SHARE THIS SHOW:
ON THE BLOG:
RELATED CONVERSATIONS:
RECENTLY ON TOL:
TOL Our Town
- A tumblr site dedicated to the people and places that make up Oregon and Southwest Washington.
TAGS:
Healthy Choices
Oregon lawmakers are considering new legislation intended to influence your personal health. One bill proposes raising the legal smoking age to 21, and Portland Rep. Mitch Greenlick also wants to require prescriptions for lighting up. And there's a push to get calorie counts on menus at restaurants across the state.
Legislation like this reflects the idea that solving health problems requires more of a paradigm shift than personal resolve. There's growing evidence that society may play a significant role in the rate of people who are obese or overweight (60 percent obesity rate in Oregon and the U.S.).
An Oregon Department of Human Services Task Force recently concluded,
We cannot treat our way out of this epidemic. The health care costs are too staggering and there is little evidence of effective, long-term treatment interventions. The key to preventing obesity and obesity-related diseases is to change the environments where Oregonians spend their time – schools, work and other community places. By increasing access to healthy food options and opportunities for physical activity, we can halt and eventually turn back the disastrous consequences of obesity.
Yet many people still champion the notion that your health is primarily your responsibility. Before testifying in Congress about a bill that would have prevented lawsuits against fast food companies, Dr. Gerard Musante told Business Wire:
Taking personal responsibility for the food choices we make is the primary and most important component of any successful and sustainable weight loss regimen. Maintaining a healthy weight and a healthy lifestyle is not easy, and there is no 'quick-fix.' It is time for industries, organizations and communities to work together in the fight against obesity. Each of us bears responsibility for our relationship with food. We can't point our finger at someone else.
Have you lost weight or quit smoking? What motivated you? How much does your environment influence the choices you make about your health? Is personal volition or governmental regulation the most effective path to a healthy public?
GUESTS:
- Deborah Cohen: Senior natural scientist at the Rand Corporation and author of Prescription for a Healthy Nation
- Robert Eisinger: Associate Professor of Political Science at Lewis and Clark University
- Mitch Greenlick: State representative (D-Portland) and chair of the House Health Care Committee
- Esther Crawford: Video blogger for Weight Watchers
Note: We started off the show with a mini-version of the story of Bob Wilson. As he likes to put it, he began life at four pounds, twelve ounces, but soon got very overweight. We only touched on the struggles he faces that set him on a path of overeating and the way he later took another path. He's now health consultant and a passionate believer in personal change.
Tagged as: nanny state · obesity · public health · smoking
Photo credit: Vicki and Chuck Rogers/ Flickr /Creative Commons
-
I truly do not understand the problem. Why are people suddenly incapable of restraining their behavior? Especially their appitite for food. I am elderly and in my youth there were no obese people. This is a recent phenomena.
I think partly it is tied to the competition between fast food restaurants to serve ever larger portions in order to atttract customers. Another part of it is just hogish eating habits. Another part is the shapeless, cheap clothing that so many buy. It tends to hide the fat, and provides a sort of disguise for the obese.
But it is a situation that will be solved when this recession turns into a frank depression. Real hunger will bring back those svelt slim figures that today are only admired on run way models. There is nothing like starvation to melt away that unsightly flab.
-
Physical activity is one of the most important elements in addressing the epidemic of obesity facing Oregon, and schools are in a uniquely favorable position to increase physical activity and fitness among students. This is because they can provide a consistent environment that is conducive to regular exercise.
While physical education alone cannot solve the problem of obesity, it is an important step.
-
Like much else in the our public schools, the concept of physical activity has been distorted and corrupted. The original concept of Physical Ed in school was to ensure ALL KIDS participted in some kind of daily physical activity... games, intra school competitions along the lines of "House" competitions in British public schools.
Instead we have a physical education program with a big budget favoring the relatively few kids playing varsity sports. Everyone else is given scant attention, and hence they have little or no incentive to get off their arses and do something physically demanding.
The mass of kids become spectators. Sitting on their broadening backsides watching sports being played by others rather than playing them themselves. It is an easy transitition from being a sports viewer at school to sitting on a couch at home and playing some foolish video game.
-
I look at menu labeling as a consumer right to know issue, plain and simple. All of the foods at grocery stores are clearly labeled with nutrition facts, informing the consumer. Restaurants are a loophole in the system. I simply don't know what I'm getting when I eat out for dinner. Restaurant food tastes great, but I have no idea what I'm putting in my body.
In today's busy world, families are eating out of the home more and more, underscoring the importance of making this information available to the consumer.
-
Menu Labeling is a step in the right direction and Representative Kotek should be applauded for championing this legislation.
Even if you are someone that believes a person should take responsibility for their food choices, in my opionion all the more reason to provide consumers with the information they need to take responsibility and be able to make a choice that aligns with their needs. Nobody believes that menu labeling is an answer to the obesity epidemic but it is one important tool that consumers can use when dining away from home if they want to attempt to stay in energy balance.
Not even Registered Dietitians, the food and nutrition experts, can guess how many calories are in foods served at restaurants.
Sure physical activity is important but it is equally important to eat the appropriate amount of calories.
