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Rebuttal: Obesity is not a choice
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed to ban large-sized drinks like these to curb the obesity epidemic.
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Tess Vigeland: A couple of weeks ago we aired a commentary opposing the ban on giant sodas in New York City. Justin Wilson posed the idea that obesity is a product of personal irresponsibility. Well this week commentator David Lazarus offers a rebuttal.
David Lazarus: Whenever a business wants to justify selling you something it knows is bad for you, it doesn't pitch you on the merits of the product. It pitches you on a red-white-and-blue, don't-tread-on-me sense of personal freedom.
That's how the tobacco industry plays it, and that's how Justin Wilson spun things in a recent commentary on this show. He was discussing New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's proposed ban on super-sized sugary beverages. Past public-health regulations focused on protecting us from each other, Wilson argued. Bloomberg's proposal represents something new: Protecting us from ourselves.
Now, I know Justin Wilson. He and I have spoken about the obesity epidemic. I don't mean to undermine his credibility on this issue, but it helps if you know a little more about his organization, the friendly-sounding Center for Consumer Freedom. That's one of Ralph Nader's groups, right?
No. The Center for Consumer Freedom is a front for the food and beverage industry, which provides most of its funding. The organization's staffers have a clear interest in downplaying the responsibility of their corporate backers for the obesity crisis. They're also paid to decry any move that they say infringes on people's liberties.
But Wilson was right: Mayor Bloomberg is trying to protect us from ourselves. Why? Because we're too easily swayed by the food and beverage industry's ads telling us to consume more. According to the latest estimates, nearly half the adult population of the U.S. will be obese by 2030.
So are Americans fat because they want to be? I don't think so. Do they eat and drink so much because they choose to? I doubt it. Americans are fat because they can't help themselves, because they're bombarded with cues from food and beverage sellers to keep stuffing their faces.
If that's what consumer freedom is all about, we'd all benefit from less of it.
Vigeland: David Lazarus answers your questions from time to time on this program. He's also a business and consumer columnist for the Los Angeles Times.
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I am a practicing cardiologist. The obesity epidemic has caused a significant decrease in the health of the US population. If we think more government regulations can protect us from our bad choices then the problem will not be solved. We need to admit to ourselves that making bad choices leads to bad consequences and take responsibility for our choices. I have seen patients that have had a heart attack or underwent open heart surgery. They realized they had been making bad choices and took responsibility for their situation. They made a commitment to make better choices. They exercised, ate a better diet, stop smoking and were able to lose over 100 pounds and significantly improved their health. Of note they did this by making better choices, not by moving away from fast food or cutting off their exposure to the media. I need to be able to tell my patients, ' if they don't start making wiser choices THEY WILL shorten their life', but that is politically incorrect because "they a victim of the abuses of society". No, their situation is the result of their bad choices. Personal responsibility needs to be part of out culture.
And the winner is: Alcohol!!! Not cigarettes and not food have as much costs medically and socially than that one thing. In "moderation" good for you my ass!!! Look around you. And it wasn't the alcohol in the wine that was beneficial; it was the grapes!!! It lowers testosterone levels, destroys the liver, wrecks the entire body, and causes so many countless societal problems...
David Lazarus rightly observes that we Americans are “too easily swayed by the food and beverage industry's ads telling us to consume more … Americans are fat because … (we're) bombarded with cues from food and beverage sellers to keep stuffing (our) faces.”
We're also bombarded by seemly innocent TV shows, such as “Man vs Food”, “Best Places to Pig Out”, and “Guy's Big Bite”, which are featured on the some of the most popular cable networks in America.
Moreover, the so-called Food Network with its sister channel, the Cooking Channel, whose grossly impolitic tagline – “Stay Hungry”, still refuse to offer ONE vegetarian or vegan-oriented 30-minute cooking show, despite the fact that nearly 5% or 15 million Americans are vegetarian or vegan eaters.
So, we're bombarded ruthlessly by these ads and TV shows to overeat and and feel good about it. And we do; oh, how we do. We are definitely tempted, but in the end, we have no one to blame but ourselves for being the fools these ads and shows target. Just don't buy their products, and don't watch their shows. Money talks, or the lack of it, and they will stop, if we have the will to stop as well.
Sociology tells us that if 1 person is obese, it's that person's challenge. If large swatchs of society are obese, it is a social issue. I doubt that advertising is totally to blame. The omnipresence of bad food choices make it difficult and time consuming to make really good choices. With time pressures burdened by economic pressures, it is difficult for many to make good choices. And, it almost becomes the norm to be overweight or obese, just as it becomes part of our culture to grow up with Ronald McDonald.
For a more thorough treatment of why government efforts to protect us from dangerous foods are a fool's errand, read Dr. John Briffa's summary of this point of view in his recent blog post: http://tinyurl.com/82bf2rt.
Nonnie boiled Lazarus' core argument down correctly. I listened to this piece twice, and the central message is that consumers are too stupid to make the healthy choice — that's a weak argument. Where Lazarus is right is in blaming the processed food industry for making their products as convenient, as addictive and as non-nutritious as possible.
Given accurate information about what is healthy to eat, Americans will demand healthy food to eat, and astute corporations will rush to make it convenient to buy. What consumers need NOW, is savvy edu-tainment showing just how unhealthy processed food is and how the standard information about what healthy food became exactly opposite of the truth. Because the government is the chief source for this misinformation, we can't and shouldn't rely on them to protect us, either from ourselves or the true predators in this situation: Big Agriculture, food processing companies, and academic institutions that have promoted and protected the big lies This revolution must be conducted from the bottom up, not the top down.
The raw information has been coming out over the last few years, starting to come from academia, notably from Dr. Robert Lustig (watch UCSF's UCTV's online video series on sugar) Gary Taubes ("Why We Get Fat") Paul Jaminet ("The Perfect Health Diet" and blog of the same name), and Dr. Michael Eades ("The Protein Power Lifeplan" and very informative blog).
But making this information palatable to people whose eyes glaze over easily at scientific information is a job for popularizers like Tom Naughton, of "Fathead" fame, Jimmy Moore, with his long-running "Livin' La Vida Low-Carb" podcast series, and Mark Sisson, who wrote "The Primal Blueprint." Only when there's a critical mass of people who recover their health through eating through eating how our bodies evolved to eat can we reasonably expect government to protect that way of eating.
Obesity and smoking costs each of us money! The costs come lower productivity,
shorter life span, higher medical costs for everybody, and in the case of smoking
higher cleanup costs for us all. Some of these higher costs are bore by the individual and for all higher medical costs ( unrecoverable doctor & hospital costs)
including insurance and also higher taxes.
I agree with yogamatt.
Is Mr. Lazarus saying that the majority of the people are soooo stupid that we need the GOVERNMENT to make all our choices for us? I am sure that he believes that most are too stupid to have the right to vote. Maybe he and "his kind" can then save us from ourselves.
When was the last time you went to the movies and got a good deal on a small soda and small popcorn? When was the last time you went to the movies and got a great deal on the largest soda and largest popcorn combo, including bottomless refills? "Economy dictates" that we go for the best value, and having purchased the large, we MUST indulge to the fullest, mustn't we?
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