Facing America's Obesity Crisis
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-05-10/facing-americas-obesity-crisis
More than one-third of adults in the U.S. and nearly 17 percent of the nation’s children are obese. Obesity’s human toll includes diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and some cancers. Relative medical costs of the obese are estimated to be up to 100 percent higher than for Americans of healthy weight. A new report by the Institute of Medicine warns these social and economic costs will increase in the coming years unless we do more to prevent people from becoming overweight -- especially young people. And researchers say a real solution will require leadership from educators to employers to the president. Diane and her guests discuss America’s obesity epidemic.
Guests
Barbara Linder
Senior Advisor for Childhood Diabetes Research at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Christina Economos
Director of Child Obesity 180 at the Friedman School of Nutrition at Tufts University. Committee member for Institute of Medicine report, "Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation"
Ross Hammond
Director, Center on Social Dynamics and Policy and
Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, The Brookings Institution
J. Justin Wilson
senior research analyst, Center for Consumer Freedom.
Sylvisha Perry
Subject in Berrie Diabetes Center, Columbia University, site of NIH TODAY Study (Treatment Options for type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents and Youth).
Comments
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essexgirl thinks tapwater is OK. I don't. See fluoridealert.org
It's not just for John Birchers anymore.
It'll surprise you that fluoride additive is the contaminated slurry from phosphate processing. Dentists know drinking is not advised. They have us spit out our fluoride treatments.
Ute Isbill must have read "the End of Overeating" by former FDA commissioner
David A. Kessler. Yes his book helped me. I could work on resistance once I knew food additives were altering my brain chemistry and making me an eating addict. Seems like DRShow (which has hosted Kessler) and Michelle Obama have amnesia on this obvious explanation. Instead of reasoning things out they let an industry spin doctors obscure important truths. Be ashamed, very ashamed. And then we harp on overweight people as if they are criminals. Sadism!
Nice how so much of the discussion is about "saturated fat, total fat, calories, sodium..." with no mention of sugar. Saturated fat has been abundant in the human diet for thousands of years. Sugar, on the other hand, in large concentrations at least, is a very new addition. And every single processed food on the market has sugar, including those pizzas, burgers (ketchup anyone?) and lots of other junk foods that are unfortunately served in the school cafeteria. Why don't these "experts" focus on sugar instead of fat? Oh, and one other thing. Milk contains "fat-soluable" vitamins. Without the fat--i.e., in "low-fat" and "non-fat" milk--you can't absorb those vitamins. Where's the fat?
This is discussion is ludicrous. Tax manufacturers? Tax sugar? Why don't you just cut to the chase and tax bad parenting? Eat less + exercise more = lose weight. We don't need more studies, and we don't need more government!
To think that the medical professionals are ignoring the causes of obesity.
It's real simple folks. It's a matter of how many carbs you eat for the amount of exercise that you do.
Get rid of processed foods, get rid of garbage carbs, such as white bread, white rice, etc. and processed sugars, such as colas, bottled tea or most anything else in a bottle.
Unfortunately, processed foods includes TV dinners and anything in a box.
The biggest misinformation presented on this show is that it is cheaper to eat garbage than it is to eat healthy. I cook everything I eat and I grow most of my vegetables. Even before I could do this, I cooked fresh ingredients. I am a vegetarian, which is cheaper than eating meat and much better for your health.
Take responsibility for your health, which includes your weight and ignore the lies.
Not once in the discussion did I hear the word "parent" mentioned. Responsibility for a child's obesity lies primarily with the parent(s). Solution: Refuse to buy all those empty-calorie, high-fat, sugary trash foods (even though your child "demands" them), and don't make fast-food restaurants your main source of meals. In the long run, you'll save time and money - and maybe even your child's life. Let's keep the government out of this; it's a personal responsibility problem.
The biggest issue that you have ignored is the food environment today vs. yesterday. When I was a child, I didn't know there was anything but food cooked at home, except on that rare occasion when Dad would take us to the Drive-in, so Mom could grade papers.
We are talking about food choices and that's it. Fast food is bad and there is no argument to that. Sugar is bad and there is no argument to that. Coca Cola was considered a medicine in the 50's and should be today. It's good medicine.
I use to view this as choice but now I view it as education. How many people today understand food that is digested by acid versus food that is digested by alkaline? And, most importantly, that you can NOT eat the two together or they will neutralize within your stomach. Why do we have acid reflux disease?
Weight is primarily the result of eating too many carbs for the amount of exercise exerted, as long as the above rule is observed. Processed foods ignore all dietary information and are full of bad carbs; therefore, must be banished.
Please address these facts.
I suppose the only reason to bring this shill Justin Wilson on the show was because it was impossible to find any genuine person who would oppose efforts to prevent the consumption of harmful foods which are causing, literally, a tragic health crisis. On the bright side I'm sure his absurd statements on the show only helped unveil the hateful anti-public face of the food industry lobbyists. Personally I'm glad I had a chance to "meet" him since I had the opportunity to Google his name and find he works for RICHARD BERMAN, A.K.A "Dr. Evil" who is actually proud of that nickname. This is a monster (also a lawyer) who claims to run non-profit organizations (25 of them at this point) but really siphons millions into his own pockets. He was originally sponsored by Philip Morris tobacco. His "organizations" are kind of repetitive. For example, a few work on denying there is a danger of mercury in fish and a few more are against worker unions, one even promotes driving with higher blood alcohol levels. His own son, a famous artist and musician (David Berman) has disowned him! Some say Richard Berman is far worse than Hitler! I don't doubt it. Find out more on this wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Berman and http://bermanexposed.org and here is a very powerful expose: http://www.zaxtor.net/ConsumerFreedomKillsHumans.com.html
As for those who have commented that the government should stay out of people's lives and let them eat what they want, that's a very naive point of view. Obviously the food industry is only interested in making money and doesn't care about people's health. Profits are always the bottom line in any business. Most people usually have little knowledge in nutrition and what they should and shouldn't eat. People tend to assume that if something is sold, then it's fit for consumption. Most people assume that the government regulates food and drugs. Isn't that what the FDA is for? People usually trust the government to inspect food processing facilities and make sure the food is safe.