-
I agree with DrPublic Health. How can we be expected to "take responsibility" for our weight/health and that of our children if we don't have a clue about how many calories are "hidden" in even healthy sounding menu items? Putting calories right on the menu where they can be easily seen and compared before placing your order is the only way we can make better decisions. It should be the point of ordering--not the "point of guilt" as is the case now when you turn over the grease stained tray liner at some fast food chains that print nutrition info in tiny print on the back of the tray liner. What are these restaurants trying to hide? The fact that a single shake has more than half the recommended daily allowance for calories, fat and sodium? It's the least government can do--require posting of calories on menus and menu boards of chain restaurants.
-
I started counting calories early and it nearly killed me. As a citizen in recovery from a severe eating disorder, calories posted on menus will be personally challenging for me. I think this will cause more problems for people vulnerable to disordered eating then it will increase healthy behavior. There is no evidence that posting calories changes caloric intake for most people. Calories alone are only part of the equation when considering appropriate intake (fiber, sodium, trans-fat, cholesterol). If we want to create a healthier society we need to increase opportunities for movement, reduce our stress, and try to move away from processed foods. Calories listed on a menu will do nothing to make people healthier and will probably trigger a good number of eating disorders.
Additionally, the issue of Obesity has largely been defined by the weightloss industry. Consider that people who are labeled "overweight" on the contraversial BMI scale are actually healthier and live longer than people who are in the "normal" category, the most dangerous category is the "underweight" category. Most of the research done on the dangers of obesity do not take in to account income. Many of the health problems associated with weight may actually be due to poverty, as people in poverty are disporpotionately obese. I am not proposing that Americans are healthy. However, if we let industries with a vested interest (like Weightwatchers) shape the argument we will overlook the real problems (lack of health care, socio-economic inequity, sedintary lifestyles) and feed the diet and beauty industry, who in my book are right up there with Big Tobacco.
-
Actually Sondara, counting calories is indeed the best way to know what you are doing to affect your weight. I appreciate that you want to see others and external factors as the cause of weight problems, but indeed the data show that when there is calorie posting, most people do make healthier choices, modify portion sizes and avoid second helpings. I do agree with you that the weight loss industry is a powerful interest group that wants to "own" the solutions. But the truth is that individuals can actually make the most important difference on their own with information that they can control. Finally, the idea that overweight people are actually healthier is simply not correct. Some may test healthy, but the long term impact of being overweight on the body is negative. Good luck with your pursuit of health and know that indeed that you can take charge of your own life and knowing calories is a valuable part of that personal responsibility.
-
I think menu labeling is a moderate attempt to help people be informed about their choices and make better decisions. It is not as radical as banning certain types of foods or taxing them. There is still plenty of free choice involved, but it is only reasonable to make it easier for those choices to be well-informed. You wouldn't think of ordering a meal in a restaurant without knowing the price of the things you were ordering. Why shouldn't it be just as easy to know the calorie cost? Also, the way things are, restaurants are only competing with each other on size, cost and taste, and toy giveaways. If they had to show calorie totals, maybe they would have an opportunity to compete on calorie counts as well. Just think of the entrepreneurial energy that might be unleashed in creating lower calorie, tasty, cheap and filling meals!
-
It was easier for me to understand the menu labeling issue when I saw a photograph of a modified menu board. It was taken from a Subway restaurant in New York City, where this is now mandatory. The first thing I noticed was how simple it had been for the restaurant to provide the information; it was just a sticker beside each item.
Then I saw the content. How shocking to learn that a childhood favorite – a meatball sub – was three times the calories of anything else on the menu!It might not change how I order in the future, but at least I will know it has to be made up with a more modest meal (or two) later, or extra time at the gym.
When I cook at home, I know exactly what I’m putting into my body. At a restaurant, I only know if they tell me. -
Thanks for sharing this piece of data -- my SO just had lap-band surgery to lose weight. Whenever we went to Subway ("healthy fast food") he would order the meatball sub. I just sent him this info and he said "OMG, if I had known, I never would have ordered that!"
Proof that knowing what something contains can help anyone make better/healthier decisions.
-
There is evidence that menu labeling works to reduce calories. When menu labeling started in New York City, some restaurants ran out of their lower calorie entrees. This shows that people want lower calorie entrees. And, it shows that consumers could not tell which entrees were lower in calories until the calories were posted on the menus!
-
Menu labeling is one important tool at our disposal to help people make healthier choices. We must also recognize the overwhelming body of research that demonstrates the other profound effects that our environment plays in shaping our opportunities for daily physical activity and access to healthful nutrition, including:
- communities designed for exclusive reliance on automobiles rather than multiple modes of active transportation;
- billions of dollars in agricultural subsidies that keep the cost of processed obesogenic foods artificially low compared to fruits, vegetables and whole grains;
- whether or not the nutritional options in your neighborhood include full-service supermarkets and community gardens vs. fast food and convenience stores;
- and access to parks and trails.
All of these environmental factors result from policy choices at the federal, state and local levels. If we elect policy makers who will take health into consideration when making these decisions, we will all be much better off.
