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Your Health Obesity in America: The Dr. Marion Nestle Interview by Sophia Barkat As part of our Applied Politics Projects we at Juryfury.com hope to shed light on what Scientists have to say about Your Health and to find out ways for you to live better. Here we ask the question: "Is your obesity a by-product of corporate America or are you accountable for it yourself?" Obesity is an ever growing phenomenon in America. A leading cause of health problems in America, it is the center of a serious debate. With health insurance companies treating obesity as a leading cause of disease and considering raising premiums on "over-weight" people it's important to take a serious look at the issue, to see who is responsible and who should ultimately pick up the tab. Will it be the patient or will there be a concerted attack on the Food Industry just as there was on Tobacco? And how does the Food and Drug Administration and USDA fit into the picture? Recently Dr Marion Nestle, Chair of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University published her book, Food Politics : How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (University of California Press). She has served in many advisory positions on health and nutrition. Formerly a Chair of the American Cancer Society's committee that issues dietary guidelines for cancer prevention, she is at present a member of the Science Board to the FDA and has extensive experience as a nutritionist. In her book she suggests that government nutritional advice is watered down when a message might threaten industry sales and that the food industry--through lobbying, advertising, and the co-opting of experts--influences our dietary choices to our detriment. To find out the actual connection between food lobby and government organizations reading the book is worthwhile, though some of the information is available from papers she has written on the topic that are accessible from her NYU homepage. Intrigued by the debate on obesity, however, I decided to request an interview to ask some basic questions on the causes and effects of obesity. Here is the interview: 1) What is obesity? A condition of overweight that increases risks for chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer. The government has standard definitions of overweight that take height into consideration. 2) Is there a right portion size? And is this right portion the same for everyone? The government has defined portion sizes for the purposes of dietary advice and food labels. These don't necessarily have anything to do with what people actually eat--people usually eat larger portions than the standards. 3) Why is it important to be less than a certain body weight? It's healthier for most people. 4) Is being obese unhealthy? Only if it raises disease risk factors. 5) How do obese people compare to thin people when it comes to being healthy? They are at higher risk for chronic diseases. 6) Are they less likely to become ill from diseases? More likely. 7) What risk increases with weight? Heart disease, stroke, diabetes, certain cancers--the list is long. 8) Do you consider actual caloric intake to be the problem when it comes to obesity? Yes, compared to caloric output. 9) What if people eat more than the "right portion size" but work off the calories by doing exercise? If calories consumed are greater than calories expended, people will gain weight. 10) How many calories can one lose from standard exercises such as running a mile? About 100. 11) How many calories can a person gain by eating a regular Meal at a Fast Food Place? You would have to look it up on the label or get the information from the company. 12) Is the real problem the fact that we know what's full of calories and still eat it? This depends on who you are talking about. 13) Do humans have an addiction to certain kinds of food and is that why we are often obese or large? People need to eat to live. 14) How do we bring that into control? Through not overeating and being active. I followed up on Dr. Nestle's advice to check out what an "average meal" from McDonalds or Burger King might be. The range is 500-700 calories: http://www.mcdonalds.com/countries/usa/food/nutrition/suggestedmeals/ http://www.burgerking.com/Food/nutrition/NutritionalTable/downloads/menuitem.pdf So what can we learn from the Interview? If I'm not wrong her interview reveals that obese people have a choice to get back into shape. That obese people have a higher risk of suffering diseases that are considered leading causes of death in the US. That running a mile every day is not sufficient to work off your average fast-food meal. That one must attack the cultural dependence on high-sugar high-calorie foods. She also does not think "addictive natures of food" are significant in creating obesity but that actual caloric intake to output is. If you've been reading Zahed Wahhaj's articles on "Your Health", you have probably noticed that he has been writing about how anyone, overweight or not, can develop an exercise routine that is more effective in creating muscles than aerobic exercises, and thus a better way to burn calories. In his articles he mentions how high glycemic foods are what cause more fat accumulation in the body and that this in effect creates obesity -- by releasing more insulin into the blood and thus forcing more sugar to be converted by the liver into fat. Be sure to check out To Age or to Age Fantastic and more of his articles on Your Health. |
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