Experts say the explanation is simple: the American overabundance of food – combined with sedentary lifestyles – is creating an epidemic of overweight. “The chickens have come home to roost,” says Michael Jacobsen of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and he might have added that they are fried. What about the fitness craze, or the move to lite diets? Media myths. Studies have found that less than half of Americans exercise in their leisure time. Attitudes are moving in the wrong direction, too. Harry Balzer, vice president of The NPD Group, a consumer-marketing research firm in Park Ridge, Ill., says that in his annual survey of 5,200 Americans, “one question I ask everyone is: how do you feel about overweight people? In 1985, 55 percent said being overweight is unattractive. Today, only 36 percent of people feel that way.” He surmises that it’s “very difficult to change your behavior, so you change your opinion instead – you go and buy wider pants.”
The middle-aging of America is also playing a role; so do having children, popping packaged dinners into the microwave, dining in restaurants or on takeout fare. “We’ve lost control over food,” says Jacobsen, whose group reported last week that in Mexican restaurants, a typical order of cheese quesadillas with sour cream, pico de gallo and guacamole has 900 calories and 59 grams of fat. According to Balzer’s studies, 50 percent of Americans ate pizza at least once every two weeks last year, up from 31 percent in 1984; three of the five fastest-growing restaurant foods, he’s found, are hamburgers, french fries and soft drinks. “It’s not a backlash; it’s because they’re cheap,” Balzer says.
Portion size is also mushrooming. “The French may eat steak frites – but it’s only six ounces of steak,” says cookbook author Martha Rose Shulman, who recently returned from 12 years in Paris. “You never see the kind of 14-ounce steak there that you see here. There seems to be a need to be immoderate in this country. Even at the movies, if you want a Coke, the smallest one is 20 ounces.” Shulman says there is no paradox about why Europeans are thinner – they eat less. “France is a very meal-oriented culture, but hardly anyone has seconds. Americans don’t know when they’re hungry.”
Given the complex mix of social, cultural and psychological factors, many experts aren’t sure how to combat the problem effectively. A coalition including the CSPI, former surgeon general C. Everett Koop and the American Cancer Society is urging President Clinton to declare obesity a national health crisis, and to create a President’s Council on Diet and Health. The group also wants to see more schools offer daily physical-education classes (they claim only 36 percent now require PE) and urges more employers to provide information to their workers about healthy eating. But information alone doesn’t seem to help much. Cardiologist Dean Ornish, author of “Eat More, Weigh Less,” says most Americans know they should eat less fat and exercise more, they just don’t do it. Working with heart patients has convinced him that the nation is suffering from an epidemic of “spiritual heart disease” – and that people are turning to food, alcohol and other bad habits out of loneliness and despair.
To that end, pharmaceutical firms are racing to develop a new generation of diet pills that could act on imbalances in brain chemicals that may foster overeating. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering several applications – one would use Prozac as a diet drug, since researchers have noted that it helps obese patients shed pounds. But some experts worry about the idea of millions of Americans using mind-altering drugs to combat overeating. And even that wouldn’t end the culture of overindulgence seemingly ingrained in American life. The land of plenty seems destined to include plenty of pounds as well.
title: “An Epidemic Of Obesity” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-21” author: “Mario Mcvey”
Experts say the explanation is simple: the American overabundance of food – combined with sedentary lifestyles – is creating an epidemic of overweight. “The chickens have come home to roost,” says Michael Jacobsen of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and he might have added that they are fried. What about the fitness craze, or the move to lite diets? Media myths. Studies have found that less than half of Americans exercise in their leisure time. Attitudes are moving in the wrong direction, too. Harry Balzer, vice president of The NPD Group, a consumer-marketing research firm in Park Ridge, Ill., says that in his annual survey of 5,200 Americans, “one question I ask everyone is: how do you feel about overweight people? In 1985, 55 percent said being overweight is unattractive. Today, only 36 percent of people feel that way.” He surmises that it’s “very difficult to change your behavior, so you change your opinion instead – you go and buy wider pants.”
The middle-aging of America is also playing a role; so do having children, popping packaged dinners into the microwave, dining in restaurants or on takeout fare. “We’ve lost control over food,” says Jacobsen, whose group reported last week that in Mexican restaurants, a typical order of cheese quesadillas with sour cream, pico de gallo and guacamole has 900 calories and 59 grams of fat. According to Balzer’s studies, 50 percent of Americans ate pizza at least once every two weeks last year, up from 31 percent in 1984; three of the five fastest-growing restaurant foods, he’s found, are hamburgers, french fries and soft drinks. “It’s not a backlash; it’s because they’re cheap,” Balzer says.
Portion size is also mushrooming. “The French may eat steak frites – but it’s only six ounces of steak,” says cookbook author Martha Rose Shulman, who recently returned from 12 years in Paris. “You never see the kind of 14-ounce steak there that you see here. There seems to be a need to be immoderate in this country. Even at the movies, if you want a Coke, the smallest one is 20 ounces.” Shulman says there is no paradox about why Europeans are thinner – they eat less. “France is a very meal-oriented culture, but hardly anyone has seconds. Americans don’t know when they’re hungry.”
Given the complex mix of social, cultural and psychological factors, many experts aren’t sure how to combat the problem effectively. A coalition including the CSPI, former surgeon general C. Everett Koop and the American Cancer Society is urging President Clinton to declare obesity a national health crisis, and to create a President’s Council on Diet and Health. The group also wants to see more schools offer daily physical-education classes (they claim only 36 percent now require PE) and urges more employers to provide information to their workers about healthy eating. But information alone doesn’t seem to help much. Cardiologist Dean Ornish, author of “Eat More, Weigh Less,” says most Americans know they should eat less fat and exercise more, they just don’t do it. Working with heart patients has convinced him that the nation is suffering from an epidemic of “spiritual heart disease” – and that people are turning to food, alcohol and other bad habits out of loneliness and despair.
To that end, pharmaceutical firms are racing to develop a new generation of diet pills that could act on imbalances in brain chemicals that may foster overeating. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is considering several applications – one would use Prozac as a diet drug, since researchers have noted that it helps obese patients shed pounds. But some experts worry about the idea of millions of Americans using mind-altering drugs to combat overeating. And even that wouldn’t end the culture of overindulgence seemingly ingrained in American life. The land of plenty seems destined to include plenty of pounds as well.
