Obesity in the U.S.
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-08-31/obesity-us
It’s no secret that Americans are getting fatter. Nearly one hundred million people in the U.S. are obese, Based on current trends more than half of all adults in U-S will be obese by 2030, and with this increase in obesity comes an uptick in serious health problems including diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The rise in obesity will also put enormous new strains on our health system - and perhaps most especially, Medicare. Join us for a discussion of the health and health care challenges of obesity, new research on weight loss, and why some say government leadership on this issue is essential.
Guests
Kevin Hall
senior investigator,
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health
Maya Rockeymoore
president and CEO, Global Policy Solutions
director, Leadership for Healthy Communities, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Kenneth Thorpe
professor and chair, graduate faculty
Health Policy and Management
Rollins School of Public Health
Emory University
Claire Wang
assistant professor, Department of Health Policy & Management, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health
Comments
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If people are going to be held responsible for healthcare costs due to life styles (as the last caller indicated) - then those that pollute our air and water - which is also responsible for increase healthcare costs- should have to pay an additional share. If corporations want to be citizens - they should be held accountable.
I like Patrizia's comment.
In the US people often associate fun and good times such as birthdays and football games or carnivals with eating terrible foods (chips, hot dogs, cotton candy, funnle cake, etc.) and drinking beer. = Highly unhealthy eating and drinking habits.
Like Patrizia stated, Italians and other cultures for example associate a good time with eating well (quality food) and spending time together.
Something within our American culture is definitely off in this regard.
But I do want to state that with the new innovation of Couptessa and Groupon for example, I can't speak for other cities, but my city happens to frquently offer discounted rates for fitness packages.
Thanks
Self-Restraint in diet and Discipline in Fitness are the two most important factors in developing good health. Because we now eat out more, we eat more, and the portions served are far too big for the conscientious
fitness minded person. Consumers need to take a skeptical approach to dining out and eat more healthy choices especially Green!
Discipline is lacking at the basic parental and teacher level because we have far too many overweight children. Exercise is fundamentally essential to fitness no matter how one diets. Parents and children need to maintain a regular fitness program that demands a minimum of one hour per day (5 Days Per Week) of dynamic exercise that raises the cardiovascular and respiratory thresholds to near max.
I am 70 years old and run 5 to 6 miles daily no matter what the climate. My wife is Asian and has prompted me to eat more veggies and drink green tea. I still enjoy beer and wine but in moderation. My philosophy is simple, "Train the mind and the body will follow". Mind set is everything. You really won't do more than you think you can so don't
limite your physical boundaries.
I have run 30 marathons and 200 different road races in several countries and always carry my Nikes. Whether you run, bike, swim or power walk, it's no different, just make it a regular and healthy daily routine. Work out with friends and family, and enjoy being healthy so you will have a better lifestyle.
You can do it if you really want it! Afterall, there's only one value in life and that's living, and you will live longer if you are FIT in both mind and body!
Be all you can be - Carpe Diem!
The Esselcycle
Dick Esselcycle
I like Teece's comment; afwannapolis's comment overlooks the structural problems in our food production system and our food consumption habits that have caused this obseity "epidemic." Compelling research points to sugar, not fat, as the major culprit; the enormous increase in our sugar intake -- with sugar in one form or another added to most commercially processed foods -- is the single biggest change in our food consumption habits in the U.S. in the past 75-100 years. We are simply not equipped to handle, metabolically or physiologically, as much sugar as we consume.
You can't pin this on individual willpower. There is no simple solution, but simply advocating "diet and exercise" isn't enough either.
I wasn't able to listen to the entire show, so I don't know to what degree (if any) the panelists addressed these issues. But clearly, there is something wrong with the way Americans eat. Researchers are uncovering the complexity of our metabolic systems, and writers like Gary Taubes ("Why We Get Fat", "Is Sugar Toxic?") are translating that research into understandable information for ordinary people. Stephan Guyenet's blog, Whole Health Source (wholehealthsource.blogspot.com) is also an excellent source of information on current controversies in the field of nutrition and obesity.
