Between 1975
and 2005, the average weight of Americans had increased by about 20 pounds.
Since the 1970s, the national obesity rate had jumped from around 20 percent to
over 30 percent. Carson C. Chow deploys
mathematics to solve the everyday problems of real life. In his presentation "Illuminating the Obesity Epidemic With Mathematics," he holds the fast food industry responsible
for 1 in 3 Americans being obese. It’s
something very simple, very obvious, something that few want to hear: The epidemic was caused by the overproduction
of food in the
Beginning in the 1970s, there was a
change in national agricultural policy. Instead of the government paying
farmers not to engage in full production, as was the practice, they were
encouraged to grow as much food as they could. At the same time, technological
changes and the “green revolution” made our farms much more productive. The
price of food plummeted, while the number of calories available to the average
American grew by about 1,000 a day.
Well, what do people do when there is
extra food around? They eat it! This, of
course, is a tremendously controversial idea. However, the model shows that
increase in food more than explains the increase in weight.
In the 1950s, people rarely ate out. Today, Americans dine out — with
these large restaurant portions and oil-saturated foods — about five times a
week. Society has changed a lot. With such a
huge food supply, food marketing got better and restaurants got cheaper. The
low cost of food fueled the growth of the fast-food industry. If food were
expensive, you couldn’t have fast food.
Interestingly, we saw that Americans
are wasting food at a progressively increasing rate. If Americans were to eat
all the food that’s available, we’d be even more obese. The food industry doesn’t want you to know it.
And ordinary people don’t particularly
want to hear this, either. It’s so easy for someone to go out and eat 6,000
calories a day. There’s no magic bullet on this. You simply have to cut
calories and be vigilant for the rest of your life.
How many times did you go out to eat
last week? Do you need to make a change
this week? Could this be one reason why you
aren’t losing those extra pounds! Lynette
No comments:
Post a Comment