Obesity: Change We Can Believe In?
He's got a tall order. Slumping economy, foreign wars and obesity? Yup, a group at Northeastern University wants the president-elect to tackle obesity too.
And they've sent him a long list of ideas.
The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI), at Northeastern University's School of Law, sent Barack Obama's Health and Human Services transition team 47 policy suggestions aimed at curbing obesity.
Here are a few of the PHAI's recommendations:
- Develop and support an array of federal policies to increase access to healthy food at the state and local levels, including: an Innovations Fund to support grocery store development, new cooperatives, local entrepreneurship, and requirements for electronic payment access in all retail food environments, including farmers markets.
- Authorize the use of Food Stamp Nutrition Funds to promote strategies that will increase access to healthy foods and physical activity in low-income communities.
- Improve school food by legislating national standards for all food and beverages in schools based on U.S. Dietary Guidelines and production standards consistent with sustainable farming methods in the 2009 reauthorization of the federal Child Nutrition Bill.
- Increase funding in the 2009 reauthorization of the federal Child Nutrition Bill to increase: (a) the amount and quality of fruits and vegetables provided in schools; (b) school-based fruit and vegetable snack programs; (c) student food and nutrition education; and (d) school staff nutrition training.
- Adopt an integrative, family-based approach to obesity treatment and prevention (i.e., focus on encouraging active family living throughout the day rather than simply promoting individual exercise).
"Public health, unlike some other national assets, cannot be 'rescued' or 'bailed out,'" Richard Daynard, president of PHAI wrote in the cover letter, "A sophisticated and aggressive federal approach to obesity is desperately needed."
Just like banning fast food commercials, this all seems very big brother-ish, but American obesity is a never-ending train wreck. So some government policy might be worth a shot.
After all, individual self-control isn't working!
Via Booster Shots.
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Eh...I can agree with some of the points that were made but this should come after he sets the economy up first. Great ideas, though...especially the school lunch proposal.
ReplyI don't think those recommendations are very "big-brother" at all. It more fine tunes what the government is already doing.
I think it is quite necessary.
Obesity is going to cost our government a lot in the long term. Relying entirely on individual responsibility in a society where the economic incentive, parental influence, and even education environment is towards unhealthy foods is silly.
ReplyThey maybe should also give schools a little more money so they don't need the vending machines to afford books.
It doesn't seem so big brotherish as sensible to me. Here are a few more suggestions I'd have added to their list:
You know how we have a ‘sin tax’ on alcohol and tobacco products? Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University's Center for Weight and Eating Disorders has been campaigning for many years to get soft drinks out of schools and for ‘Twinkie Tax”: a tax on junk food that can be used to subsidize more healthful foods and fund public-awareness campaigns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_tax
I'd like to see that grocery stores have to put up boards showing the nutritional value of fruits and vegetables - after all, all the over-processed stuff can't wait to have packaging that says: FORTIFIED WITH blah blah!
Remove some of the huge food subsidies they give to things like genetically modified crops and give it to small farmers instead so that they can compete price wise in the market.
ReplyThere's a reason a larger proportion of low income people are overweight, in part it is because they can't afford to eat healthy. I just spent $8.50 for a dozen apples!! I'd rather see a sin tax on companies promoting unhealthy/ineffective weight loss methods.
I can't turn on my TV, read a magazine or newspaper without seeing some ad making outlandish weight loss claims. It's this sort of advertising that sets up the magic pill I don't wanna work for this mentality.
Average Joe tries to "diet", doesn't achieve the numbers the advertising he's been brainwashed with has set him up to expect and so average Joe feels like a failure. "Nothing works! I've tried everything." I hear that every single day.
Reply"America" is not obese. Only individuals are obese.
I lost 120 pounds with no help from anyone. Now these socialists and would-be-dictators want to take away my choices and institute a food police. And they want to steal an even larger part of my paycheck to pay for it.