I haven't heard yet, talking about the rising health care cost of fetal/maternal care because of the obesity in pregnant women. Women if you are thinking of becoming pregnant lose those pounds first.
Great show. I am a Bikram Yoga teacher and have been interested in fitness and health my whole life. There are many reasons like your panelist discussed why our food is so unhealthy, but the fact remains, if you burn less than you eat, you will gain weight. What I have observed in students is that desperate search for the magic bullet to cure their obesity. Maybe 1 in 30 obese students will actually stick with it, work hard and make significant changes in their lifestyle to lose weight. It is hard work, and it is sometimes painful to push the limits of your endurance, but it is what it takes to change. The ones who end up sticking with the yoga but do not really make changes, seem to need validation for their problem like it is some kind of incurable disease. It is no longer shameful to be obese in the US. Advertisers pedal to plus sizes; the madness has to stop or we will bankrupt our health-care system.
Do a show interviewing former obese people who have actually made the very difficult decision to change and work hard to lose weight! Power to change industry lies with the people who buy or don't buy unhealthy products.
There is a reason why Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins.
This is an interesting conversation but I would disagree with the optimum weight or BMI. I am 2 meters and 108-kg. By my calculations, and some recent doctors, I would have to weigh 90 kg to reach my optimum BMI. I weighted that as a senior in high school and even weighed more than that after returning from 1.5 years in Vietnam. At 90 kilos I would look like a bulimic Olive Oil ! These are interesting ideas but need to take into account a persons body type. I once reduced to 97-kg on a 1000 cal/day diet and 4 hours in the gym every day.
Please have your obesity guests emphasize that excercise is for conditioning and calorie intake is for weight loss. An hour of excercise can be neutralized by a large sandwich or something that has about 500 to 1000 calories.
Thank you
My daughter is raising my grandson. She is a single mom working every day. She is college educated and has been healthy all her life.
She set out to be disciplined and serve Mason only healthy foods. However, she did not have time. Her lifestyle demanded that she be able to provide a snack in a short period of time and it was easier to give him candy fruit snacks rather than peel and orange. It was much neater in a car when he is traveling.
As a single working mom, discipline is important and she still keeps him from sodas, carbonated drinks, etc. But the ease of giving him a single serving of prepared food has broken her discipline. And she has a job with benefits. Those without jobs are much worse off.
Thanks for your comments and keep up the exercise.
To BrettCWiggins and Vince Egan:
Good point about using BMI to determine obesity: it does not account for body composition. Since muscle weighs much more than fat (as does bone), you athletes look overweight when the BMI is used to assess your weight. Having more muscle raises a person's basal metabolic rate - a very good thing, and a good reason to exercise while eating fewer calories.
Most likely BMI is used for research because it is more practical than measuring body composition with calipers for such a large population under study. Also, most likely those research populations don't have enough atheletes to skew the data.
I wonder if the DOD has studies of military men to determined different tools to measure fitness besides weight and BMI. The DOD certainly has the money and the population of both men and women.
Talking calories and exercise is important, but will the experts discuss the vital quality of calories taken in, i.e.the contribution of processed foods, especially high fructose corn syrup to the obesity epidemic?
Mary Sjoberg, R.Ph.
The CAUSE of obesity is multifactorial and complex. BUT the cure is simple. Eat less. It isn't easy, but it IS simple. Stop blaming everyone else. There is no BAD food. Healthy foods are more expensive, but ironically, the problem is that people are eating TOO MUCH food, good or "bad". So, spend the same amount of money on more expensive foods and eat a lot less of it!! The result is healthy weight and lower body fat. I want all foods to be available weather it be loaded with fat (I love cheese cake), fast food (nothing wrong with it if eaten infrequently in smaller amounts), salty (I prefer my pecans salted), etc. EAT LESS and don't blame the food industry for giving us food that tastes good. I LOVE chocolate, Peanut M and Ms, potato chips. Bring them on. Advertise them all you want. I eat healthy because I mix it up and don't eat TOO MUCH.
That last caller was quite rude! I am sorry, but some of us have diseases that must be accounted for. I eat better than most of my skinny friends, but yet weigh the most. I move more than others, and yet weigh more.
