Obesity: Why are we getting fat? :epizza:

[Michaelangelica]

MOST disease is nutrition related? Maleria? Aids?. Some perhaps but not most surely?

 

Good article from the Times again

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=health&res=9A0DE2D61E3CF931A25753C1A9659C8B63

 

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW: 10-12-03;

The (Agri)Cultural Contradictions Of Obesity

 

 

Article Tools Sponsored By

By MICHAEL POLLAN

Published: October 12, 2003

 

Sometimes even complicated social problems turn out to be simpler than they look. Take America's ''obesity epidemic,'' arguably the most serious public-health problem facing the country.

 

It turns out that we have been here before, sort of, though the last great American binge involved not food, but alcohol. It came during the first decades of the 19th century, when Americans suddenly began drinking more than they ever had before or have since, going on a collective bender that confronted the young republic with its first major public-health crisis -- the obesity epidemic of its day. Corn whiskey, suddenly superabundant and cheap, was the drink of choice, and in the 1820's the typical American man was putting away half a pint of the stuff every day. That works out to more than five gallons of spirits a year for every American. The figure today is less than a gallon.

 

. . .

corn (along with most other agricultural commodities) is again abundant and cheap, and once again the easiest thing to do with the surplus is to turn it into more compact and portable value-added commodities: corn sweeteners, cornfed meat and chicken and highly processed foods of every description. The Alcoholic Republic has given way to the Republic of Fat, but in both cases, before the clever marketing, before the change in lifestyle, stands a veritable mountain of cheap grain. Until we somehow deal with this surfeit of calories coming off the farm, it is unlikely that even the most well-intentioned food companies or public-health campaigns will have much success changing the way we eat.

 

The underlying problem is agricultural overproduction, and that problem (while it understandably never receives quite as much attention as underproduction) is almost as old as agriculture itself. Even in the Old Testament, there's talk about how to deal not only with the lean times but also with the fat: the Bible advises creation of a grain reserve to smooth out the swings of the market in food.

[Southtown]

MOST disease is nutrition related? Maleria? Aids?. Some perhaps but not most surely?

What do you think the immune system runs on? Petrochemicals?

[Michaelangelica]

What do you think the immune system runs on? Petrochemicals?

So you mean just lack of food by "nutrition"?

Even if you were starving I don't see that this would make your chances of being bitten by a Malaria mosquito or being infected with aids any more or less probable.

 

When I use the word 'nutrition' I mean the right sorts of foods and trace elements are being included in the diet.

http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/Food_Facts/FAQ/faq_index.asp#General%20Nutrition

Many diseases such as pellagra, goitre, rickets,gout and perhaps heart disease, cancer and arthritis are, I am sure, linked to poor nutrition. We probably underestimate its role in many diseases. However I don't think you can say most diseases are caused by poor nutrition.

[Michaelangelica]

Some more factors that have not been mentioned in this thread, sleep deprivation; maternal age and air-conditioning!!!!!

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20459487-23289,00.html

Obesity goes beyond food and inactivity

Sharon Natoli

September 23, 2006

SPEAKING at a breakfast session prior to the International Congress on Obesity held in Sydney a fortnight ago, professor David Allison from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, US, challenged attendees to think beyond the common understanding that lack of physical activity and food marketing practices are major contributors to the obesity epidemic.

 

His presentation highlighted additional, more obscure contributors to our obesity problem that have perhaps been overlooked due to our narrow focus on the big two – eating and activity.

 

. . .

 

Take sleep deprivation. Research shows those who have the least amount of sleep are more likely to be overweight.

 

The reason is that lack of sleep changes the hormone balance in the body, increasing the desire to eat while also leading to a reduction in metabolic rate. According to Allison, average daily sleep in the US has decreased over the past few decades from more than nine hours to about seven hou

. . .

energy expenditure is not required to maintain body temperature.

 

Exposure to ambient temperatures outside the TNZ requires the body to increase its energy expenditure. By regulating the temperature of the environment we therefore use up less energy.

 

In southern US, where some of the highest rates of obesity are seen, the percentage of homes with central airconditioning increased from 37 per cent to 70 per cent between 1978 and 1997, and the percentage of homes without any airconditioning at all decreased from 26 per cent to 7 per cent. Should we be encouraging people not only to get outside for activity, but simply to experience the great outdoors no matter what the weather?

