Are We Doing Anything Now?

            It’s obvious that obesity is a major issue in our society today but, let's examine what actions we are taking now. Obesity was not a major problem in the past as it is today but there are people who are acknowledging this epidemic and are taking positive actions to try and minimize it.

            We Californians pushed for a major change in restaurants all over the state to provide nutritional information about the food items they provide. Our efforts forced, “restaurants with 20 or more locations in California [to] provide brochures at the point of purchase with number of calories, grams of saturated fat, grams of carbohydrates and milligrams of sodium for all standard menu items (Behrens 2009).” Because this was just recently made mandatory of restaurants, there is no evidence to whether this has actually helped with people making healthier choices or affecting obesity but, personally there have been several occasions where I have chosen a healthier item on a menu solely because this nutritional information was provided. I know there are many people out there who have also made a healthier decision based on this information due to my own personal experiences. Even if the number of people who do not consider this information during their decision making process of what item to order, it is a relief to see that we are making an effort to fight this growing problem.      

            The fast food industry has made attempts to provide healthier options on their menus as well. Taco bell introduced their own “fresco menu,” also known as the “Drive-Thru diet,” where there are seven items to choose from that are fewer in calories, fat and sodium as oppose to other menu items. Wendy’s restaurant chain added orange slices as a side dish option for their meals as wells as a salad line which has fat free options for dressings to help give customers a healthier option. At Wendy’s, “A side salad without dressing has only 60 calories. A Caesar side salad with no dressing has only 110 calories. The Deluxe Garden Salad also has only 110 calories (Barlow 2010).” Making these options available give the customer the discretion of whether to eat healthier or not. It’s encouraging to see these companies starting to implement healthier options on their menus; We American’s can use all the help we can get.

            Some communities have volunteer groups that push for change in their neighborhoods regarding obesity. Healthy Kids Healthy Communities is a volunteer group in Baldwin Park California who has made outstanding efforts battling obesity. This group pushed for a ban on fast food windows and since this ban was implemented, not a single fast food restaurant has opened in the city (CBS). This group pushed and succeeded in having many stores carry fresh produce that never carried it, and they also flag healthy foods for shoppers. This group made salad bars in schools a staple and 100 minutes per week of physical education mandatory (CBS). With all this in a five year period at one school in particular, 135 kids are no longer overweight. This group has made many good changes for their community and shows great success.            

            With obesity as problematic as it is today, people are starting to acknowledge the problem and are making changes. We do not have all the support we need to tackle this growing epidemic but it is motivating to see organizations like this putting in valuable effort. If we continue to push for healthier items in fast food restaurants, push for our kids to receive the right amount of physical education in their schools, push for stores to carry fresh produce and make schools provide healthier options for our children, we will definitely see the change with obesity in our future.

REFERENCES

Barlow, Jackie. 1/30/2010. “Wendy’s Nutrition Facts.” Bright Hub.

http://www.brighthub.com/health/diet-nutrition/articles/62900.aspx.

12/3/2010

Behrens, Zach. 6/26/09. “17,000 Restaurants Must Provide Nutritional Info on July 1^st.” Hollywood Laist. <http://laist.com/2009/06/26/17000_restaurants_must_provide_nutr.php>.

12/3/2010.

CBS News. 1/7/2010. “Where America Stands On Obesity.” Video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM-rZm-ilFA&feature=player_embedded#!.

It’s Not Solely What We Eat, But Also How Much We Eat

            Obesity is most commonly blamed on eating unhealthy items and the lack of exercise. Although these play a vital role in the cause of obesity, there needs to be another area examined which may play a larger role, food portions. “When McDonald’s first started in 1955, its only hamburger weighed around 1.6 ounces; now, the largest hamburger patty weighs 8 ounces, an increase of 500 percent (Monte 2008).”

            

                        This increase has not only been witnessed in fast food chains, but in restaurants, grocery stores and at home. Another study done by Young and Wansink, analyzed recipes in the popular cookbook, The Joy of Cooking, which has been in print since the 1930s and, “Found that portions for the same recipes have become larger in newer editions. A recipe for brownies that once made 30 servings now serves only 16 (Crane 2009).” In an eighty year period we double our serving size.

            There are many buffets now days as well as “bottomless” options such as Red Robin’s “Bottomless Fries” which encourage customers to eat more than they have on their plate. According to a study done by Brian Wansink, the director of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University in New York, subjects at a restaurant were “Given ‘bottomless’ soup bowls and ended up eating 73 percent more than those given regular bowls of soup (Crane 2009).”

            When people have more food in front of their eyes they are likely going to eat it. I know personally when I go to eat at a buffet or eat some place where they have “bottomless” items, I leave the place feeling like I ate way too much and all that food turns to fat if I don’t burn it off.

            We Americans like the most bang for our buck which is not a bad thing but, consider upgrading from a 32 ounce big gulp cup to a 64 ounce double gulp cup for only .20 cents, it’s such a  great deal we can’t say no but that adds an extra 388 calories to our intake! Although it may seem economically smart, it’s detrimental to our health. “A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Americans consume around 10 percent more calories than they did in the 1970s. Given no change in physical activity, this equates to around 200 extra calories per day, or 20 pounds a year (Monte 2).” Choices like the big gulp upgrade adds that extra 388 calories and if we continue to make choices like that every day we're going to gain at least 20 pounds a year! Diet and exercise play a very big role in the cause of obesity but portion sizes are not examined or blamed like they should be. We Americans need to learn portion control or our war against obesity is only going to get harder.

            “The NHLBI tells us that a serving of meat should be the size of a deck of cards while one pancake should be the size of a CD (Monte 2).”

 

            Get the picture? Our servings are completely disproportionate to the servings we should be having. The more we eat the more energy the body has. Unless you work it all off which is unlikely with the portions most of us eat, it will be stored into fat. When we eat this much it is too difficult to try and make sure we burn it off. Food portion is one of the biggest contributors to the obesity problem we have now and we Americans need to acknowledge this and start to change our eating habits.

 REFERENCES

Crane, Cody. “Plumped up portions: over the years, the serving sizes of food

have expanded and so have people's waistlines.” 11/9/2009. Reference Publications.

<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1590/is_5-6_66/ai_n42079032/>. 11/30/2010.

Monte, Liz. “Portion size, Then vs. Now.” 05/2008. Divine Caroline. <http://www.divinecaroline.com/79975/49492-portion-size-vs-now>. 11/30/2010.