America: The Fattest Country

[Guest guest]

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15119

 

America: The Fattest Country

 

By Dan Rubinstein, Vue Weekly

February 6, 2003

 

" It pays to remember, perhaps while ordering that next supersized meal, that

Dante put the gluttonous in the third circle of hell, where they were to endure

'eternal, cold and cursed heavy rain.' The slothful, one might consider as one

cues up one's satellite dish, fared even worse; in the fifth circle they would

'languish in the black slime' of the river Styx. In the twenty-first century, we

have put ourselves in the first circle of fat hell. "

 

 

 

Like a hungry man attacking a Big Mac, Greg Critser does not hold back. In his

new book, " Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World, " the

journalist and former fatty goes straight for the heart of America's obesity

epidemic. The above quote, from Critser's concluding chapter, emphatically outs

the parallel evils of over-consumption and inactivity as fundamental reasons why

50 million people in the United States are clinically obese.

 

 

 

" Fat Land " is no biblical polemic, however. The obesity epidemic is both deadly

and draining. It kills approximately 300,000 people in the U.S. every year and

the nation annually spends $117 billion on obesity-related healthcare. But its

mortal roots are much more tangible than the seven sins. Using a holistic

approach comparable to Eric Schlosser's multifarious method in " Fast Food

Nation, " Critser details the dozens of congealed factors at the core of this

societal illness. Gluttony and sloth are blamed, but only after he targets

political and agricultural policies, globalized trade, class inequity,

nutritional monkey-wrenching, corporate marketing strategies, school district

irresponsibility and fad psychology.

 

 

 

In its recent review of " Fat Land, " the New York Times calls Critser's core

subject " the nutritional contradictions of capitalism. " In a world where the

ability to consume is held aloft as an ultimate goal, where bigger is better

because others can see how much you have, we're literally gorging ourselves to

death. " The way to deal with obesity is to reduce our consumption, " Critser says

in a phone interview from his home in Pasadena, California. " But consuming is

half of our identity. The other half is producing. And this is not a message

that anybody wants to hear. "

 

 

 

Essentially, we're a continent in denial, says Critser, who considers eating an

extremely intimate function. " I think people are more secretive about food than

sex, " he says. " It's the ultimate primal act. " Accordingly, there's tremendous

hesitancy to deal with the obesity issue straight-on, which is what he set out

to do after experiencing his personal awakening five years ago. Forty pounds

overweight at the time, Critser nearly clipped a cyclist with his car door and

received an angry " Watch it, fatso! " in response. That same day, out of the

blue, his doctor left a message about a new obesity drug on his answering

machine, telling Critser that he was a candidate. Putting himself through a

jumble of health clubs and medications, eschewing Krispy Kreme donuts and

striving for regular-cut jeans, Critser lost weight. He kept a detailed journal

about the process; it was published in a magazine, a newspaper and evolved into

a Harper's cover story in 2000. As he writes in " Fat Land, " Critser saw his

successful shedding " not as a triumph of will, but as a triumph of my economic

and social class. " He noted that not everybody could afford to pay for drugs and

exercise expertise. He also saw a bigger story that he'd need a book to flesh

out, especially after meeting people like University of Colorado physiologist

James Hill, who warned that at the current growth rate almost all Americans will

be overweight by 2050, that becoming obese " is a normal response to the American

environment. "

 

 

 

Paving the Road to Fat

 

 

 

The roots of this environment can be traced back to the 1970s and 1980s, when

people like U.S. agriculture secretary Earl Butz instigated a chain of events

that would by the end of the century lead to 450-pound teenagers requiring

emergency stomach-stapling gastroplasty surgery. Butz, a Richard Nixon nominee,

lowered food prices for American consumers and helped American farmers lock up

new markets. In order to do that, he pushed products like high-fructose corn

syrup (HFCS) and palm oil into our diets. HFCS, which improves the shelf-life of

vending machine goodies and protects frozen food from freezer burn, is six times

sweeter than cane sugar and can be made from U.S.-grown corn. Palm oil, imported

in massive quantities from Malaysia to give American agricultural exporters a

green light overseas, has been described as " more highly saturated than hog

lard. " Yet they both became staples.

