Blame cheese?

I was flipping through the news this morning, and came across this article from NPR: "Billboards Slather On The Guilt With Anti-Cheese Campaign."

Apparently the Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine has posted two billboards in Albany warning residents that cheese makes them fat.

This really steams my buns.

Yes, we do have an obesity epidemic in the United States. But to demonize a single food is misleading at best and is potentially dangerous. By pinning the blame on cheese (and ignoring, for example, ice cream, donuts, potato chips, candy bars, etc...) PCRM is giving the impression that cutting out cheese alone will make people slim.

Fat chance.

The PCRM billboards completely ignore one of the major contributing factors in the rise in obesity: our increasingly sedentary lifestyle. We no longer work in factories or on farms. We work at desks. We no longer walk to the grocery store. We drive.

And perhaps more importantly, there are no documented studies that link cheese consumption to obesity. The France counter-factual proves that no causal link could be drawn between cheese consumption and body fat. The French public consumes more cheese, per capita, than any other nation on earth (more than 50 lbs/person, on average each year, compared with about 30 in the U.S.) yet France has a very low obesity rate - about 10 percent, compared to 30 percent in the U.S.

Cheese alone is clearly not to blame.

In fact, 100 years ago, Americans were encouraged to eat less meat and more cheese. During World War I cheese was a convenient way to get important nutrients, like protein, at a time when meat was in short supply.

Source: U.S. National Archives

Now... Clearly meat is no longer in short supply. I would not try to make the case that cheese is a "health food" but I also would not blame it for single-handedly causing obesity.

My point here is that the PCRM ads are political, not science.

There are studies that prove an active lifestyle and sensible, balanced eating habits do reduce incidence of obesity. PCRM chooses to ignore these facts. Instead they are trying to scare people into believing that cheese is the root of all obesity evil.

This sort of bad "science" just makes me mad.

I'll bet the "doctor" behind these ads is lactose intolerant.

What do you think?

Bad hair day

In her efforts to battle the obesity epidemic by encouraging Americans to exercise more, Dr. Regina Benjamin, Surgeon General of the United States was quoted as saying:

“Oftentimes you get women saying, ‘I can’t exercise today because I don’t want to sweat my hair back or get my hair wet,’ ...When you’re starting to exercise, you look for reasons not to, and sometimes the hair is one of those reasons.”

So, first question: Is she right? She's talking about exercise newbies, but have you, dedicated exercisers, ever skipped or postponed a workout for the sake of your hairstyle?

And second question: If this is an "excuse" women are using, does this matter enough to warrant comment by the Surgeon General?

Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress

Born to Run (and to be anything but a couch potato)

I am about halfway through Born to Run. Having published the latest obesity stats in another blog, this passage struck me:

"Every action flick depicts the destruction of civilization as some kind of crash-boom-bang, a nuclear war or hurtling comet or a self-aware-cyborg uprising, but the true cataclysm may already be creeping right up under our eyes: because of rampant obesity, one in three children born in the United States is at risk of diabetes--meaning, we could be the first generation of Americans to outlive our own children. Maybe the ancient Hindus were better crystal-ball-gazers than Hollywood when they predicted the world would end not with a bang, but with a big old yawn. Shiva the Destroyer would snuff us out by doing... nothing. Lazing out. Withdrawing his hot-blooded force from our bodies. Letting us become slugs."
Christoper McDougall, Born to Run

Today, Colorado has the nation’s lowest rate of adult obesity, at 18.6 percent. In California, with its reputation for athletic-minded surfers and beach bums, one quarter of the adult population is obese. That's right - not just overweight. Obese. In California.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/AdultObesity/StateInfo.html

The rapid change over the past two decades is alarming, to say the least. In 1990 ten states had obesity rates below 10 percent. Today none do. In 1990 no states had obesity rates above 15 percent. Today none have rates below 15 percent.

How has this happened so quickly?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Many communities are built in ways that make it difficult or unsafe to be physically active."

While I agree that wide, sidewalk-less roads play a role in the obesity epidemic, I also think there is a broader social movement at play... Or rather not moving and not playing?

According to Nielsen, Americans are watching more TV than ever - now up to an average of 34 HOURS PER WEEK per person. People are watching television like it's a full-time job.

Somewhere along the way we've lost our collective interest in getting outside to play, and have turned into a nation of couch potatoes.

I'm hoping that by the end of Born to Run, McDougall will present some suggestions for overcoming our national sloth. Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign is a start in the right direction, but I have to wonder if more people will exercise or will just sit and watch her dance in the Dougie video?


Note:
According to the CDC, obesity is “defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or greater. BMI is calculated from a person's weight and height and provides a reasonable indicator of body fatness and weight categories that may lead to health problems. Obesity is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes.”