Almost up to the end of The End of Overeating! Today's installment: Ch. 48, "Fighting Back."
Welcome back to the group read of this book. For those who might want to catch up, series initiator Edward Spurlock again kindly provided links back to previous installments in his previous Kessler diary, covering Ch. 47.
Here Kessler presents his policy recommendations. Follow below.
WHEE (Weight, Health, Eating and Exercise) is a community support diary for Kossacks who are currently or planning to start losing, gaining or maintaining their weight through diet and exercise or fitness. Any supportive comments, suggestions or positive distractions are appreciated. If you are working on your weight or fitness, please -- join us! You can also click the WHEE tag to view all diary posts.
Kessler's central public-policy strategy would be "redefining social norms." A parallel would be the change in public perception of tobacco smoking during our lifetime.
Contributing to this strategy, Kessler's suggestions focus on providing more information to the public.
- Restaurants should be forced to post calorie counts, a recommendation also discussed in previous chapters, most recently here.
- All "food products" ought to carry prominent information on the percentage of included fat, salt and sugar.
- A multi-faceted, "well-funded," public information campaign should be conducted.
- The tactics of big-food marketers to promote hyperpalatable food items that stimulate cravings without ever satisfying them should be further "monitored and exposed."
Coincidentally, today's USA Today carries a major feature on first lady Michelle Obama's push to reverse the trend in childhood obesity. A worthy article that I would encourage everyone here to read in full.
A 2005 study found that kids today may lead shorter lives by two to five years than their parents because of obesity.
Some of Michelle Obama's public policy ideas go beyond providing more information. Among others:
--$400 million in tax credits and other incentives to get grocery stores to move into "food desert communities" where people don't have access to major grocery stores and have to rely on corner markets, convenience stores and hybrid gas stations that may charge more and have fewer healthful choices. It will also get fresh foods into smaller stores.
--$25 million for schools to renovate their kitchens to replace deep fryers with equipment needed to store more produce and serve more nutritious food.
And this from David Ludwig, a pediatric endocrinologist who has done some key research:
"We can't just decry childhood obesity while continuing to condone junk food advertising aimed at young children and underfunding school lunch and physical education programs."
A cost figure for obesity that is being flung about today, in the USA Today piece among others, is $147 billion a year.
Reuters reported last July:
Eric Finkelstein of the non-profit RTI International and researchers at the CDC and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality...found U.S. obesity rates rose 37 percent between 1998 and 2006, driving an 89 percent increase in spending on treatments for obesity-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis.
Obesity now accounts for 9.1 percent of all medical spending in the United States...
"What we found was the total cost of obesity increased from $74 billion to maybe as high as $147 billion today, so roughly double over that time period," said Finkelstein...
The same Reuters piece suggested that Dr. Thomas Frieden, director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), might have some public policy thoughts of his own:
Frieden said soda and sugar-sweetened beverages "play a particular role in the obesity epidemic"...He said adding a tax to soft drinks might curb consumption but that was not a position held by the Obama administration.
The public policy suggestions made by Kessler in Ch. 48, in contrast, have no direct bearing on the practicalities of making healthy food more available and unhealthy food less available.
Kessler remains focused on the individualized problem of "reconciling automatic drives with cognitive process" and providing more information and social cues to help the cognitive processes gain the upper hand. As a "new social consensus" emerges, in Kessler's view, "cues will lose their capacity to entice" and a diffferent marketplace will result.
I don't think he is wrong, exactly, but I do agree with Michelle Obama and others that it will be easier for people to effect change in their lives with the help of direct practical measures as well. We cannot expect the majority of people to commit the energy required to become the temptation-resisting equivalent of a Zen master or ninja warrior.
Another incitement to thought is a fascinating recent article titled, "What Is Implied By Living In a World of Flow." Nominally about the social effects of social media (and I would like to encourage everyone to delve into it only for that) the piece also contains WHEE-related food for thought. For instance:
Think about how we monetize sociality in physical spaces. Typically, it involves second-order consumption of calories: venues provide a space for social interactions to occur and we expect people to "consume" something other than our sociality as a way to pay rent: restaurants, bars, cafés; these all survive on this model....
In other words, overeating can be, among other things, a price we pay for opportunities to socialize, in a society where control of (safe) social spaces is largely privatized.
What about some broad-range thinking about other models of social interaction? More parks? Safer parks? Doing hobbies together? Volunteering together? Free open-to-the-public exercise classes?
Meanwhile, a couple of other statistics that obtruded themselves this week:
From the Office of Management and Budget:
The 2011 Budget for DOD provides... $159.3 billion for DOD’s ongoing overseas contingency operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.
In other words, expensive as the overall problem of obesity is at an estimated $147 billion, George W. Bush's quagmire is probably costing us even more.
And the bailout? What was that, $700 billion? Now those are fat cats.
USA Today also reported (emphasis added):
One in eight Americans — 37 million — received emergency food help last year, up 46% from 2005, the nation's largest hunger-relief group reports today.
Children are hit particularly hard, according to the report by Feeding America...One in five children, 14 million, received food from soup kitchens, food pantries and other agencies...
Uh. What to say. "It's the economy...Congress"?
Meanwhile, here's my suggestion to Michelle Obama, or whoever may be listening: as part of a focus on the economy, we need a sort of WPA project to promote healthy recreation opportunities on Main Street, and all the alleys off Main Street.
For kids whose families can't afford to pay school soccer fees. For adults who can't afford to pay for health club memberships and who are stressed by the bad economy (also a contributor to domestic violence, BTW). For communities where people lack safe spaces to exercise and even to socialize, other than the shopping center or the fast food emporium. Let's have soccer and hockey and hiking and juggling and occasionally bus trips to interesting non-commercial places. (If possible, put some crafts in the mix as well; they don't build aerobic capacity, but they are accessible even to those who may have medical reasons for not doing exercise programs, and do definitely help build a sense of empowerment.) As a part of the boost to Main Street, let's pay currently unemployed people to run these programs. And while people are engaged in these free activities, take the opportunity to share good information about food and nutrition as well. It's a potential win-win-win, and even generously interpreted, is not likely to cost anything approaching $147 billion.
Your own thoughts?
Schedule for WHEE this week.
Feb. 10
Weds AM - ???
Weds PM - Edward Spurlock (weekly diary)
Feb. 11
Thurs AM - ???
Thurs PM - ???
Feb. 12
Fri AM - ???
Fri PM - Wee Mama (weekly diary)
Feb. 13
Sat AM - ???
Sat PM - Edward Spurlock (Kessler, A Final Word)
Feb 14-Valentine's Issues
Sun AM - ???
Sun PM - ???
Feb 15
Mon AM - NC Dem
Mon PM - ???
Feb. 9
Tues AM - ???
Tues PM - ???