On Diet Related Disease
Many moons ago I read some journals that reported on the work of Robert Lustig. In 2008, his was one of the singular voices out there claiming that the behaviors that lead to obesity are not necessary the onus of the individual. Rather it may be the result of an unhealthy environment. This is especially true in the case of children.
Upon recently reading Weighing In by Julie Guthman, I am reminded again that indeed there are many factors beyond just a persons individual action that have affected the obesity rates in the United States. In fact, she goes so far as to say that the unequal presence of these factors is food injustice. She includes in her thesis a bullet list of what she believes are factors leading to the rise in obesity. A few of which are:
The built environment reflects existing social relationships and political-economic dynamics, including racial and class patterns in size, more than it creates them.
Food is cheap because of deeply rooted geopolitical and political economic interests that have encouraged overproduction and failed to regulate food production for health, safety, and welfare concerns.
Eating behaviors are mediated by a more complex set of social factors than education and access; in any case, it is unlikely that the association of alternative food [organic, local etc] and thinness comes to be through individual diets of alternative foods.
Which brings me to my next point. Celebrity chef, Paula Deen, who is known for her over the top decadent food preparations, including a hamburger in a bun of Krispy Kreme Donuts, has announced that she had Type II Diabetes. I have a sibling who LOVES Paula Deen. We argue about her because I say her recipes are disgusting, look bad, unhealthy and irresponsible. My sibling argues that they taste good and Paula Deen is so fun. I’ve argued that Deen’s husband has heart disease and he doesn’t eat her food (I learned this listening to a radio interview with Deen). Now this. Its not bad enough that she has Type II but she’s kept it secret from the public for two years in order to line up a pharmaceutical sponsor before going public.
I don’t blame Ms. Deen for our national health. However, I do think she has acted irresponsibly. I also think she represents values that have lead to the ill health of a nation, and at the end of the day, 2 + 2 does in fact equal 4.
I truly believe that obesity is a multi-factorial problem. And yet. . . just like I feel terrible when I hear women’s bad hospital birth stories, I know that I managed to fight through prejudice to find a birth situation that worked for me (and was research-supported).
January 25th, 2012 at 3:16 amThat said, I haven’t been able to shift the 20 pounds that have snuck back on : ) so, lots to think about.
Anyone who thinks Paula Deen’s recipes are anything but once-a-year indulgences is nuts. She’s walking proof of what it adds up to.
I can’t say much about Paula Deen’s food as I don’t know it by choice, never appealed to me. The food network has plenty of programs that show over the top eating, and a lot of the food eaten is really unhealthy. It is a very complex issues, one that has to do with poverty, ignorance, responsibility, you name it.
I live in southern Marin, and when I go to shopping in northern Marin I am always shocked by the size of people shopping there, they all are 30-50 pounds heavier, living in the same area, having access to the same environment. One day a preschool teacher told me that she doesn’t use butter because it costs too much so she uses margarine, so it is not just choices it is also needs and the processed food industry pray in people who don’t have enough money by making the food cheap and easily available.
How you fix it I am not sure.
Poverty and good nutrition don’t go together.
January 25th, 2012 at 2:26 pmThis Paula Deen thing has had my head spinning for a week now. I saw the interview on the Today show, and listened to her try to artfully dodge Al Roker’s direct question on how she herself eats, thanks to the diabetes. She seems to have adopted the word “moderation”, in a big way. Moderation doesn’t do diddly to undo people’s dietary errors, after the fact.
To my way of thinking, food has become highly fetishized in this weird forbidden fruit way. I am not sure how to undo that, but forcing more honesty from the so-called celebrity chefs (I can’t even bring myself to put that phrase into quotations, it is such BS) would be a great start to undoing some of the cultural damage.
I watched “Supersize Me” last week and almost stroked out, so maybe I am more than a bit jaded on this stuff right now. But I doubt it. Two days later I finally got “King Corn” on netflix and had to switch that one off, not because I was horrified (which I was) but because it isn’t exactly new information at this point.
January 25th, 2012 at 6:43 pmI was equally appalled when I discovered Ms. Deen has Type II Diabetes, in light of how horrifying her ingredient lists are. But not at all surprised.
I think that in light of predictions by such organizations as Consumer Reports that a girl born in the year 2000 has a 39% chance of developing Type II Diabetes and a boy has a 30% chance (much higher in children of color, btw), Ms. Deen’s dietary recommendations to her audience are nothing short of dangerous.
As for the variety of reasons for obesity, in 2006 I read about a study in which researchers found that stressed mice who were fed the same number of calories as non-stressed mice gained significantly more weight…around the middle where it is most dangerous.
January 29th, 2012 at 6:32 am