 

To draw on one final example, another contributor may be the fact women are choosing to have babies later in life. According to Allison, studies have shown the odds of obesity in children increase by around 14 per cent with every five-year increment in maternal age, and maternal age is increasing globally. In Australia, the average age of first-time mothers increased from 28.3 years in 1993 to 29.1 years in 1998.

In fact the average age of first birth in Australia is now among the oldest in the world.

Should we be encouraging women to have children earlier in life as a strategy to reduce the odds of having an overweight child?

 

 

Overall, it's a salient point to highlight that increasing weight gain and obesity are likely the result of a variety of factors over time, and unlikely to be due to just one or two factors – as significant as they may seem.

[Southtown]

So you mean just lack of food by "nutrition"?

Even if you were starving I don't see that this would make your chances of being bitten by a Malaria mosquito or being infected with aids any more or less probable.

 

When I use the word 'nutrition' I mean the right sorts of foods and trace elements are being included in the diet.

http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/Food_Facts/FAQ/faq_index.asp#General%20Nutrition

Many diseases such as pellagra, goitre, rickets,gout and perhaps heart disease, cancer and arthritis are, I am sure, linked to poor nutrition. We probably underestimate its role in many diseases. However I don't think you can say most diseases are caused by poor nutrition.

I would say that our immune systems are capable of overcoming most diseases. And I would say that our immune systems need proper nutrition, as well as a lack of harmful additives. It's amusing that your post contains 7:2 my favor.

[Michaelangelica]

. It's amusing that your post contains 7:2 my favor.

I don't understand what you mean.

This is not a competition.

[Southtown]

Yeah, I said most diseases were nutrition-related. In rebuttal, you name two that weren't and seven that were. You see the irony?

[HydrogenBond]

Back in the 1970's-80's, when running, health and thin was the social ideal, obesity was not a problem. The do-gooders concerned about the feelings of a minority of fat people worked had to alter this ideal that decriminated against a few couch tattas. They did studies to show how dangerous running can be and tried to promote the normal full figure woman instead of the supermodel ideal. They spared some feelings but created a bigger problem.

[Zythryn]

Back in the 1970's-80's, when running, health and thin was the social ideal, obesity was not a problem. The do-gooders concerned about the feelings of a minority of fat people worked had to alter this ideal that decriminated against a few couch tattas. They did studies to show how dangerous running can be and tried to promote the normal full figure woman instead of the supermodel ideal. They spared some feelings but created a bigger problem.

 

Obese people are still stigmatized by society. I don't think the general social enviornment has changed that much to accept obese people.

 

I have seen a number of people critical of the stick figure dolls and models. However I would not call that acceptance of obesity as much as criticism of anorexia.

[InfiniteNow]

Back in the 1970's-80's, when running, health and thin was the social ideal, obesity was not a problem. The do-gooders concerned about the feelings of a minority of fat people worked had to alter this ideal that decriminated against a few couch tattas. They did studies to show how dangerous running can be and tried to promote the normal full figure woman instead of the supermodel ideal. They spared some feelings but created a bigger problem.

Well, I guess that's one possibility. Another is the increase in sedentary lifestyle coupled with the increased availability of foods the poor nutritional value, and an upsurge in SES which allows for the increased purchase of such food stuffs.

 

Do-gooders?

Fat people?

Couch tattas?

 

Please refrain from being so offensive. There are all walks of life walking these halls on Hypography, and there is no need for using such derogatory remarks, especially when your posts are lacking in validity.

[Michaelangelica]

Yeah, I said most diseases were nutrition-related. In rebuttal, you name two that weren't and seven that were. You see the irony?

No irony.

I was supporting your argument to a point.

It is a silly, semantic argument anyway about the meaning of "most"disease' - which we could probably never resolve.

'Most' in terms of people affected or the number of diseases caused by poor nutrition?

[ThisIsMyName]

If you want to take care of your metabolism function, then try to get decent sleep and don't skip meals (especially breakfast). You start off your day behind the metabolic eight ball if you skip the first meal of the day. Your body spends the rest of the day playing catch up, and you're not functioning at an optimum level. Once you get this system dialed-eating well, exercising, and adding resistance training to your life-it does become easier. It's like priming the water pump. Yes, you have to work hard in the beginning to get the water out, but once things start flowing, then you just have to tap the handle to get a bucket of water. Look at your calorie burning efficient self the same way.