I happen to have a Thyroid disorder (TSH of 9.3, the normal range is below 3.5), and insulin dependent diabetic (A1C under 6). I happen to be morbidly obese. Most people glare when I order something other than raw veggies - but I know what it takes to keep my blood sugars low.
I also happen to be one of the top producers in my department.
Before that person thinks I should be punished, he needs an education!
Amen!
"Semi-Anonymous wrote:
Soylent Green project lost in hurricane/ quake. Neighbors still have not returned. Soylent Green supplements cut and satellites for weather(LEO) budget CUT. Unemployment CUT.
August 31, 2011 - 7:47 am"
Hey, Semi!! Did you catch Morning Edition this AM? A Florida Undertaker (so to speak) is testing a method of Liquifying the remains, then flushing the whole mess down the drain.
Monte Haun mchaun@hotmail.com
@ BrettCWiggins and others. Your suspicions about the BMI are well-founded.
See this discussion on BMI:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439
Hypothyroidism can be easily treated and doesn't make you gain weight anyway. If you have Type 1 diabetes it is even more important to keep a healthy weight. You are over eating if you are overweight. It is that simple. If you think you aren't, you are fooling yourself. You are eating more calories than you realize. It is IMPOSSIBLE to be morbidly obese and not be overeating. The mass you have needs energy (i.e. calories) to maintain itself. These are the laws of physics and there are NO exceptions. If you are eating very little, sorry, but you still need to eat less. There were no fat people in concentration camps because they had no food to eat. There is a healthy amount of food for you that will keep you at a healthy weight, but you are eating more than that.
Semi-Anonymous: What are you talking about!!!!???
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@monte Please do yourself a huge favor and go do some independent research on how municipal water is processed and the chemicals used to keep the supplies clean, i.e, sodium fluoride and chlorine, and watch how grossed out you become. Not to mention what's going down the drains of tubs, showers, and faucets/sinks and what's being flushed down the toilet, a la urinated out pharmaceutical drugs, used condoms, semen, and a host of other noxious causing substances.
Thanks but no thanks, I'll take fresh, filtered or bottled spring water ANY day. Oh, and stop drinking the tap water...errr...Kool-Aid!
Where does the BMI come from? I understand the BMI and why the government is trying this but it does not work. Being a 6'2" man of 210 lbs I have a 34" waist and a 48" chest- can still see most of my ribs - by BMI I am obese - to not be obese I would have to loose almost 30 pounds. When I was a child, the doctor had a chart with height/weight but it had three phenotypes (small framed, medium and large framed - I have huge bones) not the 1 of the BMI - why the consolidation? Are we all supposed to be concentration camp victims to be healthy?
It's a profound parallel that human diseases like heart disease and obesity are rooted in spiritual and moral heart disease and what I call, "obesity of the mind." What I mean is that for centuries, the human species has assumed a place above all other life forms. We have trespassed into every habitat, every climate, every inch of the earth, claiming it for our own, displacing indigenous species , for our benefit.We've even stolen other species from their indigenous climates , forcing them to be our "pets" of farmed animals, where they'd never travel on their own. This is obesity of the mind, in acting like the ruler of the earth, mindlessly, heartlessly, regardless of the result, enslaving other beings for our uses.
The herding mentality, forcing large animals into slavery for their flesh, hides, milk intended for THEIR young, taught humans everything we know about the use of force, domination, cruelty and violence. It's written far more eloquently in The World Peace Diet, by Will Tuttle.
Eden will return when mankind returns to the peace diet that unlike eating animals and their babies, produces health, purity of heart, mind, body, and a humane way of life.
Disease starts in our ideologies and manifests outward in physical symptoms.
