AMERICAN indulgence and overabundance are most concentrated in the food industry. In an article published in Healthy Day, Dr. David L. Katz, the director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said, "Obesity is arguably the gravest public health threat in the United States today." Take notice: Because it is motivated by profit, the food industry fuels over consumption first with pervasive advertisement, second, by associating social cues with their products and third by promoting larger portions.
The facts are astonishing. According to The Healthy Daily News, "The number of obese American adults rose from 23.7 percent in 2003 to 24.5 percent in 2004." Healthy News continued to suggest that on average 58 percent of American adults are trying to lose weight at any given time. This is matched by the fact that, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 25 percent of adults in 10 states are obese.
Americans should be, astonished and alarmed by these facts. There are many factors that play a significant role in over-consumption, yet as in any social-psychological phenomenon none of them are simple or compoundable.
First that the food industry is at least in part responsible for the culture of over consumption and obesity: Americans can hardly turn on the television, go to the store or even walk out their door without being bombarded by appealing advertisement. Food companies contend aggressively for consumer dollars, spending $30 billion a year advertising campaigns. According to Marion Nestle, the author Food Politics, "They [food companies] want people to eat when they're not hungry and keep eating when they're full."
Advertisement is not an innocent byproduct of the technological world.Especially when aimed at children, advertisement can cause lifelong consumer dysfunction. According to The National Academies, "Food marketing aimed at kids influences poor nutritional choices."The study went on to suggest that companies spent $10 billion to market foods, beverages, and meals to U.S. children in 2004.
Moreover, not only is advertisement pervasive, but it is overtly and covertly compelling. When, for example, Starbucks sells a cup of coffee for the taste and caffeine provided, it also sells the product for the image it provides. Starbucks, Dean and Deluca and others have spend billions of dollars convincing consumers' heads that the consumption of their product will make them look sophisticated, avant-garde and cool.
American portions are ridiculous and over-consumption is out of hand. In the movie Supersize Me, the producer, Morgan Spurlock, portrays an American with little exercise and big eating habits: He consumes three McDonald's meals a day and super-sizes his meal at any offer for one month. The results of this month long experiment are as surprising to Spurlock and his doctors as they are sobering to the audience: Spurlock's liver turns toxic, his cholesterol soars, he frequently complains of headaches, admits to mild depression and he gains 25 pounds. With these results in hand, he isn't far off. In a health study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, Samara Joy Nielsen found that, "Between 1977 and 1999, food portion sizes increased both inside and outside the home for all categories except pizza."
To even entertain the possibility of improvement, change must come both from the food companies and the consumer. Americans need to first arm themselves with the truth about their food and adjust their behavior appropriately.In reality, the goal of any company is to sell its product. Good-will reform will not likely begin in corporate America. To effect this change, everyone, down to the lowliest undergraduate student, must become more conscientious and educated and consistently less apathetic or commercially driven.
Christa Byker is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.
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