Posted on 06/08/2012 9:07:28 AM PDT by re_tail20
Most of my favorite factoids about obesity are historical ones, and they don’t make it into the new, four-part HBO documentary on the subject, The Weight of the Nation. Absent, for instance, is the fact that the very first childhood-obesity clinic in the United States was founded in the late 1930s at Columbia University by a young German physician, Hilde Bruch. As Bruch later told it, her inspiration was simple: she arrived in New York in 1934 and was “startled” by the number of fat kids she saw—“really fat ones, not only in clinics, but on the streets and subways, and in schools.”
What makes Bruch’s story relevant to the obesity problem today is that this was New York in the worst year of the Great Depression, an era of bread lines and soup kitchens, when 6 in 10 Americans were living in poverty. The conventional wisdom these days—promoted by government, obesity researchers, physicians, and probably your personal trainer as well—is that we get fat because we have too much to eat and not enough reasons to be physically active. But then why were the PC- and Big Mac–-deprived Depression-era kids fat? How can we blame the obesity epidemic on gluttony and sloth if we easily find epidemics of obesity throughout the past century in populations that barely had food to survive and had to work hard to earn it?
These seem like obvious questions to ask, but you won’t get the answers from the anti-obesity establishment, which this month has come together to unfold a major anti-fat effort, including The Weight of the Nation, which begins airing May 14 and “a nationwide community-based outreach campaign.” The project was created by a coalition among HBO and three key public-health institutions: the nonprofit Institute of Medicine, and two federal agencies...
(Excerpt) Read more at thedailybeast.com ...
Gary is a great.
er..phantom ‘a’ there.
The Germans had an anti-obesity campaign against the Jews at Dachau.
I think I will just stay fat.
Stupid article. Actually using WWII era nazi culture as an example.
Even he misses the point. It doesn’t matter what part of our diet is the “cause”, the reason all these programs fail is the same reason the WOD fails, people don’t give a crap. When the government tries to tell a whole bunch of people who are engaging in voluntary behavior to stop because it’s “bad” in general the people don’t listen. I dropped pounds because I wanted to, not because the government said anything, I didn’t like being fat so I stopped, it was a hard trip but it was worth it for me. For others, not so much. They’re eating food they like, doing activities they like, not doing activities they don’t like, and when the government starts bitching and moaning they change the channel.
There is an alternative theory, one that has also been around for decades but that the establishment has largely ignored. This theory implicates specific foods—refined sugars and grains—because of their effect on the hormone insulin, which regulates fat accumulation.
Way too many processed foods in diets today.
I don’t know why he’s demonizing the food pyramid - honestly, how many people structure their diets according to its dictates in the first place?
Try Paleo. That's our more natural diet.
Your comment is mindbendingly stupid, since the article does no such thing.
Where did you get this insane idea?
The pinheads are blaming Twinkies and soda for obesity the way they blame guns for crime. Murder and robbery is a sin, but so is sloth and gluttony. If they used an approach of personal responsibility and personal pride... but no, you can’t mix state and religion.
I read his book, “Why we Get Fat” in December. Since then, I have lost 33 pounds following his advice, which is nicely outlined in the article. I did Weight Watchers for two years and didn’t lose a thing.
The lowfat craze started in the 1980s and peaked in the 1990s. The experts told us to cut out meat and fat and eat lots of pasta, and grains and even sugar was OK. Just as long as it’s fat free. This lowfat campaign, “coincidentally”, happened at the same time as the explosion of obesity and diabetes took off.
Turned out the “experts” were all wrong.
Parents don’t parent anymore.
Mother’s don’t cook and prepare “healthy” family meals.
Kids are inactive, they have fewer siblings to play with, they’re playing with electronics, recess activities are so “safe” that they can’t be termed “activities”.
This is 100% accurate. I am a p/t fitness trainer..never get on people(not my clients) at the gym about their weight or if they are doing something blatantly wrong. They just don't want to hear it. Not even worth bringing up. I encourage my clients but never brow beat them.
I can tell in 10 minutes or less if people are serious about losing their weight...they have to want to do it and listen to my advice. If they don't I walk away.
“in the late 1930s .... by a young German physician, Hilde Bruch”
DOH! bet you feel stupid
I read the entire article and I did not see any reference to the Nazis. Without re-reading it, I know he referenced a German scientist who studied youth in 1930's era New York. Perhaps that is where you got got the Nazi culture reference.
No, what happened was the food companies replaced fats with sugars to keep the taste and get people coming back for more but the sugars raised the fat level in people.
It generally is a good idea to be on a low fat diet but you do need good fats and good carbs in your diet every single day. People eat way too much of the bad fats.
It isn’t that many people follow the food pyramid. Instead, a lot of changes can be pinned to the thinking behind that pyramid. For example, McD’s fries used to by fried in lard — a healthy fat. Now, potatoes are fried in some kind of unhealthy “vegetable” oil. This was done, because the public perception was lard:bad vegetable oil:good, and they were pressured to make the switch.
This kind of thinking has resulted in the vast majority of calories consumed in the US being derived from soybean, wheat, and corn.
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