Are '50s moms to blame for today's obesity rates?
Leading health expert says that moms' habits in the 1950s launched the obesity epidemic of today.
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"women who are significantly overweight should be discouraged from having babies until they shed pounds."--Why permit women to freely reproduce at all? Why not impose mandatory reversible sterilization at menarche and then require women to apply to all-powerful government for permission?
Engage in hyperbole much? They are talking about education, not eugenics.
In 6 years of researching the subject of overweight for CalorieLab, I found so many "causes," persuasive and otherwise, of obesity that I wrote a book about it, listing 151 reasons experts have offered to explain why people might be fat. The issue is almost insanely complex.
Obesity and food addiction is caused by liver flukes. Do a flush and you are fine.
Some woman blames her, unfortunately passed. grandmothers for her and her childrens' bad behavior? How is that credible?
It is true that America has switched from a primarily wheat culture to one of corn. Indeed, everything from Wheaties to our sweeteners are corn based now. But our culture has also shifted from active to more sedentary.
I think the real problem is that we want a simple answer to a complex problem. None of the simple answers seem to fit.
The claim by the scientist if goofy! There is no such thing as optimal health outside of a specific environmental context. In some cultures, for example, where food availability fluctuates wildly, obesity is optimal because it protects against famine. In other societies--such as ours--obesity is not optimal because food is abundant. But to judge people of the 1950's, coming off of war shortages and other issues, by the standards of today is irresponsible. It is not a valid comparison.
How and why is it the job of the Federal government (or state governments) to make sure the poor eat a proper diet? They are hardly responsible for the breeding habits and dietary habits (except for allowing fast food restaurants and convenience stores to accept food stamps/ebt cards). People must be responsible for their own poor decisions, whether it is having children at age 14 or eating 3 times a day at McDonald's. No one can force a pregnant woman to eat properly, not drink or not do drugs.... More
You really don't have a clue how this works do you?
There was a steep decline in the top 10 communicable diseases. (Tuberculosis, Scarlet Fever, Influenza, Pneumonia, Diptheria, Whooping Cough, Measels, Smallpox, Typhoid, Poliomyelitis) over a period of about 100 years from 1900 to 1973. Even the most virulent of these diseases were near their currently flat expression when science developed the means to mass produce vaccines in the years leading up to 1949.
What caused this.... More
The Nature of Things, on CBC television, just had a recent programme on the possibility that chemicals have brought on the weight problem. If you can find it on line have a look.
The epidemic of obesity in this country, and which is NOT repeated in Europe, started in the 1970s, not the 50s.
It came about as an unforeseen result of two things:
1) A farm subsidy system put together by Earl Butz at the behest of Richard M. Nixon taking the boom and bust of the free market out of farming a replacing it with a managed agricultural system. By putting in an incentive based system where farmers were paid fairly for their labor, he accomplished in a very few.... More
Where is the proof? Any supporting evidence? Justification of theory? This article was poorly written. It has about as much substance as claiming crop circles from the '90s are responsible for obesity. People love blaming others for their misfortune, because you KNOW it's not your own fault.
If it was 1950s moms why was childhood obesity not a problem in the 1960s?
I grew up in the 80's and this is how we had dinner, more or less. It was nice.
""It was the evil '50s. A perfect recipe for obesity,"
Nonsense. Abstract things like years cannot be 'evil'. People can. The 50's boom was due to FDR going to war and ending the depression. You didn't see fat people then. Thanks FDR for all the fat people today.
Wrong president. It was Nixon who pressured Earl Butz to switch our domestic consumption from wheat to corn.
FDR prairies,immortalized in song by Woody Guthry, were covered in fields of wheat.
"Wrong president. It was Nixon..."
We're not talking about Nixon. The obesity seeds were planted when he was busy with Whittaker Chambers. FDR's AAA goon squads, infiltrated with filth like Hiss, beating American farmers into submission contributed to the depression that Roosevelt originally cherished so much. "Woodenhead" Guthrie forgot to sing about them.
This is totally fascinating. I think that this is pretty compelling information and may very well be the start of obesity, but the preponderance of processed, GMO foods and total lack of physical education has a real chunk of the blame too. I am constantly amazing while traveling in the US where people will tell me to drive to, which one can walk, maybe even faster due to traffic. "Oh, you don't want to walk all that way..." when it's all of five minutes on foot down the road. So bizarre! My.... More
"but the preponderance of processed, GMO foods and total lack of physical education has a real chunk of the blame too."
I only agree with processed food. If anything the GMOs may cause cancer, but I don't see how they causes obesity (other than the "preponderance" of corn they lead to).
Also, I grew up in Illinois where PE is mandatory, and it does little if anything to fight obesity. Illinois' obesity rates are not.... More
sorry for the spelling errors, I was fuming about my PE memories. What a waste of hundreds of hours of my time.
GMO foods do not lead to obesity! These crops are nutritionally no different than heirloom or organic crops. The only differences are their genetic resistance to pests and chemicals, and their ability to produce higher yields.
Next time, do your homework before you comment! (And by they way, I am not necessarily in favor of GMOs; but I am in favor of the truth.)
It's obviously ideal if mothers are in optimal health during pregnancy, but the entire idea of discouraging overweight women from giving birth is missing the point entirely. It doesn't even come close to getting to the root of the problem. The issue of obesity is informed by socioeconomic factors, and statistically, the unhealthiest people are usually poor people who have limited access to education, nutritious food, affordable health care, and a multitude of other resources necessary for.... More
I agree with the first respondent. We have abdicated personal responsibility in the developed world. Information about how to maintain a healthy weight is freely available, and socioeconomic infrastructural factors are a weak excuse for failing to take responsibility for one's own health. The tools are freely available, accessible, and pervasive in developed countries.
People who are obese can either blame genes, a "condition" or blame themselves for not taking care of themselves. In no way is anyone else at fault. Some people choose to be obese and are not only ok with it, but some are proud of it.
As someone who was nearly obese myself, I can tell you that you are wrong, obscenely wrong.
I am at a normal weight basing myself on the guidelines in place during the nineteen sixties, and in the pink of good health.
I am extremely fortunate and I can afford my health both in funds and in availability. Most people are not so lucky. They are either too poor, too rushed or too unaware and so they eat from the common trough.
What it took for me was my getting.... More
