Obesity, Our Epidemic.

Epidemic. Plague. Outbreak. Is this really what obesity has become in our country? According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, nearly one third of our country is obese. Why? Is it in the water? Is it some mutation that is ravaging our genetic make up? I am not discrediting individuals with legitimate medical disorders that have lead to their obesity (i.e. thyroid disorders). But in most people, obesity can be boiled down to poor diet and inactivity. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, because our country is becoming more aware of these factors, and is doing something about it.

Fast food has become the center of most American family diets. And why not? It's quick, cheap, and tastes good. But with it's high fat, sugar, and salt content, it is something that is best reserved for rare occasions, and rightly so. In the article Fatty Foods May Cause Cocaine-like Addiction, the author Sarah Klein reports that Paul J. Kenny, Ph.D., an associate professor of molecular therapeutics at the Scripps Research Institute, in Jupiter, Florida, found that junk food has the same effect on the brain as drugs like cocaine (Klein, para 2). Kenny performed a study on three groups of rats: group one was fed normal rat pellets, group two was fed fatty human foods like cheesecake, bacon, and sausage for one hour each day, and group three was allowed to pig out on the human foods for up to twenty-three hours a day. The rats in the third group, “gradually developed a tolerance to the pleasure the food gave them and had to eat more to experience a high.” (Klein, para 5). Said high was so consuming for the third group of rats that even when the researchers put an electric shock under their feet while in presence of the unhealthy food, they still continued to binge. Add to that the findings of another study, and the result is a bit unnerving. Dr. David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children’s Hospital Boston surveyed 6,212 kids from all regions of the country and from many different socio-economic levels and found that almost one-third of American children ages four to nineteen eat fast food on a regular basis (Holguin, para 1). One can come to the conclusion, then, that these children are on the fast track to becoming obese. The added incentive of a toy from the latest Disney movie is not helping. But with today’s ongoing recession, coupled with the fact that health food is not as readily available or affordable (Krukowski, para 1), it is easy to see why many people rely on these cheap, quick foods.

The economy is thought to have something to do with the levels of inactivity that is leading to more obese children in our country, too. Debbye Turner of The Early Show reported that only six percent of schools in our country offer daily physical education classes (para 2). This is due to the fact that it costs approximately $500,000 just to start a physical education program (Turner, para 3). Since The National Association for Sports and Physical Education “recommends two and a half hours of physical activity a week for elementary school kids, and nearly four hours a week for middle and high schoolers,”(Turner, para 9) this lack of physical education programs for children is something that needs to be addressed. Another problem that needs addressing is the amount of television that our children are watching while being inactive, and what they are watching. Jane E. Brody of The New York Times quoted Dr. Margo G. Wootan, the nutrition policy director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest as saying, “…junk-food marketing is a major contributor to childhood obesity” (para 7). In one of the Center’s studies of 548 Boston public school students, researchers discovered that for every hour of television that a child watched, said child ate an average of 167 calories, and mostly the high-calorie, low-nutrition junk foods that are advertised for on television (Brody, para 9). Actually, another study done by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation found that of 8,854 food ads viewed, there were no ads for healthy foods, like fruits and vegetables, that were targeted towards children (Brody, para 8). So not only are children less active than they should be, but while they are being inactive they are being bombarded with advertisements for fatty, sugary foods.

Fortunately, the National Conference of State Legislators was quoted as saying that, “…efforts are underway to raise awareness and encourage healthy eating and a more active lifestyle” (NCSL, para 4). The First Lady, Michelle Obama, has started a “Let’s Move” program, designed to change the way that children play and eat (Parker-Pope, para 5). There is even a county in California that has banned promotional toys that accompany “child-size portions of cheese burgers and chicken nuggets if those meals don’t meet certain nutritional standards” (McKinley, para 1). It is my hope that these efforts will go a long way in changing the way that we as Americans think about nutrition and fitting healthy physical activity into our already active lives. Joseph Miller, MD, a preventive cardiologist with Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, put it best, “You don’t have to be a Nike man or woman. You don’t have to buy equipment, fancy shoes, or a gym membership…we encourage people to walk the dog, walk a little further in the parking lot, walk the concourses at the airport”(para 1). It is the little things that will add up to us becoming a more healthy country.

