Report on Global Obesity/Globesity



Case Study: Globesity

Cathy Bodin, Sid Brown, Amy Emm and Pam Keystone

The World Health Organization reports that in 1995 there were approximately 200 million obese adults worldwide. By 2000 the number had increased to 300 million. Obesity continues to threaten world health by aggravating such chronic diseases as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and cancers ()

Accessed 12 June 2012). Recently, The New York Times decried America’s poor food habits: a diet too rich in sugars, fats, and salt and overlarge portions, especially in restaurant meals. Americans suffer from a lack of physical activity at work and outside of it; the modern city gives few opportunities for safe pedestrian traffic and outdoor play (“How do you put a nation on a diet?” Philip M. Boffey, The New York Times, . Accessed 19 June 2012). Ironically, the same health effects and causes obtain both here and abroad, in industrialized and in non-industrialized countries, and among rich and poor alike. The United Nations has declared obesity a world-wide epidemic.

The cure to the obesity epidemic is elementary, the W.H.O. argues: increased physical activity and a limited calorie intake. But a flourishing diet industry argues implicitly that the cure is hard to implement. Americans spend about $40 million on weight-loss annually. Still, 34% of Americans, and 18% of kids, are obese (). Overindulging in the midst of plenty is silently killing us and we are failing to stop it. Gary Taubes argues that our failure ought to be an indictment of the solution we have chosen. He proposes that only a revolution in our food economy and in our thinking about food will effectively combat obesity. To understand global obesity and to combat it with effective policy, a variety of forces must be taken into account including the economic (Tomer), biological (O'Rahilly and Farooqi), cultural (Matejovsky, Mihesuah), and spiritual (Ayers, Miles).

One common culprit is the high-fructose corn syrup that now composes 10% of the American daily diet, and 20% for many children. It derives from the single corn species of zea mays, the beneficiary of a whopping federal subsidy that not only creates excess production but makes this foodstuff the world’s cheapest, immune to market competition. The product then increasingly finds its way into more foodstuffs, invading even cattle feed (but necessitating antibiotics to restore cows’ digestion) (, 6.19.2012).

The U.N. concurs with consumer groups on the role of high-sugar foodstuffs, censuring also the agricultural subsidies that produce them and then flood the international food market. The U.N. cites also the super-advertising of high-calorie foods that is aimed especially at children. U.N. Asst. Secy. De Schutter recommends that the “fat-tax” be levied on high-calorie and high-salt foods and that production return to localities, with obvious advantages to local economies and savings on fuel. He blames the American fast-food culture in particular. ‘Governments have been focusing on increasing calorie availability, but they have often been indifferent to what kind of calories are on offer, at what prices, to whom they are accessible, and how they are marketed’” () (6.19.2012)

The global food economy has subverted infrastructure and cultural traditions that supported fit and healthy populations only a generation ago. Germany, for example, has widely accessible public transportation, pedestrian zones and bike lines, as well as smaller refrigerators and a tradition of modest evening meals. Yet Germany has become one of the fattest nations in Europe.[1] It now ranks 52nd globally for the number of obese adults. [2] Other European nations have shot ahead of Germany in recent years: Scotland (25th), England (30th), Greece, (33rd), Poland (37th), Italy (46th), Spain (49th) and Ireland (51st). Denmark, Romania, Hungary and France have already levied “fat-taxes,” while Germany has preferred to regulate marketing (mainly to children) and has focused on educating its citizens about diet and exercise. Yet obesity continues to strain Germany’s industries and traditions.[3]

A change of habits is clearly required. Hearteningly, more information than ever before is in the public domain on nutrition, diet cuisine, exercise, medicine, the psychology of habits, and the political dimensions of the problem. It may be true that all approaches must be incorporated. One, notably, is lacking heretofore in the discussion—the spiritual dimension. Some argue that the problems of obesity have arisen at least in part because America’s deeper food cultures have been marginalized by the relatively recent fast food culture, which arose in the 1950’s. As it spreads across the world, it marginalizes other food cultures as well. Thus one response is to explore what other cultures have to offer. For example, Buddhist texts invite monastics to chant aloud daily a passage related to the purpose of eating—one eats not to become more beautiful, not for sensual enjoyment of the food, but rather for feeding the body so that it can endure and seek an end to suffering and cultivate such values as generosity, loving-kindness, and compassion. Further, some researchers on obesity have helped by training sufferers to be more mindful as they eat. Another way that food culture can be changed is through religious organizations. Churches, temples, synagogues mosques, and other religious institutions can reinvigorate the food customs of the world.

For further reading:

Ayers, John W., et. al. “Can Religion Help Prevent Obesity? Religious Messages and the Prevalence of Being Overweight or Obese Among Korean Women in California.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (2010) 49(3):536–549.

Matejovsky, Ty. “Fast Food and Nutritional Perceptions in the Age of 'Globesity': Perspectives from the Provincial Philippines.” Food and Foodways. Vol. 17:1 (January 2009) : 29-49.

Mihesuah, Devon A. “Decolonizing Our Diets by Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens.” American Indian Quarterly 27:3/4, 807-839.

Miles, Margaret R. “Religion and Food: The Case of Eating Disorders.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 63.3, 549-564.

O'Rahilly, Stephen and I. Sadaf Farooqi. “Genetics of Obesity” Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences Vol. 361 (July 29, 2006): 1095-1105.

Taubes, Gary. “The New Obesity Campaigns Have It All Wrong.” Newsweek Vol. 159:20, May 14 2012.

Tomer, John. “What Causes Obesity? And Why Has It Grown So Much?”

Challenge Vol. 54.4 (Aug 2011): 22-49.

Video Resources:

“Bill Moyers Journal: Michael Pollan Interview Pt. 1.:PBS” PBS Feb 5, 2009. Accessed June 22, 2012.

“Michael Pollan: The Omnivore's Dilemma” UCtelevision May 9, 2008. Accessed June 22, 2012.

Websites:

International Association for the Study of Obesity.

World Health Organization: “Obesity”.

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[1] “Germans Are Fattest People in Europe, Study Shows” Der Spiegel. 4/19/2007. Accessed 18 June, 2012.

[2] According to data collected by the International Association for the Study of Obesity, January 2012. (The U.S. is ranked 13th.) Accessed 19 June 2012.

[3] Hanke, Ulf. “Surge in Obesity Sparks Crematorium Blazes.” Der Spiegel. 4/13/2012. Accessed 6/19/2012.

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