Obesity Epidemic Sweeping U.S., Harvard Forum Told

[Batz w/ Napalm]

Maybe of interest to read....didn't know where to place it

Obesity Epidemic Sweeping U.S., Harvard Forum Told
Thu Jun 12,10:25 AM ET Add Health - Reuters to My Yahoo!


By Greg Frost

BOSTON (Reuters) - Most Americans are too fat, are getting fatter faster, and aren't likely to get lean unless drastic changes are made in diet and lifestyle, participants at a Harvard University forum on obesity say.



A day after U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona called America's obesity epidemic "the terror within," the forum heard staggering data on the size and cost of America's weight problem.


"No part of the country has escaped it," Walter Willett, chair of the Harvard School of Public Health's nutrition department, said Wednesday as he showed how obesity had spread across the United States over the last two decades.


More than three in five Americans are overweight, and nearly one in three is obese, meaning they carry so much extra weight that their health is at real risk.


Obesity can lead to diabetes, heart disease, and several forms of cancer -- and it costs the U.S. health care system more than $90 billion a year to treat people who are overweight or obese.


Patricia Gaquin is among those whose health is jeopardized by their weight. At 269 pounds, she has waged a losing war against her waistline for most of her life, and now it appears to be killing her.


"My excess weight has caused or exaggerated type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, back and kidney problems, elevated cholesterol," Gaquin, choking back tears, told the forum.


Gaquin has also recently been diagnosed with early-stage endometrial cancer -- a form of cancer linked to being overweight. Because of the diagnosis, the 48-year-old patient has had to postpone gastric bypass surgery that was designed to end her fight with weight once and for all.


CAUSES STILL DEBATED


The jury is still out on the causes of obesity, with consumer advocates arguing that aggressive food industry advertising and "super-sized" restaurant portions are to blame. Others fault heredity and lifestyle.


When it came to examining the causes of her own obesity, Gaquin pinned the blame in large part on her family background. Both her parents, she said, were overweight, and two of her three siblings weigh more than she does.


Genetics does play a part in deciding who is fat and who is thin, but the increasingly sedentary lifestyle led by most Americans is making it difficult for them to suppress the hunger gene, said Ellen Ruppel Shell, a journalist and author who has written about the role a person's DNA plays in deciding how much he or she eats.


As for ways to solve the obesity epidemic, Americans have mixed feelings about the role of government.


A national poll commissioned by Harvard and released on Wednesday showed that six in 10 Americans are in favor of requiring restaurants to list nutrition information on their menus. By contrast, most people oppose putting a special tax on junk food.


But when it comes to fighting childhood obesity, most Americans welcome more government involvement, the poll said. More than eight in 10 Americans support providing healthier school lunches, and three-quarters said they back efforts to fight childhood obesity, even if it meant an increase in their taxes.

[derekmac]

You don't say?

[bkman4]

With more than 65% of the US being overweight...I'd say we've already been swept.

[Veteq]

It is disturbing isn't it? I work in a hobby shop. A couple days ago we had a customer come in who couldn't fit through the door without it being a very tight fit (he had to turn sideways). He got winded from walking from his car to the front door (about 20 feet). It seriously made me sick to see that. He must've been a quarter ton; he was about 6 feet tall and looked to be about 4 feet in diameter.

My girlfriend's parents are both obese, she hates it and works hard to keep fit. She used to be fairly large too. My mother is over weight as well, and I keep harping on her to excersize.

My girlfriend and I were in Carl's Jr, getting something to eat (chicken sandwiches). This very large man sat down with 3 large burgers and finished them off before I finished my one. And I thought that I ate fast.

It's just... disgusting to me now. I dunno, I'm rambling about my own opinions.

[bkman4]

Don't worry man, you are not alone. I saw a very obese woman walking across the street the other day, with a a bacon egg and cheese in one hand, and a cig. and coffee in the other. She had to stop after crossing the street to take a rest, and finish her cancer penis. It got me thinking. For some, eating and drinking total **** is not enough, they have to conaminate thier air supply too.

[Veteq]

I had to, not so politely, ask a woman to move away from me if she wanted to continue smoking her cigarette. It was bothering both me and my girlfriend. I already had a headache and was cold, I didn't want to breathe second hand smoke. And darnit, we were sitting there before she got there. Anyways, she moved.

I wonder how much hunger in the world we could ebolish if americans didn't eat so much to make themselves so fat and instead dispurse it to 3rd world countries?

