Download Position Obesity is an epidemic in the United States and a growing

Position
Obesity is an epidemic in the United States and a growing problem worldwide.
Why do so many Americans struggle with weight and weight related illnesses such as
diabetes and high cholesterol? What can we do to stop this epidemic? New York Mayor
Michael Boomberg has begun to take action by proposing a ban on soda over 16 ounces.
I believe that, while this isn’t a fix all to the problem, this is a necessary step in
protecting the health of America. I believe this because it is clear that Americans are not
taking the appropriate steps to protect their health by themselves and the American diet is
currently being dictated by advertising agencies who are more concerned with their
bottom line than the health of our society.
Americans opposed to having their sugary drinks limited to a 16 ounce container
believe that regulating drink size is an infringement on their rights. “Where does it stop?”
is a common question. Will the government soon be able to limit popcorn sizes at the
movies, dessert portions at a bakery, or cooking shows that promote high fat and high
sodium entrees (Ayoob, par 3)? My favorite point made against regulating sugar comes
from Keith T. Ayoob, Director of the Nutrition Clinic at the Rose F. Kennedy Children’s
Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and he
states, “Regulating sugar just reinforces that consumers are "victims," and I can't go
there. Being a victim means two things:
-You're not responsible for your situation and
-Some other person or entity should fix the problem.
That's blame, and blame causes stagnation, not action (Par 5).”
Doubters of soda regulation also say that, although sugar is a problem, it is a
personal problem and should not warrant regulation from the government because one
person’s poor dietary decisions affect them negatively but not society as a whole (Carden,
par 3). On top of the theory that one person’s poor health does not affect the society
around them there is the fact that if an individual cares so deeply about their soda there is
nothing keeping them from buying more than one 16 ounce drink.
The first point that I would like to make and stress is that a diet high in added
sugar and processed food can be detrimental for you health! Avoiding sugar completely
is extremely difficult because humans have evolved to crave it. Sugar is the fundamental
form of energy, but can be deadly if there is too much of it in the bloodstream. Therefore
our ancestors quickly evolved to convert sugar in the bloodstream to fat and store it for
energy when sugar was scarce (Leiberman, par 4). The problem is that in our modern
world there is little to no exercise or physical demand an obscene amount of sugar. The
majority of obese Americans live a sedentary lifestyle and sugar only has one place to be
stored… as fat. In fact here is the amount of exercise it takes to burn off the excess
calories in one soda:
(Mueller)
Americans don’t want their food choices to be decided by the government, but the
truth is that people are out of control with their eating habits. It is understandable to me
that the freedom of choice is what this country was built off of, but when society
continues to make choices that are detrimental to health the government must step in on
behalf of its people.
Despite the health education initiatives put in place in the form of nutrition labels,
public service announcements, and health education in schools people of all ages are still
choosing a diet high in calories and low in nutrients (Schmidt, par 3). This is not entirely
the consumer’s fault. Studies have been shown that people tend to pick what is in front of
them and finish everything that is on their plate (Schmidt, par 4). When school lunch
lines move soda to the top and back of the shelf and milk in plain sight and reach milk
consumption increased (Schmidt, par 5). By banning soda over 16 ounces New York
Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is simply putting outrageously sized soda out of reach.
What and how much we eat are already being controlled by marketing and sales
agencies. Candy bars are put specifically along the checkout aisle to tempt patrons to
impulse buy and put at the eye level of children so that when they see it they want it.
Milk is purposely put at the back of the store so that consumers must walk by every other
product for sale before getting what they came for (Schmidt, par 6). This is precisely why
excess sugar intake does not affect just individuals, but society as a whole. Every
consumer market is organized in such a way that overly processed, high in sugar foods
are easily accessible and actually used to entice consumers by getting a deal on their meal
by adding or upgrading a drink. What’s wrong with the government, who actually has our
health and not the promotion of their product in mind, regulating the amount of empty
calories set in front of us?
The world we live in today is overrun with advertising. Everywhere we go there is
a billboard promoting a less expensive happy meal, a commercial showing a bigger
burger, or that a “value deal” is saving you money if you upgrade to something bigger.
Serving sizes did not used to be this outrageous. Drink sizes in the past 50 years have
quadrupled (Ghorayashi). Over time corporations have increased the amount of cheap
sugar in the food we eat because it will fill consumers up and save them more on their
bottom line. Americans have been conditioned to expect a certain quantity of food and
the selling point is that “it’s a better value.” In reality the best value a consumer can
invest in is their health. Americans can’t be healthy when consuming a sugar laden and
highly processed diet.
In conclusion, obesity is an epidemic that is harming individuals domestically and
worldwide alike. The simple explanation of this is that energy consumption is greater
than energy expenditure (Young and Nestle, Par 1). I understand as well as anyone that
extra time to work out every day is hard to come by. That means that the next best
solution is to decrease calorie consumption. This is a tangible goal that is easily achieved
by decreasing the serving size, and therefore caloric intake, from the biggest source of the
problem--- soda.
Proposal
Obesity is an epidemic sweeping over America that is leading to a multitude of
health problems and a decrease in productivity (Carden, Par 3). The purpose of this
proposal is to decrease obesity by limiting the portion size of junk food such as soda. I
propose that by regulating packaging of portion sizes, clearly stating the amount of added
sugar in grams on nutrition labels, and increasing the availability of healthy alternatives
our nation can overcome obesity.
