The news also comments on the state of our health system and our economic status, and obesity is tied in here as well. According to the Centers for Disease Control, medical expenditures in 2002 related to obesity were a staggering $92.6 billion, of which half were paid by Medicaid and Medicare --tax dollars. That was seven years ago, and we know just by looking around how much of an increase we have had because of this epidemic. Imagine that we poured out $46.3 billion on condiments on our fast food, because we did. The US Census tells us we have 306,642,475 people living here, that breaks down to roughly $151 per person per year. Per person, if you live with 4 people in your home you donated $604 to this disease treatment last year. I don't think this covers the cost of the lawyers suing Cheerios for their claims of improving health a bowl at a time, either.
So, why aren't we upset yet? Why are we not writing Congress to alert them we want and demand and deserve change in our food systems, in the quality of healthy foods for kids? When I went to the CDC website to gather the statistics for this article, I noted they do have programs with advice like "Move more and eat less" Why is that not being sent home to kids? Why aren't we doing anything to stop this epidemic from killing us?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Ruvy
Maureen,
How many rice bowls do you want to turn over, anyway? What are you, some kind of troublemaker? Oh you troubler of American-influenced junk culture, go away and bother us not! Do not disturb the vultures who prey upon us! Your message is unwanted and unneeded - we have our food pyramids that we can climb (if we are still in any shape to climb), and our mild exercises if typing comments at Blogcritics to keep us in fit shape.
Let me have my Oreos, and my Cheerios and my pizza slices (all kosher and blessed by the rabbi) until my heart gets so clogged I need a triple by-pass and suffer a stroke like my late mother did.
Do not, I repeat, do not bother me with the facts. My pleasures are far too important to me! They are enough to die for!
2 - Maureen Jeanson
I will leave no rice bowl left unturned!
:)
3 - Glenn Contrarian
Maureen -
If you were comparing our eating habits to any other disease, I'd be inclined to agree with you.
Problem is, you're comparing it to H1N1 influenza, something that wiped out five percent of the human population - about fifty million people by most modern estimates - most of whom died within a period of four months.
The spread of the H1N1 influenza in 1918 was in every respect the deadliest four months in human history - and the ONLY time since the Black Plague that the overall human population diminished from one year to the next. The Great Influenza of 1918 was a terrible, terrible time...and pray that the current H1N1 doesn't mutate as that one did (it shouldn't, but it could), for if it did...
...a friend of mine relates a story how his grandmother lost three brothers in one week to the 1918 flu.
So no, our self-inflicted bodily harm due to fast food does NOT come close to the threat from H1N1, not a shadow, not a whisper.
You could have made the case with almost any other disease...except for H1N1.
Better luck next time.
4 - Dan(Miller)
Is the smoking lamp lit? I want to smoke my pipe now. Oh -- and is it OK if I have a tot of rum as well?
Why, oh why, do you want to diminish the pleasure which so many derive from telling us what to do and what not to do? Chances are, that's about all the pleasure they have.
Good article, by the way. I (gasp, choke, cough) enjoyed reading it.
Dan(Miller)
5 - Maureen Jeanson
Glenn--every 60 seconds a person dies from a heart attack. 20% of all deaths in 2004 were from heart attacks. In 2005 it was heart attacks accounted for 27% of all deaths in the USA. In developed countries the leading cause of death--wait for it--heart attack. 32% of the population in America are either on hypertension medication or have hypertension.
I appreciate the passion you feel in regards to knowing personal tragedy and how it afflicted your close friends. However, you need to think more criticaly about these facts. More than 50 million people will die from this.
More so--it is not self inflicted when a child is obese, not at all.
6 - Doug Hunter
As bad as this disgusts me, this is just the next wave in the total elimination of individual freedom. Maureen, your wish will come to pass, first with education and 'sin' taxes. Next, we will ban this and that until finally people like you will just dictate what us poor common folk can eat. (hint: without system collapse everyone will be a forced vegetarian within 100 years)
Freedom to do only the 'right' things isn't really freedom at all. There's something not quite right about me, it's like I'm living in bizzaro world, I don't understand why I enjoy liberty more than the majority of the people in this age. Do you all enjoy being told what to eat? How high your grass must be? How you should spend your money? Having every facet of your life dictated and regulated by some egomaniacal bureacrat? If not, why do you let the loss of freedom continue unabated?
