complex where I live. They ordered that the concession stands be healthy food only. So no hot dogs, soda, or candy. Know what? They dropped it a year later because sales were so bad. Nobody wanted all that “healthy” food. They would rather walk across the street to the Sonic. > > Now keep in mind these kids are soccer players. And their parents damn well know about healthy eating. They just preferred the junk food. Funny thing. If you offer your kids a choice between fast food and healthy food they will likely choose the crap and eat lots of it. It’s what that crap was designed to do: to trigger the eat me centers and not the fulla uppa ones. If the crap is not there they won’t eat it and if they are hungry they will eat what is there. The school cannot offer the crap as a choice. Competing with a Sonic across the street? No contest. There is a pile of candy and a healthy meal and the kid chooses the candy. The responsible decision is not to give up on offering the healthy meal. It is merely to make filling up on the candy a non-option. Also funny thing. Parents of soccer players do not make better nutrition decisions than anyone else. Some think that having exercised deserves some crap. Sometimes organized sports causes MORE obesity issues because it interferes with home meals and by scheduling in the dinner hours gets parents going through the drive through for dinner quickly instead. Between that and the treats that parents bring the net is negative not positive in quite a few cases. ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/53 "2015-04-29T05:50:30Z")
> [@Robert163](#): > > bad habits trump proper knowledge. the measures the OP outlines from good habits. Habit is definitely part of it, but it isn’t the whole story. People are hardwired to like sweet, fatty, and salty. Part of it is fighting your biology. Can be done, but it’s not much fun. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/54 "2015-04-29T05:54:03Z")
> [@Waymore](#): > > Habit is definitely part of it, but it isn’t the whole story. People are hardwired to like sweet, fatty, and salty. Part of it is fighting your biology. Can be done, but it’s not much fun. oh yes i definetley agree. but we need a culture that is anti obesity, like we have on that is anti cigarettes and anti drunk driving. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/55 "2015-04-29T06:06:27Z")
Socialize exercise gymns, and subsidize people to exercise. ---
**Author:** ![Waymore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Waymore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waymore)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/56 "2015-04-29T06:46:48Z")
> [@Robert163](#): > > oh yes i definetley agree. but we need a culture that is anti obesity, like we have on that is anti cigarettes and anti drunk driving. Totally agree. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/57 "2015-04-29T06:51:16Z")
> [@Waymore](#): > > Habit is definitely part of it, but it isn’t the whole story. People are hardwired to like sweet, fatty, and salty. Part of it is fighting your biology. Can be done, but it’s not much fun. Yep. I sometimes like to enter chili cook offs. Whenever I enter one and it’s going to be judged by the public rather than a panel of judges, I’ll throw a handful of brown sugar into the pot. I always score better when I use the sugar. Even though the sweetness added is hardly noticeable. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/58 "2015-04-29T15:26:44Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Yep. I sometimes like to enter chili cook offs. Whenever I enter one and it’s going to be judged by the public rather than a panel of judges, I’ll throw a handful of brown sugar into the pot. > > I always score better when I use the sugar. Even though the sweetness added is hardly noticeable. That is sad, but predictable. I eat a low carbohydrate diet, less than 60 grams of carbohydrates a day so I am vigilant about reading labels. It is outrageously difficult to find any sort of processed foods without sugar, sometimes in several different forms, even in foods that by any reasonable standard don’t need sweetening. Why would blue cheese salad dressing require high fructose corn syrup? Some would say they add it because it’s cheap, but leaving it out is even cheaper. It must therefore increase sales, even though at least some people will avoid it because of the sugar, so we have to assume there’s a net gain. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/59 "2015-04-29T15:39:21Z")
I read somewhere that diabetes going way up may be due to our diet changing very fast. They said people have not had time to “evolve” to get used to the fact that now food is very plentiful. That is probably related to weight gain too. ---
**Author:** ![Q.N.Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/3da27b/32.png) [@Q.N.Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.N.Jones)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746/60 "2015-04-29T16:20:36Z")
I currently attend the College of Public Health at my university, and nobody has yet mentioned the most important solutions, according to our profs and guest speakers: Stop building American cities in such a way that they encourage hopping in a car for even short trips, and discourage being a pedestrian or bicyclist. Make sure there are green spaces, walking/bike paths, playgrounds, etc. Build neighborhoods so that it’s easy to walk to the corner store for things, instead of having to jump in the car and drive to a large shopping center every time. In other words, build exercise into the daily lifestyle. Make it safe to be a pedestrian or a bicyclist, instead of a driver. Stop suburban sprawl and build actual mixed-use neighborhoods. Companies that pay for health insurance for employees should offer healthy food options at cost in cafeterias and easy-to-access, enjoyable exercise facilities, because this lowers health care costs. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-solve-the-obesity-crisis/718746.md?page=4)