Replya welfare state is not the solution. as long as individuals retain some element of free will, many will continue to make choices that will contribute to or maintain obesity. the most the government can (and should) do is to make information such as calorie counts available so we can make more rational choices.
save for the extreme minority of overweight/obese people who owe their condition to legitimate health issues, becoming or staying overweight or obese is largely the result of lifestyle choices. when it comes to choices, knowledge is power.
perhaps a better idea would be to institute nutritional education in public school health classes. discussing condom use has decreased teen pregnancy and STD transmission rates, so teaching about proper nutrition will likely lead to lower obesity rates.
ReplyThat would be a waste too. The cure for obesity is "just don't eat as much" and "go for a daily walk". How much does that lesson cost?
ReplyRight now our government is using socialist policies to support a backward and unhealthy food industry. They are subsidizing food corporationa through the farm bill that has turned our country into a big corn field.
People who are worried about progressive social policies need to think about the current backward policies often supported by the most conservative of politicians backed by the big food corp lobbying interests. I sure have not seen alot of complaints about that.
ReplyLook, Saint Obama promised to reverse climate change and lower the rising seas.....surely he can solve our obesity "crisis" by 2010.
ReplyI lost over twenty pounds since August by exercising and watching what I ate. The government didn't have to step in and help. People choose what to put in their mouths, punishing fast food corporations is just more anti-capitalist tripe pushed by liberals who want government to run our lives.
Comments like yours will be lost on all the big government busy bodies that frequent "diet blog".
Most of the people who post on and read this forum are goose stepping mini Hitlers who are only too happy to use the force of government to shove their vision of how to live a proper life down the throats of everyone around them.
ReplyHuh? How is this taking away anyone's rights or being "big brother-ish?" These changes are all about increasing access to healthy foods (which some urban neighborhoods have very poor access to fresh fruits and veggies), improving school food (which is already regulated by the government and is pretty disgusting in most places), and improving nutrition education. I didn't see anything about punishing companies, although I did not read the whole thing in detail so feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
I sometimes wonder if people even read the words or they just see "government policies" and assume "the man" is taking away their rights.
ReplyI think this is taking away our rights because they will start taking our right away to choose foods, then they will take our right to chose to practice a certain religion, then how many children we want. It always starts with something small and it started that way with the Holocaust. If there are no boundaries, then where do they stop. People think its ok to make healthy choices of food for people until a choice is made for them and then things change. America stands for freedom and choice; Government needs to stay out of my buisness and protect my right of choice.
ReplyGreat blog, great information. Everyone talks about the lack of health care. If we focus more on prevention, we wouldn't need as much health care.
ReplyI think that the level of suger in foods should be looked at as well. Also trans fats should be banned, they are so bad for us, and yet are in so many of our foods.
ReplyTrans fats should be banned. Why are they banned in the rest of the world and not here?
ReplyWhile there are some policies that Obama can change to try and alleviate the obesity problem, he's not going to be able to do a whole heck of a lot. The bottom line is, if people make the choices that lead them to being fat, nothing will make them thin except making a conscious choice to be healthier. The government's tried to make smoking pretty difficult with public smoking bans and high cigarette taxes, but the people who want to smoke will still buy them. And the government TRIED to ban alcohol in the 20's...yeah, that worked really well. So if Obama makes produce more available to urban areas, maybe a handful of people will be helped, but I'm pretty sure that if people aren't actively trying to buy healthy foods now, having them there won't do a whole lot. People who like their chips and mac and cheese aren't going to suddenly buy broccoli because it's now more available and cheaper.
I do hope that Obama does something to subsidize fruit/vegetable growers though. They need encouragement from the government, not the discouragement that they currently get now. I could always use cheaper fruit and veggies.
ReplySo they think poor people having to live off food stamps should be told like babies what they can and can't eat and that they have to follow some exercise program set up by the government, just because they need assistance? That's discrimation and insulting, what if you are on food stamps and don't live in a poor area?
The gov. should worry about ending hunger and not telling people what to eat or do with their own bodies. Friends and parents can't get people to lose weight, how is the gov. ?
ReplySome of these ideas are good, like the one about making healthy and organic foods more convienient, but I think before bringing obisity into politics, it has to be proven to be a crisis, which it probably is, millions of people have serious heath problems due to obisity, like diabetes. . . but there are more serious isses to be dealt with first.
