Fight unhealthy food, not fat people | Jill Filipovic. It's hardly breaking news that junk food is bad for us. But just how bad – and just how much food companies know about the addictive components of certain foods, and just how much they deliberately target the most vulnerable consumers knowing they are doing damage – is still being discovered. The New York Times offers the latest installment in this weekend's magazine with an article about the science of junk food addiction. Nearly everything written about food in the mainstream media relies on the same narrative: Obesity is bad. That kind of reporting is part of what's keeping us sick. There's no denying the fact that the American public has gotten larger in recent decades. That's not actually the case, though. In all seriousness: What good does a focus on body size actually do? Nutrient-deficient chemically-processed "food" in increasingly larger sizes is bad for all of our bodies, whether we're fat or thin or somewhere in between.
Obesity crisis: news and resources round-up | Teacher Network | Guardian Professional. Calls for a fat tax on junk food and soft drinks has reignited the debate over Britain's obesity crisis. Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty Images Britain's obesity crisis is back in the news this week. From calls by the Academy of Royal Colleges for a tax on soft drinks to claims that the NHS will struggle to treat overweight patients in the future, the size of our waistlines is a national concern. This weighty issue provides plenty for teachers to chew on, so we've put together a round-up of the best news, multimedia and resources, bulging with fascinating data, reports and expert advice.
From the Guardian World fat mapIs the UK the fattest country in the world? This interactive map, using data from the World Health Organisation, shows the obesity rates of nations around the globe. Do you know how fat you are? What does 200 calories look like? Are soft drinks to blame? Take the calorie quizCounting calories can be a headache. On the Guardian Teacher Network Do you eat like a Frenchman? The Politics Of Obesity: Seven Steps To Government Action. Surgeon General David Satcher’s 2001 “Call to Action” on obesity begins dramatically: “Overweight and obesity have reached...epidemic proportions.”
Academics, federal officials, medical experts, journalists, and public interest groups have begun to echo the alarm.1 Unlike most public health problems, however, obesity arises in large part from private behavior: from people’s consumption of food and drink. In the United States, with its strong culture of individualism, such private activity is often viewed as off-limits to governmental intervention. “The government should stay out of personal choices I make,” writes Washington University professor Russell Roberts. “My eating habits or yours don’t justify the government’s involvement in the kitchen.”2 Public officials have not yet responded forcefully to the growing concern about an obesity “epidemic.” We begin with the historical record.
Controlling ‘Private’ Behavior What inspires U.S. public officials to regulate personal behavior? A Mathematical Challenge to Obesity. Public Opinion and the Politics of Obesity in America. Taeku Lee + Author Affiliations Health policy experts have recently sounded the warning about the severe health and economic consequences of America's growing rates of obesity. Despite this fact, obesity has only begun to enter America's political consciousness and we have little information about what average Americans think of obesity or whether they support obesity-related policies.
Using unique survey data collected by the authors, this essay examines public attitudes toward obesity and obesity policy. We find that, contrary to the views of health experts, most Americans are not seriously concerned with obesity, express relatively low support for obesity-targeted policies, and still view obesity as resulting from individual failure rather than environmental or genetic sources. Given the absence of elite discourse on this problem, we also find that typical determinants of policy preferences, such as ideology or partisanship, are not good predictors of attitudes on obesity policy.