I think there is a reason no one wants to touch this topic with a ten-foot pole. Everyone either knows someone who is overweight or is carrying a few extra pounds themselves. It is rampant in this country, with some estimates saying that over 80% of adults in this country are overweight or obese.
But no one wants to lay blame on themselves or on the people they know and love. No one wants to admit there is a problem they can change. Instead we want to point to things we view as beyond our control. Indeed, more and more books are arguing that food choices are beyond our control and that fighting against our natural instincts to consume sweet and fatty foods is a losing battle.
So where does that leave us? Do we surrender all control of our lives and our diets and wait for a magic pill? Why was obesity less of a problem in the past than it is now?
A good part of the problem is habit. We insist we have too little time (although statistics say that the average American watches 4 hours of television a day) or too little energy, but it is mostly a choice. If we chose to eat foods whose names we could pronounce, if we chose to take a walk at lunch instead of working straight through, if we chose to find a way to eat whole foods instead of getting takeout 3 times a week, if we chose to have quality time with our families revolve around being active, if we chose to shut off the telly - any or all of these habits could make a significant dent in our waistlines.
The bottom line is that we are making terrible food choices based on "convenience" (how convenient is being overweight and the health issues that come with it?). We watch too much television and aren't active enough. We don't need to blame it on addiction or things beyond our control.
This is not to say that SOME people don't have medical reasons for being overweight. But a country cannot get to the point of over half of its population being overweight without some very bad habits being epidemic.
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I think there is a reason no one wants to touch this topic with a ten-foot pole. Everyone either knows someone who is overweight or is carrying a few extra pounds themselves. It is rampant in this country, with some estimates saying that over 80% of adults in this country are overweight or obese.
But no one wants to lay blame on themselves or on the people they know and love. No one wants to admit there is a problem they can change. Instead we want to point to things we view as beyond our control. Indeed, more and more books are arguing that food choices are beyond our control and that fighting against our natural instincts to consume sweet and fatty foods is a losing battle.
So where does that leave us? Do we surrender all control of our lives and our diets and wait for a magic pill? Why was obesity less of a problem in the past than it is now?
A good part of the problem is habit. We insist we have too little time (although statistics say that the average American watches 4 hours of television a day) or too little energy, but it is mostly a choice. If we chose to eat foods whose names we could pronounce, if we chose to take a walk at lunch instead of working straight through, if we chose to find a way to eat whole foods instead of getting takeout 3 times a week, if we chose to have quality time with our families revolve around being active, if we chose to shut off the telly - any or all of these habits could make a significant dent in our waistlines.
The bottom line is that we are making terrible food choices based on "convenience" (how convenient is being overweight and the health issues that come with it?). We watch too much television and aren't active enough. We don't need to blame it on addiction or things beyond our control.
This is not to say that SOME people don't have medical reasons for being overweight. But a country cannot get to the point of over half of its population being overweight without some very bad habits being epidemic.
April 30, 2008 - 5:23pmThis Comment
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