-
Briefly, menu labeling works. When Safeway hung a batch of nutritional information cards by their doughnut display, I discovered that my favorite maple bars cost 500 calories! I've had to think very hard about maple bars since then, and mostly I pass them by.
As a lifelong dieter, I know the calorie count of most foods we cook with, but restaurant combinations are much harder to calculate.
-
I have learned through trial and failure that I needed to make some big changes in my lifestyle. Since eliminating all soda from my diet and very much limiting going out to eat has helped me drop weight quite effectively. Another part is my decision to fix my food at home. I don't like to cook, but in order to eat healthier I have had to change what I eat. Not as much frozen pre-made foods and other fatening foods. I eat chicken, pork, and beef. I generally eat potatoes or stuffing with those meats. I drink a little milk and lots of water. Most of all I still have treats. Some cookies, ice-cream, chips and salsa.
I have been consistantly losing weight. Six months ago I wa 236. Yesterday I was down to 215.5
-
Tobacco use and obesity cost Oregonians neary $3 billion every in medical costs and lost productivity. Tobacco alone causes 22 percent of all deaths in Oregon -- more than alcohol, car crashes, illegal drug use, combined! In fact, if all these costs were added up to each pack of cigarettes, smokers would have to pay more than $11 per pack.
These are relatively easy steps the legislature can take to begin addressing these problems: let people know how many calories they are eating, and encourage them to quit smoking by raising the tobacco tax (it is well know that for every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes, consumption drops by abour 4-5 percent. Calorie labeling is based on the idea that people need information to make "responsible personal choices." And by raising tobacco taxes, people will have a real choice: pay the true cost of tobacco or quit.
-
It's not all about marketing & media cues. When talking about environmental cues, let's not forget how the kitchen has become the center of the home in architectual design. No longer is it separated off from the main family living areas--it is smack dab in the middle of the living center. Kids do their homework at the kitchen table, families & friends convene at the kitchen island, in many homes, you have to walk through the kitchen to get to other parts of the house.
-
Interesting observation! Thanks.
-
Robert Eisinger: Associate Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark University
Is a typical Conservative Republican, blaming the victim instead of holding corporations responsible for what they do to undermine peoples willpower.
Conservatives never want to hold corporations and their owners responsible, they seem to hold corporations as godlike in goodness.
-
Working with patients seeking gastric bypass surgery is what motivated me to lose weight. I couldn't continue ignore the fact that excess weight will lead to health problems. I saw patient after patient with the same problems involving difficulty moving, a huge list of perscription meds, and serious health conditions. It scared me to see my future and I realized how out of control my own behavior was.
Patients are required to follow a healthy eating plan and lose a certain amount ot weight before the surgery and every patient has said, upon completing the eating plan, that they are so surprised that they could lose weight. I want to scream "Yes!!! You can do this." I refuse to believe that so many people need surgery to control themselves and it is no guarantee either. If you don't change your eating habits you will gain the weight back even if you have the surgery. For some people the surgery is saving their life but for some they are seeking an easy way out.
The way I have helped myself lose weight is through a healthy eating program and support group called PRISM. It deals with all of the emotional aspects of overeating and that is the biggest obstacle. The weekly support group is so motivational and helps me stay on track. Everyone is so honest and we are helping each other change and become healthy.
-
I travel for work quite a bit and was in a situation where I had to eat out all the time. I would go online to try to find nutritional information about chain restaurants, and was frustrated to find that some of them seem very secretive about this information.
I think that if restaurants are forced to make this information public, they will have greater incentive to offer healthier meals.
Culturally, the foods we're used to eating are low in nutrients and high in fat. It is incredibly difficult to find places to eat that provide nutritious, delicious food, and that has to change in order to help change our food culture. For example, I wish Laughing Planet were available in the midwest-- it would make my life so much happier. Thank you for the brown rice!!!
-
What is congress thinking, prescription tobacco? Look, they passed a bill funding childrens healthcare with an increased sin tax on tobacco. Since then they have banned smoking in Bars/ public places and now they want to limit access to the product. If they are really concerned with childrens healthcare funding they should be advocating smoking and easy access to tobacco.
This guy claims to be a freemarketeer. When was the free market limiting diversity and individual choice? What a joke!
-
Thank you for Deborah Cohen and the topic today. I don't know what the answer is to your subject today, but I greatly resent people or lawmakers telling me I am not responsible for myself. The lawsuits against liquor and tobacco companies are ridiculous. If there were labels on cigarettes that said "these will kill you in a horrible painful death", people would still irresponsibly chose to smoke and be a burden on us and our health care system. I am overweight because I chose to eat too much. When I take control of my daily menu I lose weight. Pretty simple. I'm the boss of me.
The guest is deluding herself when she says that "people are as responsible today as they were 50 years ago". Is she aware of whats happening with the economy and our national debt to income ratio?
Parents don't teach kids how to eat or be polite or work around the house or any of the basic norms of society any more. We should be talking about how to support the family unit better to give our children a better foundation to be responsible productive healthy adults.
Thanks for the forum
Sam
-
Sam, It's not a question of either you are responsible or you are not. It's both/and.