Time and time again you choose by the majority of your opinions and the plurality of your votes to close the door on those freedoms and bind yourselves into increased servitude. I'm sad and I like Broccoli (Maureen, make sure that makes the list if it doesn't cause too much global warming)
The tide of totalitarianism that is rising through this country and around the world depresses and disheartens me. When exposure to that negative energy is making my life less enjoyable then there is no reason to continue hitting myself with the hammer.
With that I bid blogcritics Adieu. (the technical issues and 'technorati monster' escaping didn't help either)
7 - Glenn Contrarian
Maureen -
"More than 50 million people will die from this"
Yes, but not in four months. You're also forgetting that in 1918, the world population was only about a billion.
Extrapolate the numbers, and if H1N1 mutates as it did then, we're looking at possibly 350 million dead - that's more than every man, woman, and child in America.
I would recommend that while our diet is certain of significant concern, other concerns take precedence - such as H1N1, tracking of near-earth objects (remember Shoemaker-Levy 9?), and global warming.
8 - Jordan Richardson
The proposal of providing good, healthy food to kids and providing information pertaining to healthy choices and exercise is something we do in Canada.
Amazingly, I'm still able to have my "tot of rum" secure in the knowledge that children are given more healthy options at schools traditionally stocked to the rafters in burgers and fries.
To suggest that this is some sort of issue of "freedom" is idiotic. To compare some sort of responsible system of education and healthy choices to a dictatorship is insulting to the memory of everyone who has had to live through such a society.
But in the land of hyperbole, I guess I'm not surprised that this "totalitarian, OMG my freedoms are disappearing" crap comes up time and time again.
Kudos for drawing attention to this issue, Maureen. A healthier society would have less strain on Medicare and other health systems and we'd start to see less incidents of disease, including the alarming rise of diabetes. It's a good thing to hope for.
Up here, we've eliminated trans fats and nobody's cried about having their "freedom" taken away. Maybe it's because we can actually relate to the issue in context and with reason rather than assuming that today it's trans fats, tomorrow it's our property...
Oooh, scary. Honestly, it's no wonder people feel so hopeless and are getting to be so damn violent with the repetition of doom and gloom from the right continuing crowing about disappearing "liberty" and the entire change of society.
Everyone to your bomb shelters! Somebody wants kids to be healthier!
Noooooooooo!
I would recommend that while our diet is certain of significant concern, other concerns take precedence - such as H1N1, tracking of near-earth objects (remember Shoemaker-Levy 9?), and global warming.
Agreed. That doesn't mean it isn't a worthwhile issue to discuss, though.
9 - Jordan Richardson
By the way, where are the alarmist articles about the DTV conversion for tomorrow? Isn't this yet another example of the government taking away your freedom to use analog television? And what about the VHS to DVD conversion? More freedoms, out the window!
Don't forget switching from vinyl to cassette to CD to MP3! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah, bring lots of perishable foods, Martha, the world's ending!
10 - Jordan Richardson
Oh, and one more thing Maureen:
How dare you attempt to tell the corporations and manufacturers of "foods" like Oreos to actually list the ingredients and other information on their boxes before selling to consumers? Next thing you know, you'll be telling people to put labels on cigarette boxes!
For shame!
11 - Clavos
500,000,000
Etched in granite.
12 - Ruvy
Extrapolate the numbers, and if H1N1 mutates as it did then, we're looking at possibly 350 million dead - that's more than every man, woman, and child in America.
I see you're whistling a different tune past the graveyard about the piggie flu, Glenn. Glad you're coming round to seeing the possibilities that have been evident to me for a couple of years or so.
Maureen,
I have to agree with Glenn, at least about the piggie flu.
What you've described in your article is a systemic crisis arising from the impulse buying system of marketing in the United States and Europe and all the unfortunates in their shadow (including Israel).
The piggie flu (bird flu and all the other lovelies piggie-backing for the viral ride) constitute a crisis that can kill at least 350 million people in a matter of a few months (if it follows the numerical patterns of the Spanish flu). That's very different.
Add to this the likelihood of financial collapse (you can't print trillions of dollars with no backing whatever and expect no hyper-inflation) at about the same time the piggie flu strikes, and you have what we call in Yiddish tzuris, and lots of it.
These things have to come before dealing with the systemic crisis you describe. It could be that between the piggie flu and the coming financial maelstrom, the concepts of impulse marketing will go into the toilet they deserve. I cannot say. Maybe they will. I don't know.
But the immediate killer crises (and the final stroke of the bad banking system) have to come before the systemic crisis of misfeeding children.
13 - Glenn Contrarian
Ruvy -
I've been beating the drum about H1N1 for years now. I posted an article warning of it back in February...less than two weeks before it appeared
14 - zingzing
"Yes, but not in four months. You're also forgetting that in 1918, the world population was only about a billion."
yes, but you forget that that was 1918.