Perhaps sugar contributes to obesity, but FAT, concentrated protein, lactose, casein, the protein in cow milk, and cholesterol from animal based eating, increases risk and contribute to every major disease humans are plagued with, including obesity. I seriously doubt obese children are stuffing their faces with fresh veggies, lentils, chic peas, and many other varieties of beans, whole grains, and fresh fruits.....They are eating cheeseburgers, hot dogs(UGH)cheese pizzas, nuggets made from Gd knows what,and all the fatty condiments used to enhance taste. They ARE eating bacon, eggs, sausage, ham, milk, meant to fatten calves, and lots of processed "food"
Americans eat what any commercial sporting an actress or actor tells them to. Interesting that a government agency that uses billions of tax dollars, the "FDA," focuses on Food and Drugs, considering food would be our best medicine if eaten from the earth's garden' s nature intended. And NIH! Ever scrutinized that budget? What we tax payers could do with the billions that agency spends on researching every disease we consume ourselves to.
Follow Dr. John McDougall, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn Jr., Dr. Neal Barnard,or the other doctors who are now reversing diseases, Dr. Gabriel Cousens, The Gerson Institute, simply by detoxing patients of the toxic load we carry from legalized (thanks FDA)poisons in our food and environment, and nourishing our cells with what they are starving for, nutrients...
Listened to this show on the way to the grocery store. Am trying to eliminate added sugar (in all forms) from my diet. Could only find one breakfast cereal w/o added sugar, honey etc. It was in the organic section, but only one! And I was only looking at whole grain cereals.
There is added sugar in most whole wheat bread, english muffins, pita bread; anything that says whole wheat, check the label. Added sugar in tortillas! Why? The same sugar industry that ruins the Everglades, makes us sugar addicts by its products inclusion in so many of our foods. Read the labels! Protest!
If people ate from the earth, instead of the million of animals Americans chomp down every minute, our air and water WOULD be far less impacted. Anyone who still eats flesh and dairy contributes significantly to environmental toxicity, and of course, their own disease rates.
70 Billion farmed animals are raised annually , all being fattened by GM corn, soy, wheat, and other grains , all absorbing every chemical pesticide agribusiness sprays and pours on feed crops, another huge contributor to auto-immune diseases in humans.
Met and dairy production are killing us, killing animals, and slowly killing our environment. Gd!!! Why are people so ignorant and uncaring.
Our moral heart disease has led to a physical manifestation of the same!
Whoever put this show together for Diane did her and her listeners no service. At no point did anyone on the show come close to the reasons we get fat or what to do about it. For those who really want to know these things, please read the two books by Gary Taubes: Good Calories Bad Calories, and Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It. You can hear Gary give the science behind the epidemic of obesity and why and when it began; if it doesn’t shock you into action, it should. Diane, if you will get these two book, either in print or Kindle, I will pay for them. I am not an acolyte of any weird theories or of anyone person, but good science has already explained the cause of this epidemic and what to do about it. Gary Taubes is an award-winning science write and I believe that all of you DRSHOW listeners, and I am a faithful one myself, owe it to yourselves to remain ignorant about this subject no longer. Please, Diane, read the suggested books; listen to Mr. Taubes on YouTube, and then invite Mr. Taubes on as a guest to refute the misinformation that was put out on this show. Warmest Regards to all.
Here is the best YouTube link of Gary Taubes addressing the University State University Medical Center with an overview of his book Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It. It make a compelling scientific argument about the cause of obesity and what to do about it. It is not what you might think. Regards.
Sorry, here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTUspjZG-wc&feature=related
Reading food labels is very confusing. I have heard that "The Daily value" is based on a WW II soldier's calorie need. Most of us need less calories and most of us do not know what that number is. The amount of sugars are hidden under the category of carbohydrates, that may or may not be healthy. Besides, most of us do not read the list of ingredients which often tells us the food contains gene modified corn, soy etc as well as varying artificial coloring and sweeteners, all quite bad for our health.
We need clearer food labeling. The percentage should be about how much of this ingredient is in the food. DV is irrelevant because it is incorrect for most of us. All other ingredients should be marked with asterisks according to the health damage they cause, - for the individual as well as for the environment.
I suggest that the bar codes includes points for healthy/unhealthy choices and that the receipt totals those points as a fraction.
Understanding a healthy lifestyle is a matter of caring for the house you are living in, - your body. If you care poorly for it, you cost more when you go to the hospital. That cost could be included in the many unhealthy temptations in our grocery stores.
Mette Helena Elfving
Reno, NV