I have no control over my genetic inclination toward weight or health. I have no control over the pollutants in the air I breathe, the water I drink and in the furnishings in a public space. Some of the toxic chemicals in our environment are endocrine (hormone) disruptors that cause developmental damage and impair health, and cause weight gain. Because of the 'nobody-tells-me-what-to-do' hands-off government powers that be, corporations are allowed to dump toxic chemicals in my air/water/food because they claim it would cost them profits to do otherwise.
I do have control over what I eat and how much I exercise.
We need to pay attention to both the personal responsibility and the community responsibility aspects of health.
-
Ah the Conservative Republican magical Unicorn of the "Free Market" reappears. This mythological beast completely leaves out actual human beings but bestows magical riches on all!
This Conservative comedy act is well worn and tired out.
-
If you are implying that programs like "family leave", and subsidies to support giving parents more time at home to raise the thinkers and producers and philanthropists of our next generation are conservative republican magic then lets have more magicians.
-
Obesity is such a complex problem. Both environment and personal motivation play into the trends we are seeing now. But another thing that is missing in the conversation about policy and built environment is the fact that the indoors is increasingly edging the outdoors out as the place where children and families spend their time. Computers, TV, Cellphones, etc. are all competing for our time. How do you feel the built environment (e.g. fences, lack of sidewalks) plays into this?
Also, children have a hardwired interest in nature but their access to it is dwindling. When I grew up, I lived on a man-made pond in a metro Detroit middle class suburb. Whether or not they new it, the developers of that very lackluster subdivision had a profound impact on my life. This pond was a constant source of imagination and wonder for me (frogs, turtles, etc.). But neighborhoods now are so unimaginative with respect to the incorporation of interesting natural elements.
-
Health problems due to smoking or obesity are the least of our problems. Why are people so concerned about fat people and smokers (I am neither)? Are they really so concerned about their health? Or is it the alleged economic cost? I personally think the more people that die the better! I think 99.99% of humanity is bubkes.
Smokers bore me, and I am tired of hearing about the plight of the obese. I feel compassion and empathy for them, but what really annoys me is every-one's reaction to them and this moral authority from so many people, many liberals included. It's terribly unkind. It's terribly uninteresting. It's terribly old-fashioned. The world doesn't need more evangelicals.
-
I like it Scott. I don't however care to pay for those people with my health insurance premiums. So maybe it is about money.
-
samaiello,
That's why we need SOCIALIZED universal health-care. I don't want to pay for baby makers either. Or skiers. Or football players. Or skydivers who go splat. But there are bigger fish to fry, then worrying about paying for the fat and the lit up. Hey the depressed are really expensive too. They are a huge burden. Depression effects all aspects of your physical health. What about the genetically predisposed, lets stop them breeding. Where do we draw the line with this middle class lunacy? -
Hi. I teach an aerobics class in North Portland and advocate health.
I wanted to note that being fat is not synonymous with being unhealthy, the same way that being thin is not necessarily a guarantee of health.
The problem we are talking about here is the behavior of over eating and eating unhealthy food.
The show's focus being obesity in particular is disheartening, because I feel like it is feeding into a culture of fat hatred. This is not a fat issue, it is an issue of health and behavior.
Please differentiate!
p.s. Some of the greatest athletes and healthiest eaters in my aerobics class are fat people! Please don't label them as a problem for Oregon.
-
I'm wondering if you are confusing big people with fat people, and fat people with obese people. I'm guessing that carrying around an obese amount of body fat is difficult to spin into 'good health.'
It may be our definition of 'obese' is off, and people can genuinely have higher levels of body fat and remain healthy.
However, if we are defining obese as an amount of body fat that is unhealthy, then, being obese is synonymous with being unhealthy.
-
i do think that it is more importent to have organic food, and hormone free food. instead of feeding your children chemicals and artifical hormones. why do you not regulate those?
-
There is no reason for calorie counts on menus if people would think before they order and realize when they begin to gain weight that they need to get up and exercise. I heard one of your guests say that tobacco should be made perscription only. I am a ex somker and to ban tobacco would just make me smoke it again. I am American I have very few freedoms left and this is a choice i get to make. Lets make candy perscription only, and alchohol, and sugar etc etc this is a slippery slope to the loss of freedoms in america
if you don't like don't be around it and let others be
-
Why have we focused so much on tobacco as "the big evil" while completely ignoring the greater evil of Big Alcohol? The alcohol industry has virtually no limits on advertising, and Oregon has among the lowest beer and wine taxes in the nation. Yet alcohol kills thousands of innocent victims on the road each year. If we're going to have prescriptions for tobacco, why is no one proposing prescriptions for alcohol as well? Or at the very least, increasing the tax on alcohol to equally discourage its use, and provide resources for alcohol treatment.
By the way, Mitch Greenlick, the tobacco industry CAN'T advertise to kids, and, in fact, is mandated by law to provide anti-smoking advertising and resources under the Master Settlement Agreement.
And how many dollars have you taken from the alcohol industry to fund your campaigns for reelection? Tobacco may be impolitic now, but Big Alcohol is a MAJOR contributor to Oregon politicians.
