I was whining to my wife last night about how much weight I've put on this winter. The reason isn't hard to figure out. I quit exercising, and I've been eating too much sugar and carbohydrate. I had to go out during the Christmas season and buy pants one size up. Depressing. And nobody's fault but my own.
Well, when I crawled in bed after kvetching and picked up the book I'm reading now, "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan, I was confronted by some pretty startling statistics about obesity in America, and how much the nation is going to suffer from obesity-related disease today and in the years to come. Our frequent combox commentator Rawlins Gilliland rather tartly remarked on same recently on Dallas public radio.
Anyway, I mentioned this to Julie, who told me that she'd been in a doctor's office the other day and overheard a conversation between a medical practitioner (a doctor, nurse, somesuch person) and the representative of a particular drug used to treat high cholesterol. The doctor (I'm guessing it was) was telling the drug company rep how much success she'd had treating pediatric patients with the drug. Turns out this doc works with morbidly obese children -- we're talking 4-year-olds that weigh 100 pounds -- and who are having health problems we've simply never seen in kids. These are children who aren't even 10 years old yet, but are in danger of developing clogged arteries. Their cholesterol numbers are through the roof.
Children. Little children, who rely on adults to feed them, and teach them how to feed themselves. According to this doctor, the kids come from homes where both parents are obese, and where being superfat is ... normal. The doctor told the drug company rep that his drug helps her stabilize the kids, and that, in conjunction with diet and exercise, is making these pediatric patients better.
Jeez, can you imagine? As Michael Pollan points out, government subsidies have created conditions in which the cheapest foods -- that is, the food most affordable to the poor -- are also the ones that make us fattest. But that's not the whole story. You can't blame the government entirely. There's a such thing called individual responsibility. Obesity isn't something that just happens to kids and their parents. The government isn't holding a gun to mom and dad's head, forcing them to feed their kids (and themselves) Ho-Hos, Coke and Doritos. Some people act like they have no choice but to feed junky, processed food to their kids, and as much of it as their kids like. It's just not true.
I know this, because my wife and I are raising small children. If we bought cookies, chips and Coke for the kids, and let them have as much as they like, they'd be fat too (this is how I grew up, by the way, and yes, I was a pretty tubby kid, and I've struggled with weight all my life). We let our kids have treats, but that's just it: cookies, cake and tortilla chips are treats, not staples. Our kids are learning to eat moderately and intelligently. As a parent, you have got to learn to say no, and to say so consistently. Though their parents aren't always good examples of this, we want our kids to grow up knowing the value of limits, of restraint. Every message they get from this culture is about indulging your appetites (except if you're a woman, where you're told to indulge your every appetite, but whatever you do stay skeletal).
We are so damn weird about food in this culture. In my past travels in continental Europe, I've been impressed by how non-neurotic people are about food. They just don't eat as much as we do, and they tend to eat less processed food. And they are fine, for the most part. Then again, I have never seen an all-you-can-eat buffet in continental Europe, nor have I seen supersize fast food portions.
Do yourself a favor. Read here, in PDF format, the introduction Pollan's newest book, "In Defense of Food."
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Have you folks been reading Pollan's latest, In Defense of Food? (Oddly enough, I could pick it up on sale at my local Costco, smack dab between the freezers packed full of factory-farm meat and the five-gallon buckets of cheez balls.) An amazing book -- takes everything Pollan learned in writing Omnivore's Dilemma and boils it down into the mantra, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.", then unpacks those seven words in a totally commonsense and tasty way.
I sympathize completely with Erin. When we moved to Texas some years ago, I almost immediately started to gain weight, and to this day I don't know why. Our little corner of Arlington was the oldest one where we could find a house for sale, so there were some trees in our tiny neighborhood. But any time I stepped out of the house, the sun blasted down on me and made me feel that my brains were boiling. A four-mile walk down to the treeless main street and back, my major exercise, made me feel like a limp washrag. I developed asthma, probably because of pollen and dust. Trying to work out when you can't breathe is problematic. Other medical issues came up, too. I had always been healthy. By the time we left Texas, I'd never felt so bad in my life.
When harvey lacey talks about working all day in the hot sun, I REALLY admire him. If you live in a climate that doesn't agree with you, or in an area where it's unsafe to be out, then your only alternative is the gym. And that can be a real problem for people with small children at home, AND for people who have to work eight or nine hours plus a commute, plus the need for family time. I handled this back in Kansas by using my command presence to make the entire family accompany me to martial arts class three times a week. They didn't particularly appreciate this, needless to say, but we were fit and we were together. Such solutions are hard to find, however.
This post reminded me of a news story from earlier this month:
January 2, 2008
'Hearty Eaters' Say Buffet Banned Them
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:44 p.m. ET
HOUMA, La. (AP) -- A 6-foot-3, 265-pound man says a restaurant overcharged him for his trips to the buffet line, then banned him and a relative because they're hearty eaters. A spokesman for the restaurant denies the claim.
Ricky Labit, a disabled offshore worker, said he had been a regular for eight months at the Manchuria Restaurant in Houma, eating there as often as three times a week.
On his most recent visit, he said, a waitress gave him and his wife's cousin, 44-year-old Michael Borrelli, a bill for $46.40, roughly double the buffet price for two adults.
''She says, 'Y'all fat, and y'all eat too much,''' Labit said.
Labit and Borrelli said they felt discriminated against because of their size. ''I was stunned, that somebody would say something like that. I ain't that fat, I only weigh 277,'' Borrelli said, adding that a waitress told him he looked like he a had a ''baby in the belly.''
Houma accountant Thomas Campo said the men were charged an extra $10 each on Dec. 21 because they made a habit of dining exclusively on the more expensive seafood dishes, including crab legs and frog legs.
''We have a lot of big people there,'' said Campo, who spoke for owner Li Shang, whose English is limited. ''We don't discriminate.''
Labit denied ever being told he would be asked to pay more than the standard adult price.
The argument grew heated, and police were called.
The police report states, ''The incident was settled when the management advised that the bill was a mistake and, to appease Ricky, the meal was complimentary.''
Labit said he insisted on paying but was told not to come back. He complained that when seafood on the buffet line runs out, the restaurant only grudgingly cooks more.
Campo said the proprietress tries to reduce waste of quality food, he said.
''Food is for eating, not toys for your child,'' reads a sign posted on a wall in typewritten text. A handwritten addition reads ''Or 20% added.''
This post reminded me of an odd news story I read earlier this month:
January 2, 2008
'Hearty Eaters' Say Buffet Banned Them
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:44 p.m. ET
HOUMA, La. (AP) -- A 6-foot-3, 265-pound man says a restaurant overcharged him for his trips to the buffet line, then banned him and a relative because they're hearty eaters. A spokesman for the restaurant denies the claim.
Ricky Labit, a disabled offshore worker, said he had been a regular for eight months at the Manchuria Restaurant in Houma, eating there as often as three times a week.
On his most recent visit, he said, a waitress gave him and his wife's cousin, 44-year-old Michael Borrelli, a bill for $46.40, roughly double the buffet price for two adults.
''She says, 'Y'all fat, and y'all eat too much,''' Labit said.
Labit and Borrelli said they felt discriminated against because of their size. ''I was stunned, that somebody would say something like that. I ain't that fat, I only weigh 277,'' Borrelli said, adding that a waitress told him he looked like he a had a ''baby in the belly.''
Houma accountant Thomas Campo said the men were charged an extra $10 each on Dec. 21 because they made a habit of dining exclusively on the more expensive seafood dishes, including crab legs and frog legs.
''We have a lot of big people there,'' said Campo, who spoke for owner Li Shang, whose English is limited. ''We don't discriminate.''
Labit denied ever being told he would be asked to pay more than the standard adult price.
The argument grew heated, and police were called.
The police report states, ''The incident was settled when the management advised that the bill was a mistake and, to appease Ricky, the meal was complimentary.''
Labit said he insisted on paying but was told not to come back. He complained that when seafood on the buffet line runs out, the restaurant only grudgingly cooks more.
Campo said the proprietress tries to reduce waste of quality food, he said.
''Food is for eating, not toys for your child,'' reads a sign posted on a wall in typewritten text. A handwritten addition reads ''Or 20% added.''
Erin: I'm not a native Texan, but I know my ability to walk for exercise all but vanished when we moved here. For one thing, it's just too darned hot most of the year, and polluted besides. For another, the ugly subdivision we could afford a house in may have sidewalks, but an inspiration to get out and walk even on a rare nice day it isn't. You're just walking in circles past featureless houses on completely shadeless paths.
Ain't that the truth. I really, really can't bear the Texas heat, and if we ever leave here, that will have a lot to do with it. I spend more time outside in the winter months than in summer months. My exercise is almost entirely a matter of standing on the elliptical trainer in my kid's room and doing a couple of miles. When we lived in NYC, walking was a total pleasure. It was fun, and you got to see lots of people and lots of interesting things. Plus you could naturally work it into your daily errands. Not so here. I leave the house early in the morning for work, and am home after dark. When would I go outside to walk?
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