America Obesity Epidemic?

People often talk about obesity being an epidemic. As if there was something in the water that was somehow making us all larger. Recently, in the news there was a story about how Americans are now 20 pounds heavier than they were 20 years ago. The average weight for men is around 196 and 160 for woman (note these figures are self reported). Around 62% of Americans are overweight or obese. You have to be careful because many times people are overweight or obese as defined by BMI (Body Mass Index). This can be misleading because some people have more muscle which makes it appear they are overweight. There is a prediction that by 2030 more than ½ of Americans will be obese. The problem with this prediction is trends don’t persist forever. People start to wake up and realize they are overweight and start working out and start to eat more sensibly. The problem is often is it hard to keep up this up. There are predictions that life expectancy will decrease in the coming years because we have so many overweight people.

Many people have tried to pinpoint the causes of the rise in weight gain. Some people blame genes, shifts in the role of work lives, and individual choices. Blaming genes to me is a red herring. I would agree that some people might carry genes that could make them more likely to be heavy but I don’t think somehow overnight genes just made people bigger. A better explanation might be because of the changes in the role of the family. Years ago most housewives cooked nightly meals for the family. Times changed and housewives moved into the labor force. This would allow less time for making home cooked meals like in the good old days. Today, it seems as if people get more take out, fast food, or pick up pre-made meals from the store. According to a survey done by CBS in 2005 21% of families ate out at restaurants 2-3 nights a week. Around 17% of people ate fast food 2-3 nights per week. Years ago people rarely went out to a restaurant to eat (usually it was for a special occasion). Fast food companies like McDonalds, KFC, and even Taco Bell were are formed before the 1970’s but people didn’t really start eating at these places until the 1980’s and 1990’s.

However, what I find interesting is why everyone is so worried about how much other people weigh. Shouldn’t we be more concerned about our own health? Somehow people think overweight or obese people are a problem. If anything it helps non-overweight/obese people because it makes them relatively more attractive. I suppose people don’t like the “externality” of looking at large people (which I am sympathetic to). However, people should be able to eat and drink what they want. We all should have the freedom to choose what we put into our bodies. After all we own our own body.

Diabetes "Cure"

A recent study showed that people that only consumed 600 calories for 8 weeks may reverse diabetes. So 11 people were in the study (not very large, usually need at least 30 for a good sample size) and for 8 weeks drank a liquid diet of vegetables. Although, this doesn’t sound pleasant I am sure more people would be interested if this method could reverse diabetes. What is really interesting however is that 3 months after going off the 600 calorie diet 7 of the 11 were free of diabetes (remember they were only on the diet for 2 months). The average weight loss was 33 pounds. Considering the average weight of the patients was 220 pounds this is still a substantial amount of weight loss. What is also interesting is that the fat in the patients’ pancreases decreased in the time of the study. Before the study there was about 8% fat in the pancreas. After the study the level of fat was 6%. Apparently fat is stored in the liver and pancreas when we consume more calories than we burn.

Considering 25 million people have Type 2 diabetes this is interesting news. I doubt whether many people could go through 8 weeks of only consuming 600 calories per day. It would be interesting to see a follow up study where patients would consume either: 600, 700, or 800 calories and then see what affect that would have on the body. Also the real question is how long someone would have to be on this diet to actually reverse diabetes. The body has a system for homeostasis (calibrating things back to normal). Also if the fat is stored in the pancreas and liver what would happen if fat could somehow be removed from these areas? I didn’t even mention throwing in Type II diabetes drugs which could even help the outcome. I am sure more studies will be done in the future and have a feeling there will be no miracle pill for obesity, diabetes, or any other serious illness.

More importantly I think people think of obesity as a bigger problem than it actually is. Some people argue that it is in our genes that cause us to be obese. I wouldn’t deny this, however if genes were the cause how did so many people become obese even when their parents weren’t obese? Food has become more plentiful, cheaper, and easier to access. People also are working fewer jobs that require physical labor. It would be interesting to see a chart of rates of obesity and the percent of people with manufacturing jobs. Also people don’t assume there is any benefit to being obese. If people want to live fewer years of live but consume really tasty food who are we to deny them? People claim that life expectancy will decrease with the current generation. I don’t find this too compelling when drug companies keep innovating and we are just beginning the journey with figuring out the human genome. We will only know more about the human body and food in the years to come not less. The question is whether people do anything with this information.