-
While alcohol use and abuse is a significant problem for health and our society, simply by the numbers, tobacco causes a SIGNIFICANTLY higher number of deaths and related illness, of which the cost is then passed on to the public and our society. It is taxed in order to recover the cost that society bears, and concurrently, discourage new smokers from picking up the addiction and keep youth from wanting to smoke (as they are much more price sensitive than addicted adult smokers are).
While the Master Settlement Agreement does ban tobacco from being advertised to kids, in practice this is not the case. Go in to any convenience store and you're inundated with posters, lighted cigarette displays, floor mats, penny catchers, and other brightly colored, catchy looking tobacco advertisements. Why are these ads created in ways that are attractive to youth, if they weren't intended for this market demographic?
-
I just want to respond to the restaurant owner:
I'm not sure what healthy options you're offering that people aren't buying, but from my experience with chain restaurants, their "healthy" options are crafted just to fit a low calorie niche in their menu. They don't take the time to make the food taste good, and they don't care about making sure the vegetables in it are fresh. Restaurant owners need to actually bring new ideas to their menus rather than looking at them like a formula.
-
Discussion of the obesity epidemic must include the issue of chemical endocrine disruptors in our air, water, homes and workplaces.
When I'm armed with the information that stores are lining up their potato chips to lure me into buying, I can override the temptation, however difficult.
I do not have that choice with the toxins in the environment that mimic estrogen and encourage my body to put on weight. I can do my best in my own home, but I must live and work in environments under the control (or lack thereof) of others.
The L&C professor thinks that the tobacco industry gets the 'most evil' trophy. I'd vote for the chemical industry, who have known for at least 20 years that they were having a negative effect on our health, our ability to reproduce and even our brains. Their response has been to buy off Congress and local governments.
I recommend, Our Stolen Future; are we threatening our fertility, intelligence, and survival by Theo Colborn, Dianne Dumanoski and John Peterson Myers (1997)
-
I was so glad to hear Mitch Greenlick's voice of moderation on this issue. I feel like both your guests are on extreme ends of the regulation issue. I disagree that people who go to McDonald's don't want calorie information, and also that portion size should be regulated. Give people the information on what they're ordering (calorie count only, as the state bill asks), and then let them make an individual choice.
Bottom line: without the information, it's not possible to make an educated individual choice.
-
The task force quoted above concluded that "The key to preventing obesity and obesity-related diseases is to change the environments where Oregonians spend their time – schools, work and other community places." Perhaps, but prevention must begin in the home, with parents raising children who live and value a healthy lifestyle. My mom always packed my lunches, which consisted of a sandwich and a piece of fruit. We didn't usually have dessert after dinner and we only visited places like McDonald's on occasion. Now that I'm a mom, I'm surprised to find that many parents would rather please their kids (and give them whatever they crave) than teach them valuable life skills, including the knowledge and discipline to make good eating choices.
-
Calorie counts on menus? Sure, but it must be ACROSS THE BOARD, otherwise where is the fairness?
I am a sometime smoker, I go weeks without smoking, then go through a period of stress and smoke for a couple weeks, then stop again. When I am broke I don't buy them... I am AGAINST the idea of the government taking away my choice in the matter. Other states tax cigs way higher than here, just do that and let people make the decision of how much they are willing to spend on their unhealthy habit.
I agree, other drugs that are illegal are less addictive. This is not an excuse to make cigs closer to illegal. It IS a reason to legalize those other drugs however.
Candy Machines: My work place has both Snickers and Organic Lara Bars in our machine. I choose based on my mood which I prefer to eat. Don't take away my choices, it is really annoying. It is not my problem if some people have no self control. Sorry. If the government wants to do something, they can pay companies to put healthier foods in their machines, and people will choose them when they feel like it! Lara Bars are delicious in a different way than a Snickers, and not trusting that folks will ever make the right decision is fine, but it is not your right to force this choice on people.
-
Corporations spend an amazing amount of money to undermine peoples will power! They hire psychologists to tell them how to bypass peoples mental self protections.
Corporations and Conservatives fight every attempt by actual human beings to protect themselves and their children from the predations of Corporations and they always have!
If you look back over the last thirty years you can see that the cause of the obesity epidemic can be traced directly to Conservative protection of corporations from being held to account for their business practices.
This L&W Law Prof whines about students lack of willpower to quit but so conveniently leaves out any idea of helping the students to never even smoke in the first place. Conservatives are against prevention.
Sheesh.
-
"This L&W Law Prof"
Oops, L&C, of course!
-
It seems that some have been coddled and overprotected by their parents and the state their entire life. They grow up, their parents die and without limits they now need the state to protect Them. Get real.
I'm sorry but these people have an amazing lack of willpower.
It's easy, don't eat bad if you don't want ot be fat.
Don't smoke, if you don't want to be a smoker.
Don't drink and do drugs if you don't want to be a junkie.
-
Alcohol use has reached epidemic proportions on college campuses. Robert Eisinger is clearly a right-wing Republican, and since "nobody's perfect," I can forgive him for that...