15 - zingzing
if i die from pig flu, i'll let you know (to run away [from my corpse]).
16 - Ruvy
I read your articles, Glenn, both of them. A while back you were writing about all the "good news" of the piggy flu. You appear to have changed your tune since.
zing, I have no desire to be anywhere near the United States - it will be hard hit by the pig flu, very hard hit, and your contemptuous attitude will disappear as you start to fear for your life. So enjoy your contemptuous attitude while you can. Oh, by the way, since you are an "anonymous" commenter here - you never post a blog site, or post articles - if you do drop dead for some reason or other, there will be no "RIP" for you here, like there is for "Mr. Real Estate" the late John Rudd.
17 - Political Common Sense
Have we forgotten about personal responsibility? Has it become so easy to sit back and let the Nanny watch over every aspect of our lives that we cannot decide what and how much to place on our plate? I have found that it is relatively easy to decide what to give children for lunch. It simply takes giving up fifteen minutes of your precious sleep in the morning in order to prepare a meal that is carried to school. Dare I say this is a valid option?
Additionally, I honestly believe it does not take a warning label to tell me that my "king sized" processed chocolate and who knows what candy bar is not the greatest for me. Thankfully I have enough intelligence to know that one of these in a month is probably more than I need, so they are rarely consumed. When they are however, it is with great pleasure.
As to the flu, I submit that it too is more bark than bite however, it has the potential to turn into something that cannot be controlled. Therein is the difference. We can control our diet through will and effort. The flu cannot be controlled even through "best practices".
18 - STM
The swine-flu this week almost stopped a number of games in the National Rugby League in Australia, with some players testing positive and others in quarantine.
Those affected were recently in Melbourne for a big State representative game (Queensland vs New South Wales, which for some reason they played in the southern state of Victoria). Melbourne seems to be the worst affected with 1300 or so cases now confirmed by the Victorian health department.
Of course, the rep players went back to their clubs in NSW, Qld, Victoria and New Zealand ... thus upping the ante even more.
Remember of course, that being in the southern hemisphere, it's winter in Australia and this is our flu season.
The one bit of good news: most of those who've had it describe it as not being much worse than a common cold. Some people have claimed the Tamiflu medication used to treat has actually made them feel sicker than the virus.
Mutation, as people here point out, IS the big fear, though ...
Let's hope it stays as innocuous as it has seemed so far.
(There have been no swine-flu deaths in Oz).
As for Maureen's contentions ... good luck tryingb to stop people eating and drinking stuff that tastes good.
Only when bad stuff is injected with green colour and made to taste like limp broccoli or overdone brussels sprouts will people stop ingesting it.
19 - Ruvy
Stan, the problem is not with eating food that tastes good - or even food with good taste - like Charlie the Tuna. An organically grown tomato, for example, tastes a whole lot better than the sprayed kind. It just costs three times as much. Who has the money?
Maureen's article is an excellent illustration of the negation of an ancient Sanskrit affirmation, "we WILL NOT throw poison at each other".
The amount of unneccesary crap stuck in foods as "insecticides", "flavor enhancers", "preservatives", "food colorings" etc., etc. etc.; the unnaturally high sugar and salt content in almost all foods - like ketchup - all bring on a stack of diseases.
Marketing Coca Cola means marketing sugar water that makes you thirsty as all hell. I see the idiots in the Israel Police drinking Coke on hot days, addicted to the sugar and totally dehydrated as well. So all they get from their consumption of Coca Cola is thirst and cavities.
Then there are the chickens. Don't get me started on the damned chickens. There are two elements to kosher meat. On the Sabbath, while the animal is still alive, it is supposed to rest. This is Jewish Law! Then when the animal is supposed to die, there is a specific way to slaughter it, and the blood is drained completely (or as completely as possible) and therefore the animal is salted slightly.
In Israel, they are experts at the slaughter part. It is done to perfection, and in this country, you can have a "kosher" T-bone steak, something generally not available to Jews who seek to keep kosher in the States.
