{"id":6129,"date":"2012-05-24T06:07:27","date_gmt":"2012-05-24T04:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/?p=6129"},"modified":"2012-05-24T06:07:27","modified_gmt":"2012-05-24T04:07:27","slug":"weight-nation-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/weight-nation-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Weight of the Nation” – Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

IMHO, Part 4 of “The Weight of the Nation,” was the best episode of the series. It did a great job of examining the “big picture”\u00a0contributors to obesity\/obesity-related ills\u00a0introduced in Part 1. These were:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. the mismatch between our genetics and current, industrial\u00a0environment;<\/li>\n
  2. the impact of poverty on people’s food choices and physical activity;<\/li>\n
  3. how\u00a0our toxic food environment is nurtured and promoted by governmental subsidies and the desire for profit.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    None of the above were really news to me – I’ve been reading about this stuff for years. Nonetheless, I thought the writers\/producers covered each topic well.<\/p>\n

    Maybe a little too well: the dominant impression I got about halfway through was “we are really, really screwed.” And – despite the hopeful and upbeat conclusion, I’m still not sure that this impression is wrong. While various local\/regional initiatives to improve the built environment (more sidewalks, parks and bike paths), improve access to fresh food in low-income areas, and promote citizen\/employee wellness are awesome, these efforts could\u00a0easily fizzle out\u00a0in our current economic climate. And\u00a0– unlike Kelly Brownell – I think the food industry will be much<\/em> tougher to deal with than the tobacco industry.\u00a0The basic problem framed by Philip Marineau (former president of the Quaker Oats Co. and Pepsi-Cola North America) still remains to be solved:<\/p>\n

    “Food companies are trying to sell more today than they did yesterday. And if they don’t, then they’re not considered successful. And ultimately, if we are going to be successful in reducing obesity, people are going to consume less. And that’s the conundrum.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Bingo. They may bend a little by tweaking the sugar or fiber content of kids’ breakfast cereals, but in the end, their business model depends on people eating more <\/em>(particularly more packaged, processed products). Unfortunately, solving obesity-related problems depends on people eating less <\/em>(and fewer packaged, processed products). These industry and public health goals are fundamentally incompatible. And – needless to state – the money and power are heavily entrenched on the industry side of things. Right now, it’s good PR to go along with making minor changes to existing products, but\u00a0the industry has already made it quite clear that any real<\/em> change will be fought tooth-and-nail.<\/p>\n

    The monumental nature of the task, however, isn’t a reason\u00a0not to\u00a0try… and that’s perhaps the best message to emerge from Part 4.\u00a0This portion of “The Weight of the Nation” is worth your time, even if you don’t watch any of the other episodes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    IMHO, Part 4 of “The Weight of the Nation,” was the best episode of the series. It did a great job of examining the “big picture”\u00a0contributors to obesity\/obesity-related […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,24,28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}