If he's going to offer money to students who quit smoking, why not also offer money to students who abstain from alcohol? No one has ever killed anyone on the road because he was driving under the influence of nicotine - not even long time smokers - and yet a first-time binge drinker can go out and take more than a few lives the first night he takes a drink. Isn't that just as much of a threat to public health?
Yet Big Alcohol is free to advertise in ways to promote alcohol as being fun and a great way to meet beautiful women while having a good time. It's no wonder that binge drinking has skyrocketed among our youth. How many millions of dollars will we be paying for their treatment later on - and how many unnecessary deaths will continue before we realize it's time to change our public policy?
OPB, how about a show on alcohol use?
-
I think the calorie information for foods should be required to be "available on request." I don't know that it's necessary to change all the menus to include all the info, but to have a supplemental menu available for those interested should at least be mandated. My 2 cents.
-
There is a continuing desire to discuss personal responsibility versus government regulation. Obesity is more complex than this simple binary equation. Over the last 30 years (when the obesity epidemic has burgeoned), people have not become increasingly irresponsible. The environment has change to make it much harder to make healthy choices (no exercise, very high calorie dense foods). What needs to happen is that there needs to be a multi-faceted approach that involves having people have the ability to make better choices and having an environment that supports people being able to make the choices they want.
-
Please do not promote taxes on ice cream, people will then purchase a cheaper soft drink loaded with corn syrup, a worse choice!
-
Good conversation. We will not successfully legislate behavior. W e must fix the problems which poison our society on the front end. Obesity, pornography, bulemia and anorexia, smoking, greed, and corruption are all side effects from the operation of our society, and our society is Koyaanisqatsi (out of balance).
-
Not to be a negative Nancy, but isn't every society and culture rotten to the core? Has there ever been a society that wasn't? Humanity is perhaps just destined for extinction. Bring on the warming, turn off the planet. Get rid of this species gone haywire.
-
Ridiculous. Every person is responsible for their own actions. Stop paying for obese people's health care. If they can't afford it, that is their problem. If you have lung cancer as a result of smoking for 20 years, that is your problem. The idea that "it's not our fault" is the result of apathy and sloth. It is your life. Make your own decisions.
Nonsense.
Prescription tobacco - hilarious.
People ordering from Fast Food chains are there to eat 'fast food'. Referring to the old statement - if it's fast and cheap, it's not good. Fast food menus are pictures and the calorie placard is in the corner wall behind the ketchup.
Take responsibility for your own actions. If people were left to solve their own problems and live with the results of their own bad decisions, we wouldn't be in this rapidly declining society.
-
Its much easier to blame the individual than to examine the complexities of the environment, physiology, politics, food industry power, and economics that contribute to the end result of poor nutrition our society is now dealing with. Its called an "epidemic" for a reason, not because several million people suddenly decided, individually, to adopt unhealthy behaviors.
Saying it is an individual's choice alone while ignoring these myriad factors is not only faulty, its simply irresponsible. Whether you think you are or not, we ALL pay the price for obesity-related illness.
Addressing public health issues require a comprehensive approach, including but not limited to education, taxes, and policies that support healthy living. History shows us that it cannot be done with a simple "free market" approach, it takes a lot more than that to turn things around.
-
I agree with you portland, and perhaps holding a person responsible for their actions is too much to ask in our society given the current climate -
I agree also that we all pay for the obesity related illnesses - but I'm also not the person asking others to smoke or to eat too much. I don't get bailed out when I've done something wrong for 15 years. ( I'm a smoker and have to have all of my teeth replaced as a result - I'm paying out of my own pocket to rectify the situation. I knew it was bad, and am paying the price myself. I am not, however asking or believing the government, or any other group is responsible for it. )
I jumped in too quickly to comment and voiced my frustration toward the individual when what frightened me was this idea of the government legislating against the choices we have as individuals - as if the government wasn't involved enough in our everyday lives.
Because I believe something is wrong does not ever give me the right to enforce my belief through legislation upon others.
Thank you for responding to my comment. I do consider what you have said and will adjust my thinking based on your well-expressed argument. I'm willing to help others if help is needed or asked for - but to say generally that "it's not the fault of the individual" is just as irresponsible.
Thank you again.
-
Obesity rates have certainly increased but obesity is not inevitable. We can’t ever forget that it’s our lifestyle choices that are the ultimate determinate. Medical science demonstrates the truth that obesity is the result of eating more calories than your daily activity burns up.
Over-consumption is a major problem – as individuals we over-consume food, money, natural resources, energy… and there are consequences as we can see with the decline of the public’s health.
We have to learn to live in balance. Government should be doing everything it can to create conditions that lead to healthy eating, and supporting parents in raising healthy children – but we as individuals have to learn to make the right choices about what we purchase and how much goes into our mouths.Esther Crawford
www.faintstarlite.com
-
I'm surprised not to be hearing about Michael Pollan's work in this show. His 2 books, Omnivore's Dilemma, and In Defense of Food, offer a lot of insight. He lays a lot of the obesity epidemic at the door of processed food - stuffing extra calories into food as a result of the overproduction of corn, brought in by Earl Butz and the effot to make food cheap.
In Defense of Food recommends this simple formula: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." He says that anything with a "healthy" claim on a package is probably not good for you.
