What I learned about life researching the obesity epidemic... and why what I learned might change EVERYTHING... for better or worse. This diary entry might be the start of a book. I don't know. I am not that good of a writer but I do have something to write about. Maybe that all I need.
I started researching the obesity epidemic in the summer of 2006. I thought I would try to figure out why if everyone was saying obesity so preventable why then aren't we have any luck combating it. I found out. Somedays I wish I never knew.
It is not a matter of calories in/calories out. This were calories in/calories out the fight against obesity would be over. The most troubling aspect of the epidemic is childhood obesity. This might be the first generation to live shorter lives than their parents.
This is a letter I sent to the White House May 29th, 2010:
I am not putting this under health care. Health is more health care. I am going pour my heart into 2500 character letter and see if I make a dent in your stubborn half-hearted childhood obesity policy. So hear I am at it again. Our oil dependence and food policies are unjust and unsustainable. Either we change them or they will change us. I am a poor man not everything I say is gospel but much of what I say truly is. One day you will hear me my tears of sorrow and they will sound like thunder. I weep for the families we can’t save due to lack of knowledge and resources. We have the knowledge and choose not to apply it. So let me. We needed the seafood in the Gulf of Mexico. Now we have toxic sludge. We can grow the whole grains and folates but we might not have enough Omega 3 fatty acids. Folates, fiber and omega 3 fatty acids are some essential keys to a healthy diet. Not the sole keys but essential keys. Think catalysts not causations.
You have discounted the power and the science of epigenetics. Your Food and Drug Administration (FDA) almost approved home genetic testing. A little knowledge out of context is a dangerous thing. Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms or SNiPs matter to individuals but are next to meaningless for populations. Epigenes matter to populations and individuals because they are trans-generational (altered/transmitted across generations). Obesity can best summed by the math equation (Diet x Chemicals x Stress) ^ genes or 2 x physical activity x food deserts x etc. Michelle Obama missed the impact chemicals and chronic stress have on the human epigenome in her report on childhood obesity. I do not expect and might never get credit for pointing this out to you for you see my health is failing and I have no health insurance. And still I fight on for people because I think one lonely voice with the right amount of courage and honor at the right time matters. I will always be as long as I live be the quiet person lightly tapping my society on the shoulder trying to get it to stop digging an unsustainable hole and telling it to "Look up. We are running out of light." I hope I don’t get clobbered by a shovel manned by a Republican. They shoot down messengers like me, don’t they?
Maybe I am wrong but then again I might be right. Dr. Julie Gerberding, Former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta
"There's a pandemic of obesity we are experiencing in this country. If you looked at any epidemic — whether it's influenza or plague from the Middle Ages — they are not as serious as the epidemic of obesity in terms of the health impact on our country and our society."
She might have wrong too but knowing what I now know I doubt it.