 

 

 

Butz simply wanted to solve political problems, says Critser. He didn't intend

to make people fat. Neither did movie theatre magnate turned McDonald's director

David Wallerstein, who realized his businesses could make more money by selling

larger portions of high mark-up items such as pop and fries. Customers don't

want to feel like gluttons and buy two small bags of fries, but one giant

serving.... In his hunger for profit, Wallerstein didn't see the bigger picture.

" When you don't want to look at something, you don't look at it, " says Critser.

" That's not very profound. But it's true. "

 

 

 

Along with larger portions of more fattening food, Americans have become

increasingly sedentary over the last couple of decades. It's heavily documented

that we're watching more television and are bombarded with fast food commercials

while sitting (and often snacking) on the couch. Schools, as well, have

relinquished their roles on educational sanctums. Cafeteria nutrition declined

dramatically as cash-strapped school administrators cut deals with fast food

corporations. By 1999, Critser writes, 95 per cent of 345 surveyed California

high schools were selling branded fast food products for lunch. Moreover, the

importance of engaging in physical activity at school (the old notion that a

healthy body leads to a healthy mind) has been forgotten. It's easy to see why

American parents are letting their children slip down this path when one looks

at the typical grown-up response to obesity. Hamstrung by 1980s-era ultra

permissive parenting guidebooks (never tell your kids not to eat, many

counselled), plus concerns about diseases like anorexia and bulimia, adults

stood back and watched their children feast amid our culture of abundance. And

when mom and dad think they're getting too heavy, no problem – they just buy

into the latest fad diet du jour.

 

 

 

" I think it's part of our culture, biologically and mentally, to look for the

easy way out, " Critser says about so-called solutions like " The Slow Burn

Fitness Revolution, " a new book featured on the front page of Canada's National

Post newspaper last week which proclaims that two 15-minute weigh-training

sessions per week are enough to get into shape. " It's a lie, " he continues, " but

diets and fitness are things we consume. To be fat is relatively cheap. In a

certain sense, being fat is rational. " Critser has harsh words for the mass

media that provides a platform for people like " Slow Burn's " New York author

Fredrick Hahn and countless others before him. " Newspapers are desperate for

cheap, quick content, " he says. " Our standards for diet books are very low.

Newspapers cover them because they're new, not because what they say, because

they can make money by doing it. "

 

 

 

Despite all these criticisms, Critser and is not completely pessimistic. He

writes about grassroots groups of parents and teachers engaging in a

" high-stakes guerilla war with the fast food companies that have come to

dominate the school nutrition scene. " Last year in Sacramento, California, for

example, the school board rejected a five-year $2.5 million contract with Pepsi

that would have given the company the exclusive right to sell and advertise its

product at all public schools in the district. But the board didn't stop there.

Its investigation of the health issues led to an ultimatum for principals:

eliminate all high-sugar and high-fat food within 10 years. Confronted with

ingrained marketing like McDonald's nutritional curriculums, Tootsie Roll math

lessons and Pizza Hut reading texts, it's a steep uphill battle. But as Andrew

Hagelshaw of California's Center for Commercial-Free Public Education told

Critser, " We are seeing hundreds of groups across the country take this issue

on. The key is the parents. It's like a sleeping giant has been roused. "

 

 

 

The giant is a new consciousness about what we're putting into our bodies, and

its presence is desperately needed at the family dinner table, Critser argues.

Parents have to escape the " hysterical " producer-consumer cycle they're trapped

in, he says, and pay much more attention to what they and their kids are eating

and doing with the their spare time. At a moment in history when we're being

told to help our capitalist economies by consuming more – as San Francisco mayor

Willie Brown urged at a rally not long after September 11, 2001 – Critser's

message could be interpreted as anti-American. It's not, he insists. It's just

discomforting. But he believes we have to start treating obesity as both a

medical and political issue before it's too late. " I think we could take some

measures now that will register in the next generation, " says Critser. " But

there's a lot of denial out there still. And denial is a big industry. "

 

 

 

Dan Rubinstein is the news editor of Vue Weekly in Edmonton, Alberta.

 

« Home « EnviroHealth

 

 

Gettingwell- / Vitamins, Herbs, Aminos, etc.

 

To , e-mail to: Gettingwell-

Or, go to our group site: Gettingwell

 

 

 

 

Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now