THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 26, January 27, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
I'M FAT. YOU'RE FAT. AND YOUR KIDS ARE TOO.
By Alan Caruba
THE MOST EFFECTIVE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM OF BEING OVERWEIGHT IN MODERN SOCIETY: LESS FOOD
CONSUMPTION & MORE EXERCISE, NOT MORE GOVERNMENT REGULATION & CONTROL OF ECONOMIC ACTIVITY -- THE
INDIVIDUAL'S WISE DECISIONMAKING & ACTION WITH REGARD TO HIS OR HER OWN PERSONAL DIETARY & EXERCISE
REGIMEN, RATHER THAN INCREASED GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION INTO THE MARKETPLACE
FULL STORY:
If you want the government, federal, state and local, to tell you what you can and cannot eat, please raise your hand.
Apparently no one does, except for the various politicians who think they were elected to determine what you should eat
and drink.
Let’s get something straight, however. I’m fat. You’re fat. And your kids, if you have any, are probably overweight too.
There are some easily understood reasons for this, and economist, Eric A. Finkelstein, along with Laurie Zuckerman, tells
us what they are in their new book, The Fattening of America: How the Economy Makes Us Fat, If it Matters, and
What to Do About it.
Looking to the government for answers, however, is predictably a bad idea. Sally C. Pipes, President of the Pacific
Research Institute, points out that “government data about what constitutes ‘overweight’ and ‘obese’ are misleading.”
The standard metric for this is a person’s body-mass index (BMI). It is the ratio of one’s height to one’s weight. It is a
measurement standard that “does not take into account an individual’s body type.” Some athletes would be categorized
as obese, but their weight comes more from muscle than fat.
We keep hearing that America is in the midst of an “obesity epidemic,” and this is just hype. Americans in general have
put on more pounds, but an epidemic is a term applied to diseases that are quickly spread, whereas the only thing
spreading in America is our waistlines. It’s happening worldwide and even occurring in the world’s poorest countries.
Finkelstein notes that “an astounding 1.6 billion people -- or roughly 25 percent of the planet’s population -- are [in a]
higher than normal weight range, and 400 million of these are considered obese, according to a Fall, 2005, report by the
United Nation’s World Health Organization.”
There are cultural and racial characteristics, too, that play a role in overweight. “As was the case 30 years ago, excess
weight remains more common among African-Americans and Hispanic children than among whites.” And, if the kids are
fat, their parents are likely to be fat, too.
Plainly said, Americans are just eating more. “Between the late 1970s and today, men have increased their daily food
intake by about 180 calories and woman have increased their daily food intake by about 360 calories.” For men that’s the
equivalent of a pint of beer and, for women, it’s a four-ounce slice of chocolate cake. Over all, according to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), men now consume 2,600 calories per day and woman now consume 1,900
calories daily.
A major contributing factor has been the price of food, which has dropped 38 percent relative to the prices of other
goods and services. Add to this the fact that, “high-calorie foods have become much cheaper compared to healthier
alternatives such as fish, fruits, and vegetables.” Fast food establishments have thrived in the U.S., and even
restaurants serve large portions these days. It’s Economics 101. Cheaper food equals eating more.
In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom recently announced he intends to tax retail chains for stocking Coke, Pepsi, and
other drinks sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. He is typical of politicians who (a) think raising taxes on anything
is a good idea and (b) haven’t a clue about nutrition.
Henry Miller, a physician and fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, the author of The Frankenfood
Myth, points out that “In sweetness, high-fructose corn syrup is equal in intensity to disaccharide sucrose, otherwise
known as table sugar.” Moreover, “Sugar and high-fructose corn syrup also have essentially the same affect on the
body’s production of insulin, which helps burn calories and lowers blood sugar.” According to the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Americans actually consume less high-fructose corn syrup than sugar.
As the price of corn continues to rise, thanks to the government mandates for the use of ethanol as a gasoline additive, so
will the price of hundreds of thousands of food products that have relied on this sweetener. Corn syrup, for example, is
about 20 percent cheaper than table sugar. Government intervention in agricultural practices and prices, as well as energy
choices, has a history of being wrong, wrong, and wrong.
The other factor that is making most of us fatter than we want to be is a lack of exercise. We burn less calories because so
many of us live largely sedentary lives. Finkelstein notes that, “roughly one fourth of U.S. adults get no leisure-time
activity at all.” Then add in the way technology has radically reduced energy use at work, at home, and everywhere else.
We use remote control to change television channels. We cook food in microwaves. We have devices to effortlessly do
most things our grandparent’s generation had to do physically -- such as mow the lawn, wash the car, et cetera. Or we hire
illegal immigrants to do much of the physical work.
Sedentary? You bet! We spend more time sitting in cars. Fully 88 percent of us drove to work in 2000, as opposed to the 3
percent who walked or 5 percent who used public transportation. Our kids spend more time watching television or playing
video games than playing outside, burning off their calories. An estimated 10 percent of high school students are
completely sedentary. Constant testing and increased homework loads contribute to that.
Lastly, there is the genetic component that politicians and the “food police” folks want to ignore. Studies have determined
that, “The genetic component of obesity [is] as much as 70 percent of the differences between individual’s body weights
[that] can be attributed to biological factors.” The fact that we're the most pill-popping society in history is yet another
factor. “Many of the best-selling prescription drugs, including those that treat common conditions such as diabetes, mental
illness and arthritis, have one thing in common; individuals who take these prescriptions are likely to experience weight gain
— and not just a pound or two.”
So, eat less and exercise more are still the best answers, if you think you’re overweight or want to avoid excess pounds. Or
you could just sit back and watch all the television commercials for diet solutions, mouth-watering and inexpensive fast food,
or the cars in which to drive to local restaurants.
Whatever you do, blaming the Big Corporations that simply provide what you want and demanding that government ban
various elements of the food supply is not going to change anything. It won’t reduce your waist size, but it will increase
your loss of personal freedom and choice.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Science, Ethics, & Human Health:
Human Health & Public Policy
The American Political & Cultural Left:
Liberals, Statists, Socialists, & Other Leftists
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba has a daily blog at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2008
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity