Coming off his Texas barbeque excursion, Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen notes that J. Eric Oliver, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, has entered the debate a new book called Fat Politics (Oxford 2005), in which Professor Oliver argues that a handful of doctors, government bureaucrats and health researchers — funded by the drug and weight-loss industry — have campaigned to classify more than sixty million Americans as “overweight,” to inflate the health risks of being fat, and to promote the idea that obesity is a killer disease. The Publishers Weekly review of the book notes the following:
It’s not obesity, but the panic over obesity, that’s the real health problem, argues this scintillating contrarian study of the evergreen subject of American gluttony and sloth. Political scientist Oliver condemns what he feels is a self-interested “public health establishment” — obesity researchers seeking federal funding, pharmaceutical and weight-loss companies peddling diet drugs and regimens, bariatric surgeons and other health-care providers angling for insurance reimbursement — for spuriously characterizing fatness as a disease. He debunks the dubious science and alarmist PR that fuels their campaign, taking on arbitrary Body-Mass Index standards that slot even Michael Jordan in the overweight category, state-by-state maps of obesity rates that make fatness look like a contagion spreading over the countryside, and flimsy research studies that vastly exaggerate the danger and costs of weight gain. Oliver also examines American attitudes towards obesity, probing the abhorrence of fatness implicit in the Protestant ethic and, less plausibly, tying our contemporary feminine ideal of the emaciated supermodel to a confluence of sociobiology and the economics of the urban sexual marketplace. Arguing that fatness is perfectly compatible with fitness, he contends that scapegoating obesity drives Americans to experiment with dangerous crash diets, appetite suppressants and weight-loss surgeries, while distracting us from underlying harmful changes in the American lifestyle — mainly our incessant snacking on junk food and shunning of exercise and physical activity, of which weight gain is perhaps merely a “benign symptom.” Oliver provides a lucid, engaging critique of obesity research and a shrewd analysis of the socioeconomic and cultural forces behind it. The result is a compelling challenge to the conventional wisdom about our bulging waistlines.
Here is also an LA Times review of the book and several prior posts that have examined the issues relating to the increasingly obese nature of America’s population.
As several of the earlier posts note, Professor Oliver’s thesis has a ring of truth to it, although most of us are conflicted by our anecdotal experiences in which we notice large numbers of overweight and out-of-shape people in the course of our daily lives. In many respects, the core problem is widespread ignorance about nutrition, the difference between exercise and recreation, and the fact that exercise is a poor means of weight-control, at least in the short term. My late father used to comment that, if you are riding a stationary bike for an hour to lose weight, then you could achieve the same benefit in terms of reducing calories for a lot less effort by simply eating one less helping of mashed potatoes at dinner.
My late father used to comment that, if you are riding a stationary bike for an hour to lose weight, then you could achieve the same benefit for a lot less effort by simply eating one less helping of mashed potatoes at dinner.
But most of us should be doing both. 🙂
We truly have become Blob Nation. Perhaps it’s not the pandemic that some alarmists want to make it out to be (what ever is?), but certainly in Houston we see it all around us. I’m constantly fighting the weight battle, and I don’t have nearly the problems that I see all around whenever I go to one of Houston’s fine eateries. And one reason I’m constantly fighting the battle is I don’t WANT those problems. 😉
Your father was right. If you are hopping an a stationary bike (or heading outside for a few miles’ run, as I do) for the enjoyment of it, by all means do it. Unfortunately people tend to approach physical activity as a requirement, not as a fun activity. There is a definite cyclicality to it (no pun intended): the heavier you are, the harder it is to exercise and less fun you have. So you get heavier. If people can get over the hump of “exercise is work” into the land of “exercise is fun” we’d all be better off.
Interestingly, Kurt, I think that’s part of the problem. I exercise regularly, but I don’t really enjoy it. On the other hand, I also engage in recreational activities such as golf, bicycling and other activities, which I enjoy and in which I receive many of the same benefits that I receive from my exercise protocol. You apparently run as a recreational activity and that’s great. But as you point out, many folks run for exercise rather than as a recreational activity that they enjoy, so they ultimately burn out on the activity.
Where I think many people get off-track is that they believe that they need to exercise for a long period of time to obtain weight control and other health benefits. As a result, and as you point out, many people burn out on exercise quickly — again, because exercise (as opposed to recreation) isn’t all that much fun.
While out of shape about ten years ago, I did an extensive amount of studying on nutrition and exercise protocols. I came to the conclusion that a balanced diet with regular meals and a couple of small snacks each day was the best nutritional approach. I couple that nutritional approach with two or three relatively short but intense exercise sessions (about 15 minutes of weights and 10 minutes of aerobic) each week to supplement my regular recreational activities. Following this approach, I was able to get back to my target weight in six months and have maintained it within 5 lbs. ever since. Moreover, inasmuch as my exercise sessions are short, I do not get burned out on them and they are not hard to work into my work week.
The bottom line — for the vast majority of us, a balanced diet with regular meals, a couple of short but reasonably intense exercise sessions per week, and an active recreational life is the prescription for a physically healthy life.
Yeah… unfortunately, in come the cold months in Chicago, and bike riding and golfing take on something of a hazardous hue. I’m afraid those of us stuck in the great white north have to make due with stationary bikes and treadmills.
Although it’s tempting to just buy a copy of DDR and go nuts…