Indeed, overeating has become a critical national
issue. According to Dr. Julie
Gerberding, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
“If you looked at any epidemic—whether it’s influenza or plague from the
Middle Ages—they are not as serious as the epidemic of obesity in terms of the
health impact on our country and our society.”
Data from the National Center for Health Statistics indicate that 30% of
U.S. adults 20 or older are obese—that is, over 60 million people-- and another
35% are overweight.
Health officials have long maintained that weight issues
lead to significantly more health problems, not to speak of the high financial
cost required to deal with them.
According to the CDC, being obese, or just overweight, increases the
risk of numerous serious ailments including coronary heart disease, stroke,
type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and some cancers. Other studies have described a link between
obesity and depression.
Despite this evidence, our march toward obese superpower
status only seems to quicken. What other
country in the world could offer a competitive tour, like the USTA or PGA, that
consists of winning big prize money for eating the most grilled cheese
sandwiches, asparagus, pulled pork, tacos, matzo balls, hot dogs or fried
chicken wings? What are the reasons for
this modern-day, biblical-proportioned plague?
Professional and academic studies emphasize greater food
availability at ever-lower prices as primary causes. Many studies also point to continuous
replacement of physically intensive labor by desk work, and decreasing levels
of exercise in our leisure activities.
These factors no doubt contribute significantly, but it
seems to me that increased availability of food is not in itself the primary
cause of obesity. Rather, it seems that
the ubiquity of food provides an easy anodyne for coping with widespread and
profound emotional hunger. Problems in
family stability, a harshly competitive society, and an overly fast-paced life
have been often-cited reasons for a kind of hunger that medical, religious and
civic institutions cannot seem to abet.
These stress-related problems have led to a rampant consumerism that
demands “more” of everything, and “more” now rather than later. Because of
food’s connection to our survival and the people we were mostly dependent upon
as young children, eating becomes a primary vehicle for satisfying a hunger
that has little to do with survival or even eating enough to live very well.
The answer to reducing our obesity problem is not simple. We
are all familiar with the nostrum of eating less and exercising more, but its
truth has had little effect. A friend
who counsels people on the gamut of weight-related and substance abuse problems
told me that getting people to sustain weight loss is more difficult than
having them kick a drinking or drug habit.
What else then?
Certainly a vigorous national education campaign, emphasizing the
connection between emotional hunger and overeating (as well as the obvious
dangers to health that overeating can cause) could be quite helpful. Some efforts have been made along these
lines, but they have lacked the energy and intensity of the anti-smoking
campaign, and have not led to decreased obesity rates; on the contrary, they
continue to rise.
Restraining food purchases and sales through regulations and
taxes might have some effect, but, like other supply-control measures I don’t
think they would work very well. What is most important is for all of us to come
to grips with what there is in our family lives, other personal relationships,
professional activities and social institutions that contribute to our
compelling need for food, despite the obvious dangers. This can be a painful process, but hopefully,
we as individuals and as a society can tolerate this kind of inquiry, and, by
understanding obesity’s deeper causes, gradually deal with it. (Baltimore Sun op-ed, 10/8/2006).
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