But while the animal is alive, it is stuck in a small pen, stuffed with corn, drugs, and forbidden to move seven days a week! The animal gets no Sabbath, as is required by Jewish Law! Tell this to a butcher at a store, and he'll just say, "the rabbi said this is kosher, and this is what's for sale. Do you want to buy it or not?" As to the chickens, the rabbis get even more elegant with their evasiveness so as not to have to overturn their own ricebowls. The Hebrew term in the Torah from which this concept is derived is behemetkhá - "your beast". The rabbis say, that the word behemá refers to cattle and not to 'of - fowl. So the chickens and turkeys are penned up, stuffed with drugs to make them unnaturally heavy, and given no Sabbath at all. All this food is called "kosher". At four times the price, roughly $20 a kilo, you probably can get chickens that are raised as free running with no drugs or preservatives. I do not have $20 a kilo to spend on chicken for the Sabbath.
So we are forced by poverty to lie to ourselves and say that the meat is kosher. And the rabbis lie to us as well. What bullshit! What hypocrisy!!
The Jews who lie about food being kosher in Israel will be punished by a G-d Who does not like being mocked.
20 - Jordan Richardson
Political Common Sense,
Any proposed idea here has to do with regulations. Nobody is forcing anyone to portion, nor is anyone proposing some form of prohibition.
The fact of the matter is that many people in Western civilization simply don't know what goes into their food anymore. Ruvy's post correctly identifies this and adds the cost argument, which is one my wife and I are dealing with currently due to our desire to eat organic foods and local produce while on a pretty limited income. Nevertheless, we've chosen to "go organic" anyways and take money out of other areas to do so.
This is all a personal choice and it will never not be a personal choice. These comments about a "nanny state" just repeat more political buzzwords, while this issue really is about health awareness. Many people are simply not aware of what goes into an Oreo. They buy them because they taste good (they should, they're chemically engineered to taste good just like McD's is) and because they're generally more affordable options.
If we were made more aware, constantly and openly, of the content of these products and the potential side effects (we are made aware of these facts in drugs already), I think people would be more educated to make more informed choices. Again, choices.
This type of discussion is all about mandating the accessibility of information to those who otherwise don't have access to it. Product information might not change how I shop, but it actually does make a difference in how many others do. I've seen it happen.
And look, let's just discuss this honestly. This isn't about taking away personal responsibility; it's about promoting healthy choices. This isn't about removing freedoms; it's about allowing people the ability to access information about health and the foods they eat. It's about truth in advertising and giving kids health choices.
How many more cases of obesity do you need to prove that this is a relevant issue? That doesn't even cover all of the related conditions that come up because of obesity or the strain a largely obese population can have on the economy or health care. If you ask me, that is what personal responsibility is all about.
21 - Jordan Richardson
Ha! Nice slip-up, G. My first sentence should say "has nothing to do with regulations."
I'm soooo busted. Here I was trying to sneak tofu into American public schools. Fuck, I'd be better off trying to sneak in prayer.
22 - Maureen Jeanson
Exactly Jordan--responsibility would stemmed from being informed! We as a society are not fully informed what the nutritional information on the back of those cookies even means. Some say "oh wake up and make your kids lunches" Sure that is a fantastic option, one I do for my own kids. However, does it not irritate you that your hard earned money that you pay in taxes is buying those oreos for the other kids in school? My money pays for precursors to disease and death because we as a lazy nation allow the companies to profit over poisoning us--because it tastes good? That is a defense? I don't care because it tastes good? Using illicit drugs feels good as well--let's open the flood gates and allow anything in--right?
23 - Clavos
How many more cases of obesity do you need to prove that this is a relevant issue?
How many more cases of obesity do you need to prove that more information on the label won't change that?
People overeat because it's pleasurable, and label packaging won't change that.
Those who are fat today already know it's bad for their health, that's why the diet book market is so strong. And yet, obesity continues to grow (pun intended).
Cigarette packages have had warnings for decades -- and people still smoke.
You want to stamp out obesity? When UHC kicks in, refuse to pay for treatment for illnesses like diabetes.
24 - Maureen Jeanson
You can slip in prayer to schools--we passed that in the 1950's by adding God to the pledge and to our money. However, we can't step on the toes of the over-weight by suggesting their children will meet their God sooner if they continue to dine at McD's as frequently as they do. Yeah--we as a country allow McDonald's food into your school cafeterias. You pay for that as well, aren't you glad?
25 - Maureen Jeanson
Clavos--it is more than labeling etc. It is so much more than that. We have regulations on automobiles because of the science keeping us in tune with dangers. I don't see anyone pitching a fit over the regulations to improve carseat safety or laws that children should be buckled up.
We can't rely on common sense to wash our hands to prevent the plague but we are expected to apply that same rule to the food we buy at the market--when we have no idea how much of it is genetically engineered. We are not meant to eat this food--we are not evolving to eat this food and survive.
Why did humans become instinct? Stupidity and freedom.