Every American knows the government is by the people and for the people. It's everybody's government isn't it? So how can the government (we) stand by and allow corporations to sell harmful food to our fellow Americans while our family, friends, neighbors and fellow Americans get sicker and sicker because some fat cats want to get rich? Can we all stand by and do nothing to try to prevent this growing obesity and diabetes epidemic? Those against these efforts must either be quite confused or invested in the food industry!
Enjoy and eat healthy!
Jerry.
I think that as the world economy continues to contract, this will become far less of a problem. Gas and cars will become more expensive, so more people will have to walk. More people will eventually go back to farming, which anyone who has ever done it will tell you, is very physical. "Fat" farmers are very rare. Medical care will become so expensive that it will be irrelevant in the future. Few will be able to afford it. Those who become chronically ill will die more often, thus increasing the mortality rate. Abraham Lincon's stepmother, in describing her younger days on the frontier, probably described it the best: "The Good Lord only allowed the fit to live, and the rest He seen fit to let die".
Our days of over-eating are definitely going to come to an end. May in fact have already started.
There are those of course will deny this scenario. They will of course continue to listen to those who tell them what they want to believe; not what they should believe.
I really object to you giving time to J. Justin Wilson, the unregistered lobbyist from Berman and Company. Berman has been known for years as a front man for business and industry in campaigns against consumer safety and environmental groups. All of his 'non-profits' are simply a way for corporations like sugar manufacturers to pay him to disseminate deceiving propaganda: see this article in the New York Times for details. To consult this lobbyist as if he isn't simply a paid shill is baffling.
Everyone danced around the fact that a walkable city or town (not yet destroyed by Walmart) increases activity and thus reduces obesity. Look at countries with functioning transit and walkable cities like France and Germany and the much lower obesity rates. This does not discount any of the other excellent points made on the show.
I do think that one very healthy easy way for obese people to help themselves lose weight is to move to a walkable neighborhood and try to get jobs they can bicycle, bus and/or walk to - try to move back to the way humans *used* to live ...in walkable communities where we ... moved !
I was so frustrated by this program.
People are being blamed for obesity when there is abundant, good science and clinical data from places like the obesity clinic at Duke (Dr. Eric Westman) showing that obesity is being caused by hormonal imbalances caused by eating too many carbohydrates--especially wheat, which has been radically changed by industry starting in the early 1950s--without testing on humans. William Davis's WHEAT BELLY is a great source to help one understand how dangerous wheat has become. Davis is a preventive cardiologist with a clinical practice. He documents that whole grain wheat has a higher glycymic index than a candy bar or sugar. Wheat has a unique carbohydrate that is absorbed really fast, so its worse than eating sugar. Wheat is in EVERYTHING--it's hard to escape. It's as addictive as cocaine and causes people to eat more. It causes inflammation. Yet the people on this panel, like the gov't, are pushing whole grains. They are denouncing saturated fats and salt--there's famously no science backing either prohibition. (We eat LESS salt today than before the 1950s.) Exercise does NOT impact this hormonal imbalance and can cause greater hunger. Panel members are treating obesity and diabetes with DRUGS. Who funded their work? No one on the panel could challenge the terribly wrong turn our gov't has taken with regard to food policies. Luise Light was hired by the USDA to craft the 1980 food recommendations. She wrote WHAT TO EAT in part to expose that her panel of experts recommended only 2-3 servings of grains a day and that the USDA changed that to 9-11 servings. Today's obesity started at that moment. Kick the wheat addiction, control starchy carbohydrates, and the "wheat belly" with its attendant dangers disappears--along with a lot of weight and a lot of chronic health problems.
To continue:
Davis's WHEAT BELLY fits with Gary Taubes work, with Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride's GAPS-diet work, with all the Paleo-diet folks, with K. Monastyrsky's FIBER MENACE, with Dr. Joseph Mercola's work--all these different "camps" are coming to the same conclusion. Overeating carbs is the problem. And industry is making a ton of $$$ by using a cheap product (wheat) to make expensive food products.
"...we'll end up blaming people with cancer for bringing on their own cancer."
Absolutely. And we will blame mentally ill for their own neurosis. "Just snap out of it!" Depression. AIDS. and so on.
Obesity is the same - in most cases there is very little personal responsibility for the condition which has always existed (there have always been fat people).
And I question the estimate of 100% higher medical costs - and even if that is correct, SO PAY IT and be happy it is not you. It is no different than the skydiver, the white water kayacker, the scuba diver, black diamond skier, or other risk takers. I was surprised that the estimate was only 100% higher; the way many comments go, you would think the cost was much higher.
I believe that obesity is at least partly inherited.
And anyway, both fat people and thin people eat as much as they want. Just that fat people want to eat more. Thin people want to eat less. It is that difference that predicts who will be fat or thin.
"...walkable city or town (not yet destroyed by Walmart)..."
New York City is such. And yet and yet and yet, it has the same rate and level of Obesity as the rest of the country.