| Livin’ (Too) Large |
| Thursday, 30 July 2009 17:53 | |||
 Every so often articles and reports begin to appear, usually in clusters that concern the obesity epidemic – with some reporters treating the issue as if they had just been made aware of the problem themselves, and couldn’t wait to provide us with the alarming statistics.
I must admit that each time I read the ‘latest’ I do receive news I hadn’t previously known – the most recent being that the United States no longer leads the world in being overweight. We’re up there, but several European countries are ahead of us on the fat curve. One of the recent articles concluded that part of the reason for our tendency to over-munch is that we’ve been wired for eons to do so. The article maintained that as we became upright and our brains grew, we needed more to feed that growing muscle sitting on top of our heads, so we could remain adept at hunting, gathering, nurturing and later – farming. We had to eat to survive. But that was then; this is now. But this pre-history statement posed in my mind a question: 40-50 years ago our brains weren’t exactly puny, and I doubt that we as a species have advanced that much in the last three generations to have seen our brains significantly altered. Yet 50 years ago a much smaller percentage of us were considered portly. What happened? From 1997-2004 our company was a sub-contractor to the United Soybean Board. Our challenge was to promote soyfoods and soy-enhanced foods to the nation’s food service directors (spread out over the nation at six schools selected for this project). Our proposal to these hard-pressed professionals was to suggest that if soy-enhanced entrees and side dishes were introduced into weekly school menus 2-3 times a week, it would be a healthy way to help combat childhood obesity. The work was done successfully, but uncovered other concerns, used in later programs to build our effectiveness in dealing with a target that was still young, impressionable, and easier to steer away from bad habits. But like many good efforts, funds were re-allocated, and the jump start we helped bring about came to an end. Being in the trenches during those years confirmed many of our suspicions. Much of what has changed over the past 50 years we found was due to a combination of laziness, lack or unwise use of funds, over-the-top advertising efforts meant to “supersize” everything, including ourselves, and a change in lifestyle dangerous to one’s general physical health. There was also, we found, a serious connection loss between parent, child and teacher, and large groups attached in various ways to weight control that either hadn’t done their homework (and thus took the wrong approach) or were in it for personal gain and/or recognition. There were also the mental factors wrapped around those bulging young middles – which, when combined with the other dynamics are all reasons why today more than a third of little guys now in early grade school are overweight or soon will be, and if not directed and helped, will become overweight adults. Most of us are aware of these things. But today there are other issues that figure in – the other ills facing our nation and the world: war, wasteful spending, the healthcare issue, corporate greed and the like must all be factored into the “degree of importance” spectrum. As with everything we battle today, there is no quick fix to obesity, and it will get worse before it gets better. Have we, as discerning, basically good, smart, tough people lost the will to correct this specific problem given time, or can we reverse the trend? Hard to say: In the meantime, since the thought of my grandchildren’s generation having a shorter lifespan than my own is unthinkable to me, should anyone ask my opinion, I’ll be happy to provide it – if you can show me those in charge can learn from history and help create and sustain an affordable program that will work.
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