-
While not a smoker myself, I was struck by a comment made by David Sedaris on Fresh Air last year regarding smoking. He said something along the lines of.."what happens when people blame the tobacco corporations, is it ignores a significant part of smoking, and that is that it feels/tastes so good to smoke a cigarette."
Smoking has a lot of terrible consequences, but do we too often avoid some of the pleasure that it brings?
-
The issue Robert has is not why don't we give folks information it's about legislating the information and making it harder for people to work or to own a small business.When you propose these types of legislation you need to consider the effects and not just the polls as Mitch suggested.
-
I was recently in Europe traveling and was struck by the number of people I saw smoking--in particular, young, thin women who were smoking. During my travels, I also had a hard time feeling like going for my daily running workout because of how far we were walking everyday. My point in mentioning this is that I think our american lifestyle is a huge component of the problem. We have too much convenience in our lives. We can hop in a car and get places too easily.
I think we live in a society of instant gratification. I grew up in a family in which we were tought discipline and self control. The problem with instant gratification gets in the way of learning these key things. This undermines our ability to make good lifestyle and consumer choices. Also, I think this is closely related to the problem of people spending beyond their means. I get upset when people cant control their spending-I don't go out to eat in order to save money. I like to cook my food and avoid convenience foods that typically have a lot of calories.
I think that the world is full of temptation, and the popular media is responsible for many of the ills of society. Regulating communication, regulating advertising--I'm just not sure this is the answer. Dopamine responses--I have them too--but I have enough self control to make good choices.
And I get a mountwatering response to some of the food images on TV, but I have enough self control to not succumb to these sales pitches.
-
There is a continuing desire to discuss personal responbility versus government regulation. Obesity is more complex than this simple binary equation. Over the last 30 years (when the obesity epidemic has occured), people have not become increasing irresponsible.
What needs to happen is that there needs to be a multi-faceted approach that involves having people have ability to make better choices and having an environment that supports people being able to make the choices they want.
-
Regarding the topic of health and and health care, it seems that a lot of people come to the table with very cut and dry perspectives. Could we not look at the topic as a fabric of events rather than looking for isolated solutions as a means to pacify this more complex tapestry.
What are we taught to be our piroities for prosperity on regards to our physical and emotional well being? Are we shaped to participate in a sleeping system of economic incentive rather than meeting our bodies needs?
or rather
How does our agricultuarl system of favoring monoculture and mass production compromise our evolution as humans in a convenience filled low physical activity culture in the face of economic incentive for the major corporate players to get ahead?
Is the use of food, drug and alchohol not a vehicle of emotional issues, and if so as a culture what are we not facing?
How does time and place in history not work in todays culture? i.e a farmers breakfast of 75 years ago eaten by a receptionaist who sits all day in a chair. Should we evolve our diets to our lifestyle?
How is it that we can have stores full of food with no nutrition and call that legal or moral. If those on high are in charge of guiding our country to prosperity should companies like coke or frito lay be legal. they hurt our bodies and our land through monoculture preservatives and...
are addictive substances (from carbohydrates to tobaco)
-
I note that Robert Eisinger: Associate Professor of Law at Lewis and Clark University,
has no problem with the Corporate State controlling peoples lives, he just has a problem with allowing the American People to exert control over their own lives.
-
Dr. Eisinger, and Saki who wrote the comment above, should think twice before they judge others for not exercising the same amount of self control as themselves. These two individuals are LUCKY that they grew up in environments where discipline and self control are taught. Not everyone grows up with those kind of tools at their disposal. In addition, Dr. Eisinger is a man. It's easier for men to lose weight than women. That's just the way it is. There's less pressure on men to be thin. The pressure that the media and culture exerts on girls to be thin also contributes to the obesity problem by encouraging girls to starve themselves, which can result in binge eating. Dr. Eisinger is probably also middle class and has the education and resources necessary to make good decisions and buy healthy foods. I hate it when people act smug because they are lucky.
I was born with an appetite on me. I manage to stay fairly thin because every minute of the day I tell myself "no" to things I want to eat and drink. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. My sister doesn't have any trouble staying thin. She has never had that much of an appetite. The cards were stacked against me more than they were stacked against her. If the cards were stacked against me MORE - if I had been born really poor, if I hadn't had good adult role models, if obesity ran in my family, if I had three kids and no time to exercise, I bet not even my best efforts would keep me from being fat. Don't judge others' struggle if you haven't experienced it yourself.
-
Listening to your program regarding Healthy Choices is very disturbing to me. People need to be free to choose for themselves what they want to eat. The " Food Conglomerates" in this country are very much responsible for obesity, sickness and death in our population.
The ingredients and additives which are used in the preparation of their products are designed to chemically encourage your over eating of the product. Plus the interaction of these additives are very volitable. For instance " Aspartame", A drug parading as a food additive.
Arthur Hull Hayes, appointed FDA Commissioner (1981) Ignored the repetitive negative ruling of the FDA and and the medical reports by H.J. Robert, MD and other researchers then, approved aspartame for dry goods. As recorded in the Congressional Record of 1985, then CEO of Searle Laboratories Donald Rumsfeld said he would call in his marker to get aspartame approved. Rumsfeld was on President Reagon's transition team and a day after taking office appointed Hayes. Labeling does not tell the whole story!