Treatment. Remedy. Restore to health. Through our countries continued efforts to increase awareness of the dangerously high rate of obesity, and individual efforts to eat better and be more active, it is my hope that our future will be a healthier one.




WORK CITED

Works Cited
Brody, Jane E. "Risks for Youths Who Eat What They Watch." The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 19 Apr. 2010. Web. 5 May 2010. .
Dakss, Brian. "Obesity Up, Phys Ed Down." The Early Show. CBS Broadcasting Inc., 27 Jan. 2005. Web. 5 May 2010. .
Flegal, Katherine M., Margaret D. Carroll, Cynthia L. Ogden, and Lester R. Curtin. "Prevalence and Trends in Obesity Among US Adults, 1999-2008." The Journal of the American Medical Association 303.3 (2010). Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 5 May 2010. .
Krukowski, Rebecca A., Delia Smith West, Jean Harvey-Berino, and Elaine Prewitt. "Neighborhood Impact on Healthy Food Availability and Pricing in Food Stores.(Report)." Journal of Community Health 35.3 (2010). Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 5 May 2010. .
Lerche Davis, Jeanie. "Inactivity, Obesity Are Killing Americans." WebMD. WebMD, LLC., 5 Mar. 2004. Web. 5 May 2010. .
McKinley, Jesse. "Citing Obesity of Children, County Bans Fast-Food Toys." The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 27 Apr. 2010. Web. 5 May 2010. .
"Nutrition, Physical Activity & Obesity Overview." The National Conference of State Legislatures. The National Conference of State Legislatures, 2006. Web. 5 May 2010. .
Parker-Pope, Tara. "In Obesity Epidemic, What?s One Cookie?" The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 1 Mar. 2010. Web. 5 May 2010. .

Interesting Finds...

My research so far has uncovered some information that (to me, anyway) seems to be common knowledge, and other information that literally made my jaw drop. For example, according to Jeanie Lerche Davis of Webmd, in the year 200, 17% of deaths were due to poor diet and lack of physical activity. This is only 1% less than deaths due to smoking (para 1) . How crazy is that? Additionaly, Jesse McKinley of the New York Times reported that, "the board of supervisors in Santa Clara County, south of San Francisco, voted Tuesday to ban the promotional toys that often accompany child-size portions of cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets if those meals don’t meet certain nutritional standards" (para 1). As dissapointed as I would be if I were a kid in Santa Clara County with a toy-less happy meal, I feel this is a wise choice. When I take my sisters to Mc Donalds, I have to enforce a "no toy until you are done eating" rule, so I've seen first hand just how much of an incentive the toys are. If fresh, healthy meals were accompanied by them, I am sure my sisters (and their peers)would be more inclined to eat them. Fascinating stuff, huh?

So far...

As we all well know, obesity has become an epidemic. There are millions of theories floating around about causes, and so my difficulty with this project so far has been narrowing it down to three or four concrete causes. So far, I have chosen two: inactivity and fast food. I chose these two because they have the greatest amount of support behind them from many reputable sources. For example, I have read an article in the New York times about how the more commercials that an individual takes in while watching TV(and as such, being inactive) the more likely that person is to become obese. I’ve also downloaded McDonald’s nutrition facts and ingredient lists to my flash drive, and am looking forward to sorting through them. The other two causes I am leaning towards are the link between infant formula and obesity, and the fact that food now a days is mostly corn derivatives and preservatives. But like I’ve said, there are thousands of theories out there about obesities causes, so who knows what I’ll find out there…

The Man

Is no holiday safe? Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Halloween – they all have become over run by corporations and their gimmicks. Even Oreo has come out with a Spring Time cookie, complete with green frosting that stains your entire mouth green (just ask my Grandpa). But is this such a bad thing? Take Earth Day, for instance. It is the newest of the holidays to join the ranks of the bigger ones as being an excuse to sell a product, and I have a mixed reaction about it. On one hand, companies are stretching their “earth-friendliness.” In her article At 40, Earth Day Is Now Big Business, Leslie Kaufman of the New York Times sites that, “For this year’s celebration, Bahama Umbrella is advertising a specially designed umbrella, with a drain so that water “can be stored, reused and recycled”(para 3). On the other hand, I can see the advantages of having a holiday be a reason to sell a product – awareness. Leslie states that “…many corporations say that it is often the business community that now leads the way in environmental innovation — and they want to get their customers interested” (Kaufman para 14). And who among you can disagree? It may be sad that no holiday, even hippy rooted Earth Day, is safe from “the man,” but getting people aware of our Earth’s problems is how we can eventually solve them.

