Rudd Sound Bites

Obesity and Climate Change: Framing is Everything

by Carly Keidel

In a letter that will be published in the next issue of the medical journal the Lancet, British researchers Dr. Phil Edwards and Dr. Ian Roberts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggest that obese people are significantly contributing to world oil demands and global food insecurity. Their letter states that obese persons use 18 percent more food energy than thinner persons, which in turn leads to a greater global demand for food.

“These data are interesting, but how they are framed will make a big difference,” states Dr. Kelly Brownell, Director of the Rudd Center. “Saying that obese people are contributing to climate change is highly stigmatizing and assigns blame to the individuals who are obese rather than the conditions driving the obesity in the first place.”

Portion Sizes: Maybe the Metric System Would Help?

by Becca Krukowski

A friend of mine returned from a business trip recently with a food-related nugget that he thought would horrify me. While out of town, he went with some of his colleagues to a local favorite restaurant known for their steak dinners. The menu states that the steaks are served “family-style” and depending on the cut, come in 2-6 pound servings. The steaks are all priced “per pound” and, according to my friend, the menu helpfully recommended one pound per person (see picture), and so all of these men complied and ordered a pound of steak. Nonetheless, my friend was surprised to see hunks of meat arrive at the table. He had not realized that a pound was equivalent to 13 ounces (in fact, I told him, a pound actually contains 16 ounces).

Junk Food City

by Michael Long

Forbes magazine recently released a list of the 20 cities with the highest per capita junk food consumption.  The magazine used data from Nielsen ScanTrack to analyze per capita junk food sales in 52 markets in the U.S., finding that Oklahoma City had the highest consumption of junk food products, followed by Pittsburgh, Memphis, Little Rock and St. Louis.  Most of the cities on the list are in the Midwest or the South, which the magazine notes coincides with higher regional rates of obesity.

Obesity and the 2008 Presidential Race

by Carly Keidel

Does the need for obesity treatment and prevention have the momentum to become a reigning political issue in the 2008 presidential election? What are the sponsorship records of Senators Clinton, McCain and Obama on bills related to nutrition, healthy food access, and community wellness? Answers to these questions and more can be found in a comprehensive report by Corporations and Health Watch, a non-profit organization that tracks the effects of corporate practices on public health. The report examines the extent to which food and beverage companies serve as top political donors, and the positions taken by the 2008 presidential candidates about junk food marketing, nutrition education, family farms, and personal responsibility for diet and exercise.

Meal Dumb-Down

by Kathryn Henderson

The May issue of Parenting magazine recently arrived on my doorstep. I was initially excited by the article “Two-way dinners: Make it for kids, then tweak it for adults – and everybody’s happy!” This seemed like a great idea – after all, I spend a lot of time encouraging parents to put one meal on the table each night rather than making a different meal for each family member. The latter is time-consuming, reinforces the “eat what I want any time I want” mentality, and caters to pickiness. So I eagerly flipped to the article and was suitably…disappointed.

Food Costs and Fuel Costs

by Becca Krukowski

For the past few years, rising fuel costs have consistently been a top story.  Recently, it seems there has been an increasing frequency of consumer soundbites about how the fuel costs have finally gotten to a point that people are cutting back on how often or how far they drive. At the same time, stories about food costs have become more popular in the mainstream media, so it is not surprising that people are starting to wonder about the impact of rising food costs. Will people react similarly to increasing food costs as they appear to have with fuel costs? Will they eat less and/or eat less often? Could higher food prices be the magic pill that will solve the world’s obesity problem and conditions related to overnutrition?

Stigma-busting Beauty Pageant

by Rebecca Puhl

The beauty pageant world is paying attention to Chloe Marshall, a 17-year-old in England, who has been making headlines this past month for being the first plus-size model to be selected as a finalist for the Miss England competition. Chloe, who is a size 16, was crowned Miss Surrey over seven thinner contestants, and is now a contender for the national Miss England pageant.

More on Food and the Environment

by Carly Keidel

As a follow-up to Michael's recent post, I wanted to pass along this link to a blog entry by Roni A. Neff, PhD, in which she explores the interplays among diet, health, agriculture and the environment as part of National Public Health Week. Also of interest, Dr. Neff recently discussed these issues in-depth in a podcast with Kelly Brownell, titled Yesterday's Dinner, Tomorrow's Weather: Today's News?

The Planet and Your Health

by Michael Long

A number of speakers at the Rudd Center, including Richard Jackson, MD, have commented that public health advocates need to leverage interest in policies that would reduce global warming to build support for policies related to obesity and diet-related diseases.  This past week, I was watching the news and saw a feature on a woman who decided to take the train to work instead of driving because of the high cost of gasoline.  As a result of all of the walking needed to get around using public transit, she had lost a great deal of weight and no longer needed to take medication for hypertension.  It seemed from the news story that the health effect of walking was a complete (and very welcome) surprise to the woman.

Wise Up on Weight in Vogue

by Chelsea Heuer

Jeffrey Steingarten is my new favorite person. I just read You Are Not What You Eat, an article he wrote for April’s Vogue. Mr. Steingarten is among a handful of journalists and writers who are attempting to deflate the weight loss myths that are rife in today’s culture. An excerpt:

“The flood of diet articles has several harmful effects. Pretending that losing weight is easy and really fun stigmatizes the overweight for choosing not to lose weight, for remaining weak and self-indulgent. It encourages people to feel that their own bodies are in pretty awful shape. Both the industry and its supporters in the press are playing on the desperation of people who hate how they look in the mirror. Pandering to their unrealistic hopes. Making weight loss into one of the central goals of life.”