ReplyI agree that something has to be done. After all, Americans are slowly killing themselves with obesity. The question is, though, is it the government’s responsibility to put an end to obesity?
I think most people would agree with me that it is really up to the individual to put an end to obesity. Obesity starts with the individual, and thus, it ends with the individual.
It really comes down to a basic question: Are Americans really so out of control they cannot find a diet that works?
I think it comes down to finding a diet that works for the individual and sticking with it. While the government can give guidance, it is really up to the person to find the diet they need to lose weight.
There are diets out there that promote healthy eating and behavioral changes that cause people to lose weight. When people try diets like these, instead of starvation diets, they are much more successful.
There are diets that allow people to eat a balanced diet of different foods and still lose weight. I have personally tried some of the diets that have allowed me to eat healthy, get the food I want, and drop pounds at the same time.
The idea is to find a diet that allows you to:
- Eat a well balanced meal of healthy foods
- Have more energy
- Lose weight at a steady rate
People need to do their research on diets and find one that fits into their lifestyle. While the government can offer guidance, they cannot lose the weight for anyone.
John Tenn
ReplyDietInspection.com
Here's a shocker, sweetheart.
We're all going to die, so claiming that America is "killing itself" through obesity is hilarious.
ReplyWhy stop at obesity?
I think the Government next needs to get people to stop being mean to each other.
After that we'll tackle ensuring that people wash their hands.
Eventually after the economy is really booming we can begin deploying teams of federally paid ass wipers to come into peoples homes and teach them how to properly clean their bung holes after making a deposit in the loo.
Change I can believe in!
ReplyLOL! No kidding. You can't force anyone to be healthy if they don't want to. Hell, even Oprah has problems losing weight and she's got Bob Greene and a personal chef basically telling her exactly what to eat and how to work out to lose weight. So yeah, you can only do so much to help people. The rest is up to them.
ReplyWhy does "something have to be done"?
Apparently you idiots have never heard of evolution.
That's what amazes me about human beings. At every level and at every opportunity we strive to thwart natural selection in order to keep the genes of the stupid and the lazy in the pool.
If people are "slowly killing themselves", then let them.
Just don't ask me to pay for it with socialized medicine.
ReplyLOL you are already paying for in the form of increased health insurance premiums.
I want nadda to do with socialized medicine but one way or the other, we all pay for it.
Oh and BTW genetically speaking, that "fat" gene you despise so much is actually, in terms of evolution and natural selection, the superior gene. But I guess, being intellectually superior, you already knew that too!
ReplyAs a health practioner for more than 10 years, I have come to a sobering conclusion...
People don't really care about their health. This is a general statement, and I know some people will be offended by it. But the truth is that Americans don't really care about their health.
People know that smoking is bad for them, but they smoke anyway because they like smoking.
People know that drinking excessive amounts of alcohol is bad for them, but they get wasted anyway, because it's fun and it's what everyone else is doing in college.
People know that eating fast foods like burgers, fries, and pizza are bad for them, but they eat them anyway because they like the taste of those foods.
People like to do things that are not healthy, and there is no way to stop people from doing things they like or love.
ReplySusanna, you're absolutely right. Maybe getting rid of the flood of cheap corn in this country is the best way to: 1. avoid HFCS in almost every type of processed food, 2. increase general health among the population & 3. get the paranoid "don't take away my free choice for junk food" folks (who probably happen to be fanatical about taking away a woman's right to choose) to understand this is NOT about limiting choice, but making sane choices in a truly "free" market, without totally backward outdated farm policies that end up driving out biodiversity in the food supply and lead to things like e-coli in beef and salmonella in peanut butter!
Cait - you totally missed the boat on this. It's about a fair, free open marketplace. It's not about legislating your right to choose fat and refined carbohydrates in a multitude of unhealthy options, it's about taxing them. You can still CHOOSE to eat them, you'll just have to pay [more] on a fair market level with unsubsidized produce. In fact, if you agree to pay for my grass-fed beef, I'll buy you all the [insert favorite fast food joint name] combo meals you want!
Reply