Manufacturers of processed foods need to be held accountable for the deception in labeling and advertising. When people know that they are eating poison and its effects on their health..then they will be motivated to make better choices.
The people who buy and use these poison laden foods are as decieved as the comsumer.
Thank you for considering these comments
Janette
Informative web sites:
http://www.sweetpoison.com
http://www/russellblaylockmd.com
-
Yes, there is no question that we live in a capitalistic society which employs millions of people, and those companies are doing their job to make money as well as pay their employees. And yes, many people have a genetic predisposition (DNA + brain hardwiring) to obesity and to becoming addicted to substances , so the marketing behavior of these corporations effects these people more. What is NOT being discussed here is the reponsibility of society to stop reacting to the obvious epidemic of poor health and do something PROACTIVE.
I have been a public (middle school level) school teacher for the past 17 years, have taught low economic children for that entire period, and have watched the No Child Left Behind mentality gut our school programs. The vast majority of money allocated to schools has slowly but surely been drained away from everything but reading and mathematics programs, and supported testing programs, particularly in these past 8 years. While the biggest headlines in this country SHOUT ABOUT OBESITY RELATED ILLNESSES, consistent development of good habits has all but been abandoned at a time in children's lives where they develop those habits. Lifelong eating and other behavior habits are created in the home first.
If you want people to understand what their choices are,and develop GOOD habits, you have to teach and role model this in the schools. The pizza restaurant owner was absolutely correct in stating that no one that comes into his restaurant is interested in a fat gram count; of course! The people that eat there are NOT the same as the people who eat in organic food restaurants. Making those people pay for informing a population of people that are NOT interested is putting the cart before the horse.
WHERE IS THE MONEY FOR EDUCATING PEOPLE BEFORE THEY BECOME ADULTS? Instead of worrying about test scores, we should be worrying about the tremendous rise in cost of health care in this country due to poor eating choices, lack of physical fitness and addictive behaviors. Health education should be mandatory at every age in public schools, just as it is mandatory to practice fire drills all year by everyone so the behavior for saving your own life is PRECONDITIONED.
-
I write locally as the Portland Consumer Law and Policy Examiner. A post on this issue drew a very compelling comment from a family needing this legislation. http://tinyurl.com/cog3rn
-
Robert Eisinger is certainly full of himself. Pity he is less informed about the science than he should be to make such dismissive comments on an issue about which he clearly knows so little. I will stick with Dr. Cohen's views. Too bad you failed to indicate that she comes to this work from the perspective of her MD degree.
Drake
-
While calorie lists on restaurant menus are a great idea on the face of it, I worry about the effect on small businesses. A place like McDonalds or Red Robin has a national menu, standardized ingredients and the kind of consistency that makes it very easy to determine calories - or even complete processed-food-like labels with everything from grams of saturated fat to % RDA of vitamin B12. One person or team at heaadquarters can do it for the entire nation, and each individual franchise feels no impact or cost besides ordering new menus once more often than they would have had to when the law is implemented.
But what about independent restauants without the same economy of scale? When the heart and soul of a unique and innovative Portland restaurant is a hard-working head chef who's stretched to the limit just creating and quality-controlling the menu, when so many of the restaurants you see well-reviewed in Portland Monthly will not be open a year from now because competition is so stiff and margins are so thin, when a place makes its name by its frequently changing specials, variety and every-dish-is-unique-made-just-for-you reputation, our indigenous eateries will be hobbled compared to the chains we lament are becoming too large a part of the landscape.
Either these places sacrifice scarce budget dollars for payroll time to accurately rate these items, or they cut back their variety to make the task simpler - not to mention installing bins of standardized ingredients and measures so the creativity of individual staff is stifled, or they make a cursory, knowingly innacurate attempt at labelling, relying on the fact that legislators will who pass the law will be in denial about the near-unworkablility of any effective enforcement process.
-
I feel like the guests and the discussion here really only scratched the surface. Many of the comments here were great beginnings - as facets on a multifaceted issue. Maybe this is a discussion that could be done a number of times with different guests?
-
Information is power and providing that information to consumers in order for them to make choices that best meet their needs and, hopefully, encourage competition in meeting those needs, is just good customer service. If the interests of big business create of conflict of interest than it only makes sense to make this kind of customer service mandatory.
-
Comments are now closed.
It's impossible to guess the calories of a food in a restaurant. I've been a registered dietitian for 25 years and I would never have known that "hot pot fish" is three times as many calories as "lemon fish" in a chain chinese restaurant. Of course it is important to be responsible and make healthy choices, but how in the world can you do it if you dont have the information that you need to make those healthy choices?
If we all had a mom or dad at home to fix us home cooked foods, maybe it wouldn't be so important- but we as a society spend about half of our food dollars on restaurants! So, since we are dining out so much it is only reasonable for us to have the calorie information avialble a the point of decision making- when we order the food.
Will this make anyone do anything they dont want to do? certainly not- but it gives us the information to make the choice that meets our needs.