Serving sizes of soda have increased 4 fold over the past 50 years. The
only size of soda available at McDonalds in 1955 was a 7 ounce cup. Now consumers can
buy soda almost anywhere and have the option to buy a soda up to 128 ounces at many
convenience stores (Ghorayshi, par 1 and 2). This creates a huge problem for Americans
today because 63% of adults were overweight or obese in 2009 and one of the biggest
culprits is unnecessary caloric intake from soda (Cam, pg 3par 7; Hendrick, par 2).
(Gh
orayshi)
The reason that our society has been steadily increasing in obesity is due
to a slight, but steady, increase in energy consumption. Dietary intake surveys have
shown an increase of 200 kcal/day from 1977-1978 to 1994-1996 (Young and Nestle
246). When coupled with a decrease in energy expenditure the results have been deadly
with an increase in American spending up to $150 billion treating "morbidities associated
with metabolic syndrome (Carden, par 3)."
The main cause for this is the fact that Americans are eating out more. Dollars
spent on dining outside of the home increased from 34% to 47% from 1970 to the late
1990’s (Young and Nestle 246). Since Americans are eating out more it is out of an
individual’s control to control their portion sizing. It is possible to ask for a to-go
container and many people do, but a better solution to this problem would be to cut down
on serving sizes. Instead of regulating the size of soda or candy bar that people can buy
the government should regulate the serving size that companies can package. Hopefully,
this would increase awareness of quality over quantity among Americans and one day
soon we could have a healthy relationship with our food like our European counterparts.
Another source of obesity comes from added sugar in many foods that Americans
consume daily. Sugar is common in many different foods like fruits, vegetables, and
milk; but these foods pack nutrients in with their sugars while refined sugars added to
processed foods add nothing but calories. Requiring that the total amount of added sugars
(in teaspoons) be added to nutrition labels would inform consumers about much
unnecessary sugar they consume. The recommended amount of added sugar for women
would be about 6 teaspoons a day, or 100 calories, while for men it would 9 teaspoons a
day (Cam, pg 4 par 1). Can you put that into perspective? Neither can I which is why it
should be clearly stated on nutrition labels. A 12 ounce soda contains 8 teaspoons on
sugar, about 130 calories (Cam, pg 4 par 3).
Finally, the most effective way to cut empty calories from the American diet is to
make healthy alternatives more accessible. I propose that fresh fruit be added to every
check-out line as well as yogurt, and whole grain, minimally processed snacks. In an
ideal world junk food would be removed from the check-out lane entirely, but by adding
healthy options consumers still have the freedom to choose.
If Americans continue to consume energy at the rate we do without increasing
expenditure the future health of our country looks gloom indeed. Now we are facing a
crisis where our children are growing up in an environment saturated with sugary and
highly processed foods, they are living an even more sedentary lifestyle by sitting at the
computer all day when past generations were outside playing, and finally they have very
few places to turn for guidance on a healthy diet. In order to give the future generations
of our country hope we must take control of our health by limiting portions, labeling food
packages clearly, and increasing healthy alternatives.
Works Cited
Ayoob, Keith T. "Consumers Need to Be Empowered, Not Made Into Victims | Debate
Club | US News Opinion." US News & World Report | News & Rankings | Best
Colleges, Best Hospitals, and more. N.p., 30 Mar. 2012. Web. 27 June 2012.
<http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-sugar-be-regulated/consumersneed-to-be-empowered-not-made-into-victims>.
Cam, Katherine, and Jonathon L. Gelfand. "Sugar Health Effects: Is Refined Sugar Bad
For You?." WebMD - Better information. Better health.. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 June
2012. <http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/health-effects-of-sugar>.
LIEBERMAN, DANIEL E.. "Evolution’s Sweet Tooth - NYTimes.com." The
New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. N.p., 5 June 2012.
Web. 27 June 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/06/opinion/evolutionssweet-tooth.html>.
"Sugar Saturates Our Environment | Debate Club | US News Opinion." US News &
World Report | News & Rankings | Best Colleges, Best Hospitals, and more.
N.p., 20 Mar. 2012. Web. 27 June 2012. <http://www.usnews.com/debateclub/should-sugar-be-regulated/sugar-saturates-our-environment>.
Carden, Art. "Taxing Sugar Will Do More Harm Than Good | Debate Club | US News
Opinion." US News & World Report | News & Rankings | Best Colleges, Best
Hospitals, and more. N.p., 30 Mar. 2012. Web. 27 June 2012.
<http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-sugar-be-regulated/taxing-sugarwill-do-more-harm-than-good>.
Ghorayshi, Azeen. "Too Big to Chug: How Our Sodas Got So Huge | Mother Jones."
Mother Jones | Smart, Fearless Journalism. N.p., 25 June 2012. Web. 27 June
2012. <http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/06/supersize-biggest-sodasmcdonalds-big-gulp-chart>.
Mueller, Benjamin. "Like big soft drinks? Check out this calorie count - Pittsburgh PostGazette." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. N.p., 25 June 2012. Web. 27 June 2012.
<http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/health/like-big-soft-drinks-checkout-this-calorie-count-641838/>.
Young, Lisa R, and Marion Nestle. "The Contribution of Exapnding Portion Sizes to the
US Obesity Epidemic." American Journal of Public Health 92.2 (2002): 246-249.
pubmed.gov. Web. 26 June 2012.
Hendrick, Bill. "Percentage of Overweight, Obese Americans Swells." WebMD - Better
information. Better health.. N.p., 10 Feb. 2010. Web. 27 June 2012.
<http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20100210/percentage-of-overweight-obeseamericans-swells>.
"World Obesity Statistics." Medical Tourism Corporation. N.p., 13 Nov. 2008. Web. 27
June 2012. <www.medicaltourismco.com/medical-tourism/tag/world-obesitystatistics/>.
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