 

I will say it one more time before I go-it's just science. Granted, overeating is a tricky emotional topic, but the way to stay a certain weight or get down to a desired number is very straightforward.

 

- http://health.yahoo.com/experts/gabbyguide/311/metabolism-its-just-science

 

That's a small section of the link containing the article. Do you think things like Self Magazing and Teen People make losing weight too easy? Almost like a thought like, "OK, well, since it's so easier I can go off my diet and eat a little junk food because it's so easy to work it off again." ?

People, particularly teenage girls, have taken on more ways to lose weight. Starving themselves and cocain for example.... Where is this going as far as society and weight goes?

[Michaelangelica]

Skipping meals seems to be counter-productive in the research I have read.

 

 

This is intersesting:-

http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?id=51623-single-food-ingredient

 

Single food ingredient the cause of obesity ? New study has industry up in arm

All news for June 2006

 

26/04/2004 - Food manufacturers are in the firing line again with scientists suggesting corn syrup and other refined foods could be the cause of the obesity epidemic and the rising rate of type 2 diabetes. The food industry immediately reacts, brandishing recent studies as ‘misleading’, writes Lindsey Partos.

 

Investigating food consumption patterns over the past 35 years, scientists found that in the 20 years from 1970 to 1990 the consumption of the popular soft drink sweetener, high fructose corn syrup, leapt by a massive 1000 per cent.

 

"HFCS now represents more that 40 per cent of caloric sweeteners added to foods and beverages and is the sole caloric sweetener in soft drinks in the US," said George Bray and colleagues in a recent issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

 

The researchers suggest that this rapid trajectory of HFCS consumption, and processed carbohydrates in general, through food and drinks could be to blame for the steep rise in obesity.

[Michaelangelica]

besity epidemic costing Australia $3 billion a year

PRINT FRIENDLY EMAIL STORY

The World Today - Wednesday, 18 October , 2006 12:34:00

Reporter: Chris Uhlmann

ELEANOR HALL: It seems hardly a week goes by without a new study showing we're all getting fatter.

 

But a report out today has another take on the obesity epidemic, that it's costing Australia well over $3 billion a year.

 

The Access Economics report into the economic burden of obesity was commissioned by Diabetes Australia, as Chris Uhlmann reports.

 

CHRIS UHLMANN: It stands to reason that the health costs associated with obesity would add up over time, but $3.7 billion is large number by any standard. Access poured a variety of weight-related costs into the mix to come up with the number.

 

The report's author is Access Economics director Lynn Pezzullo.

 

LYNN PEZZULLO: The $3.7 billion were the financial costs of obesity, and on top of that there are about another $17 billion which were the loss of healthy life caused by obesity.

 

And that's because obesity is linked to cardiovascular diseases, to diabetes type two, and also to osteoarthritis and a number of cancers.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1768081.htm

[Michaelangelica]

Lack of Sleep May Lead to Obesity

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Bristol University researcher Shahad Taheri has released a new study that links shorter amounts of sleep to obesity in children and adults. The study says that the habit being formed by kids and adults to stay up later and get less sleep is one of the causes in higher obesity rates among the population which is one of the reasons why televisions, computers, mobile phones and other gadgets should be banned from children’s bedrooms.

 

http://www.bloggernews.net/1794

[Michaelangelica]

http://www.centralchronicle.com/20061021/2110303.htm

 

Coca-Cola's spokesperson in New Zealand, Alison Sykora, said people liked a sugary taste and it would be counter-productive to ban sugar-free drinks.

A ban might even increase the intake of sugary drinks among teenagers who were looking for restrictions to rebel against.

She also said that the caffeine content increased alertness.

The McDonald's representative said advertising told children what was available to them - and, in any case, parents were responsible for taking a call.

 

 

http://www.centralchronicle.com/20061021/2110303.htm

[Southtown]

That's just it, though. We can't tell people not to eat junk. All we can do is make information public, mandate that companies disclose, and maybe free literature of known issues.