[bkman4]

Where were u that you had to ask that? Smoking is banned just about everywhere? We (the average american) do eat toooooo much.

[Veteq]

Outside at a public transportation bus-stop. My feeling is that smokers have absolutely no right to polute the air that I need to breathe. That's just me though.

[Batz w/ Napalm]

We do eat alot. But I don't think thats the problem. This country is the number 1 exporter of food. The trouble is that we don't do it efficiently. How much food gets tossed from super markets instead of being dropped off at a local food bank and stuff. How much gets bought by the government and destoryed b/c its surplus and it would cause the price to drop rock bottom.

Just its not the most efficient way to use food you know what i mean.

[Speedy_D]

Veteq's comment on the smoking got me to thinking. Since I started my cardio in January for some reason I can smell cig smoke on people no matter how faint it is. Anyone else experience this? I dont know if I should attribute this running but this has never happened before.

[dba]

Just my thoughts on this -- I think the weight problem started with the Big Gulp. Large cokes were 22oz until 7-eleven invented that one. Since then everything has gotten bigger and bigger. Big macs and Quarter pounders have about 500 - 600 calories. For 59 cents you can get the value meal and double the calories, and everyone wants to get the best deal...

There's a lot of genetics invloved with being overweight, there's no question about that. The problem is that when you tell someone that they are genetically disposed to being overweight the often mentally add the expression, "and there's nothing I can do about it". Genetic disposition doesn't mean a fat person can't lose weight, it just means that if they just eat what they want with no restrictions then they will get fat. I've been fat my entire life but decided to change it about 6 months ago -- finally free from all that fat in my early 30s .

Most fast food restaurants have a sheet that lists the content of the food they serve, so requiring restaurants to provide the information probably won't help anyone. Look around in the restaurant -- there's probably a handout there somewhere. And many more list calories content on their websites, and calorie counting books have info on just about all restaurants. Most people simply wouldn't use the information because counting calories takes effort and isn't exactly a new and revolutionary idea.

Taxing junk food? There's an interesting idea anyway. Of course junk food is consumed by the majority of Americans so a tax on it wouldn't get popular support (unlike smoking where the majority doesn't participate so they don't mind the taxes).

The effects of eating a lot of fast food causes bad effects for eveyone in the form of higher medical costs second only to smoking, and consumption of it is voluntary, so a tax might be appropriate to discourage eating it. The government should not only discourage harmful behaviours, but encourage helpful ones. So shouldn't the tax just subsidise sales of chicken breasts, vegetables, and other healthy things?

If the government really wants to make a difference, maybe they should start a campaign. You see the ones against smoking, how about some against fried food. Camera zooms in on some guy eating eating his double whopper with cheese and a voice says, 'pssst. buddy, you know that thing has over 1100 calories in it? No wonder you are such a fat bastard'. Camera pans out to a full view of a 350 pound guy with a huge gut.

Sorry -- Just on a rant today. My whole point here is that about the only way this obesity epidemic is going to be reduced is to convince a large number of people that they should take responsibility for their own weight. Everyone already knows how to lose weight, it's through diet and exercise. It's just that no one wants to do it.

[bkman4]

No need to apoligize for the rant...it was a good one. I like the idea about subsidising healthy food(like that will ever happen). Although I have no evidence on hand, I would raise a question to the gentic predisposistion to obesity. No one, if fed a balanced diet of natural foods, their whole life, would be obese or even really overweight IMHO. And I'm pretty sure obesity has eclipsed smoking as the #1 cost to our healthcare system.

[Steel Chicken]

There are so many factors involved. Like most problems, there are not enough people who care.

I used to work in the school system. Has anyone seen the kind of sh*t they are feeding our kids nowadays?

Pizza(greasist pizza I have EVER seen), burgers, hotdogs (all cheap meats too) cheesy mac, chocolate/strawberry milk, and at least a couple days a week they get desserts. Its awful! They are starting to form bad habits with the little kids, and when they get older, it will be much harder to break.

You got all the advertising, all the supersizing, etc.

I think the biggest problem is this....people not caring, lack of individual will, and parents not getting involved in their kids lives....

[Veteq]

Originally posted by dba
Camera zooms in on some guy eating eating his double whopper with cheese and a voice says, 'pssst. buddy, you know that thing has over 1100 calories in it? No wonder you are such a fat bastard'. Camera pans out to a full view of a 350 pound guy with a huge gut.

LOL, Sometime I should take my camcorder around and do that.

One thing that disturbs me is people thinking that it's "okay" to be obese, because some people are more obese than they are.