Rumination No. 6 - on Weight

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  Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Monday, May 29, 2006

As many of you know, a subject I have been fascinated with for years is why Americans are growing so much fatter so quickly. My original interest was piqued by this study by the CDC - http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/prev_char.htm - which indicated that obesity had gone up 61% on average in America from 1991 to 2002 as measured by body mass index (BMI). The amazing thing was that it was across the board by age, sex, race, geography, educational level, etc. - every single ethnicity, every single state, every single age group, and every single education and income level (not to mention smokers, non-smokers, and ex-smokers) For example, 13.5% of 18-29 year olds were considered obese (BMI in excess of 30) versus 7.1% in 1991.

I discussed this with many people, both: (1) whether it was true; and (2) if so, why? I was dumbfounded that I had missed this alleged trend completely confined to my adult lifespan

Example #1

. I hadn't noticed that almost twice as many of the twenty-something girls I saw in 2002 were obese as those I saw in 1991. And I didn't think our exercise or eating habits had changed that much in just those eleven years, and it wasn't like we weren't exercise conscious, or wholly uninformed about diet, in the dark old age of 1991.

I wondered whether this was a false conclusion by the CDC, whether I really hadn't noticed the gross fattening of American in just 11 years (because we were fat before too), and whether some really radical had changed? And, if so, what? I considered our continuous economic expansion, but thought that was probably off-set by greater health-consciousness . I considered "frankenfoods", Olestra, the creeping expansion of Starbucks, cell phone radiation, In N'Out Burgers, Krispy Kreme, 5-minute Abs, The Food Network, so-called global warming, and decreased smoking, but none seemed to adequately account.

I did eventually come up with a three-part conclusion. One, studies showed that the statistical increase in fatties might be in part be due to the increase of transfats in food. Of course, the irony was that the increase in transfats followed nutritionists, dieticians, and scientists concluding in the early nineties that normal fats were bad for us, leading to food producers switching to partially hydrogenated vegetable oils high in transfats

Example #2

. Thus, the increasing obesity (and higher risk of heart attacks) in America was partly the result of a bunch of governmental or quasi-governmental do-gooders trying to make America thinner and healthier without really understanding the science yet. And while I don't believe this will cause many people to switch their party affiliation to Libertarian or convince many people that the science behind how to address so-called global warming is not to be trusted, I do consider it further evidence that Woody Allen will be proved right and we will all be eating the healthiest food on the planet - Twinkies and HoHo's - in 2164.

Two, I became convinced that larger portion size was a factor. A normal serving size at a fast-food restaurant in the early-90s was significantly smaller than now. Everything is "super-sized." A drink is no longer 16 or 20 ounces, it is 32 or more. There is no longer any such thing as "small" - small became medium, medium became large, etc. And it is cheap. You can easily get 2000+ calories at McDonalds for less than $10.

Three, I concluded that it was also a case of statistics misleading. The CDC defines obesity as having a Body Mass Index of over 30. Over 25 is considered "overweight." BMI is measured by dividing one's weight in kgs by the square of one's height in meters

Example #3

. Thus, for someone 6' tall, they have a BMI of 30 at 240 pounds. Someone 5'6" tall must weigh over 185 pounds. Someone 5' tall must weigh over 153 pounds. These numbers, while high, are not that high and not what I think of as the truly obese. Thus, a slight heavier trend could push a significant number of already "overweight" Americans into the CDC's "obesity" zone. A couple pounds on a country full of heavy 6' tall, 230 pounders makes them fat 240 pounders in the CDC's eyes, but I don't notice the difference.

That said, it is undoubtable that the U.S. is a much fatter country than any in Europe (and I suspect the world, excluding the Pacific Islands). There are heavy/thick people here, particularly as they age, but I rarely see the truly obese who are so common in the States. And I definitely notice it in the teens and twenty-somethings. Hiphuggers look good on most women here. Whereas, the current fashion of hiphuggers with belly shirts is unflattering to most American girls because they create and show a belly, gut and/or roll getting squeezed out in the front, sides, and back.

I again can't come up with a good reason why. We come from their genes. The same foods are spreading and available here now - there are McDonald's and KFC and Pizza Hut everywhere, and you can go into every market and buy Pringles

Example #4

. The French eat fats and butter. The Eastern Europeans have a high-meat and carbohydrate diet. Everyone is constantly chowing down ice cream from the ubiquitous stands here. The Northern Europeans have comparable income per capita to spend on food (i.e. this is not a situation where certain diets were out of reach, such as Japanese not having much meat in their diet until after WWII) I don't think it is portion size, either, because I can't finish my portions here, same as the States. So what is it? Has it become cultural - social Darwinism at work? Have our aesthetic ideals diverged from Europe's so quickly? That seems unlikely because the media image of what is attractive is pretty similar, such as models and actresses in magazines. Could it be that we snack more, or eat unhealthy more often? Do Euro girls puke more? Exercise more? I suppose it is possible, but it doesn't seem likely. I am again fundamentally stumped, but will keep working on it. Thoughts are welcomed too.

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