I'm not stupid! Thank goodness...

When a woman is pregnant, she sometimes get what is called “pregnancy brain.” She will forget simple words and tasks, like that thing that makes the stuff in the morning (i.e. coffee maker) and to put gas in her car (happened to me twice). Its been almost seven months since I’ve had my baby, but I still have been spelling things wrong and using words in the wrong context. I had been chalking it up to recovering from my pregnancy brain, but after so long it seemed a little far fetched to do so. So I thought maybe I was just getting stupid. I mean, why else would I still be making silly mistakes when I am supposedly an intelligent individual? Then, I had an epiphany: I’m not stupid, I am just more willing to make those mistakes in the first place.

I have always been a terrible speller (I blame dyslexia) and had tendency to use words in the wrong context. But I’ve also always prided myself on my intelligence. So much so, that one sure way to piss me off was to make me feel stupid. I used to hate getting corrected, so I would get crabby. A little ridiculous, right? How could I live with being crabby every time someone told me I spelt veiw wrong (which is every time)? Well I tell you, it was exhausting. In the past I had learned to just hide it – if I wanted to use a word but did not know exactly in which context to use it, I just would not use it. I never hand wrote things, that way those squiggly red lines would underline my mistakes instead of my teacher, who would no doubt judge me. But since having Jack I am less self conscious, and therefore am willing to make errors and have people correct me. I’m not going to lie, it still irks me a tad, but I am making those blunders less and less, because I am re-learning things like “I before E except after C.” So there you have it, my epiphany: I’m not dumb after all.

Once the Ball Started Rolling...

Oh man, this was tough for me. Why? I don't know. But I asked everyone I knew before I finally came up with my topic. Literally, I was calling people. But after a weekend of topic searching, I narrowed it down to three: breastfeeding, organic gardening, and the obesity epidemic. I made the following list and decided to go with the latter choice, obesity. Note: all topics are what I consider trends, so, for example, a cause for breastfeeding coming out as a trend is the benefits to the child.


1. POSSIBLE TOPICS:

breastfeeding

organic gardening

obesity


2. CAUSES OF TOPICS:

breastfeeding
- benefits for the child
- benefits for the mother
- cost effective
- convenience

organic gardening
- better soil = better food
- recession (growing a garden is a good way to save money)

obesity epidemic
- formula fed babies tend to become obese later in life
- less sleep from stress
- large portions
- high fructose corn syrup
- processed foods
- fast food

3. AND THE WINNER IS...OBESITY.

And so went my brainstorming process. It took a while to get the ball rolling, but came easily once it did. My "causes" of the current obestiy epidemic were thanks to my mother and her reading the New York Times, but I am looking forward to delving deeper!

Brilliant

Sir Ken Robinson made many good points about how children’s creative talents are suppressed by our education systems. He wisely said that schools “mine our minds for a specific commodity.” Unfortunately, creativity is not a hot commodity as far as our schools are concerned. The story about Gillian Lynne and her teachers assuming that her inability to sit still was an illness and not a gift is proof. I also love his comment about how people grow out of creativity, rather than into it. My previous story about my sister Justice and her creative way of thinking made that comment hit home with me. I agree with Sir Robinson that it is sad that kids don’t get the chance to develop the special creative side to them; they are told that those talents will not get them work when they are adults, so they should focus instead on things that will get them a job.


I was fortunate enough to go to a middle school called The School of Technology and Arts, or SOTA. We learned science through art and math through music. We were given the chance to indulge our creative sides. I learned to love the right side of my brain, and use it not only to embrace the artist in me, but to use it to learn. I thrived during my short three years there, and was sad to have to move on to a non-charter high school. But the emphasis my teachers there put on being creative stuck with me, and I am happier for it. I use that side of me everyday: when I get dressed, when I write, when I doodle; as such, I feel like I am less bogged down by everyday hassles that can stress out some of my peers. In sum, Sir Ken Robinson, you are brilliant. (Brilliant and hilarious; I laughed out loud during the whole video.)