Childhood Obesity - A Public Health Crisis

From Dr. Thomas Robinson's talk at Stanford University this evening.

There are many causes for it - a toxic environment is the primary one.

This problem has come up for adults only in the last 30 years, when no state had obesity of > 20% to today, when all states have obesity of > 20%, and in some states it is > 30%. Children are not too far behind. Here is a summary of reasons:

1. Food companies are coming up with new varieties of food. Last year, 19,000 new varieties of food came out. Innovation is good, but it is also known that the more different varieties there are, the more people will consume them.
2. Ignoring USDA portion-sizes. The smallest order of French Fries you can get at McDonald's is more than 2x the size of a single serving as stated by USDA. Of course, medium and large are even larger.
3. Related to the above, portion sizes are going up. 8 oz bottles used to be standard for coke. That gave way to 12 oz cans, and then to 16oz bottles. Today, it is rare to find vending machines with bottles smaller than 20 oz.
   
4. Promotion. In some ads, more calories are being equated to greater manhood, and those who consume fewer calories are being called wimps.
   
5. Other effects of advertising. In a double-blind study, kids given the same food in two containers - one in plain box and the other in a McDonald's box stated that the one in McDonald's box tasted much better. In fact, McDonald's spends $1.3B per year on advertising - that is more than the entire budget of the FDA.
   
6. Decreasing fast-food prices. The two main ones are high-fructose corn syrup, and soya fats - both coming from crops subsidized by the US government.
7. Screen time. Time in front of a TV has many negative effects including: a) It displaces physical acivity, b) Children eat junk food while watching, c) Effect of advertising, and d) Children with TV's in their rooms tend to sleep less.
   

This needs to be a global, national, local and personal priority.

Giving children the negative effects of obesity won't work. Studies have found that the following work better.

1. Fun/taste
2. Choice and control
3. Goals and challenges
4. Pride and sense of accomplishment
5. Peer / social approval and disapproval
6. Parent / adult approval and disapproval
7. Personal appearance

So, we know it is a problem, we know what the causes are, and we know what works. What are we waiting for? I hope we can reverse the current worry that for the first time in history, the current generation's longevity will be lower than the previous generations's.

The enigma about followers of conservatives

Today's New York Times has an article on the myth of liberal activist judges - Our Fill-in-the Blank Constitution. It is a myth that has been created an perpetuated by conservatives to suit their interests.

Here is how it describes conservative interests:

Conservative judges ... tend to exercise the power of judicial review to invalidate laws that disadvantage corporations, business interests, the wealthy and other powerful interests in society. They employ judicial review to protect the powerful rather than the powerless.

And, liberals

Liberal judges, on the other hand, have tended to exercise the power of judicial review to invalidate laws that disadvantage racial and religious minorities, political dissenters, people accused of crimes and others who are unlikely to have their interests fully and fairly considered by the majority. Liberal judges have ended racial segregation, recognized the principle of “one person, one vote,” prohibited censorship of the Pentagon Papers and upheld the right to due process, even at Guantánamo Bay.

Of this is indeed true, then why do the less powerful, and the poor in the US become conservatives. That comes back to my blog from a few days ago - The politics of fear vs. the politics of hope. Conservatives have mastered the art of fear, and succeed in scaring the people to follow their cause. This also explains the oft-quoted statement - why do people vote against their self-interest. Not to say that the liberals are above it, but they do it much less.