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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 12, 2000)
^r\ |\TT ^ C| 1 £? A weekly look at 155UC5 a topic important to us Page5 No genetics: Doctorsfeed off fat Americans Hyperphagia: overeating. Adipocyte Hyperplasia: excessive number of fat cells; an obese orfat person. The world record for the biggest person ever was more than 2,000pounds. He looked like Jabba the Hut, only with much less vertical structure. The doc tors said he wasn’t fat, he just had a bad case of hyperphagiation. They were later blown away by his hyperflagellations. One doctor says “Your weight problem is due to a severe case of hyperphagiation.” Another says it’s due to “defective circadian neuroendocrine rhythms.” Got fat as a child? You’re a victim of “childhood onset obesity.” Put on some pounds after menopause? In that case you got “post-menopausal metabolic imbal ance.” Live in America? You’re a victim of “perfunctory medical nomenclature for the institutionalization of pharmaceutical expansion.” *** My grandparents still can remember when fat people were rare. They can also remember explaining fatness with simple, common sense knowledge - something I’ve recently learned to appreciate. “You get fat because you eat too much, you’re lazy and you don’t work enough,” they would say. “That’s why rich people get fat; because they don’t have to work and can afford to sit around and just eat all day.” In die past few years I have visited 11 countries in Africa and Asia. You know what I’ve discovered? My grandparents are right. Every country had only a few fat people, and unfailingly they were always the rich elite. \ So why is America so fat? Maybe we should believe die scientists, with their medical explanations for cultural and behavioral phenomena. They’ve pro vided an array of scientific phraseologies proving that fatness has “nothing to do with passing on bad eating habits or sedentary lifestyles” (hit J. of Obesity, 1992). They want us to believe fatness is a genetic dis order, and they’ve found an obesity gene for it So how do they explain how this gene only has become active in the last 50 years? Statistically, we weren’t as fat as when my grandparents were our age. Did it snap into existence after World War II? And what about it not existing outside the United States? Are we to believe that the obesity gene and glandular disorders that supposedly cause obesity are restricted by imaginary political lines that delineate the United States? Allow me to bring down the medical establish ment with some simple rtiath. One thiiri of all Americans are obese. That’s more than 90 million people. While “obesity” may be too insensitive, hard to define and not politically correct enough to be used, 55 percent of us are overweight, or too fat That’s more than 150 million people. According to the International Journal of Obesity, between two and five percent of the rest of the world is overweight From my travels, that figure sounds right to me as well. If we take three percent as an aver age, multiplied by the world’s population of six bil lion, roughly 173 million people in the world are over weight America has nearly as many overweight people as the rest of the world combined. But if this fat gene exists, we actually should have about 8.5 million over weight people, not 150 million. Why would God, who still has supreme reign in gene distribution, choose to give Americans one-half of the world’s fat genes when Americans are less than five percent of the world’s population? There can be only one logical explanation: God wanted an excuse to send his only son, Richard Simmons, down to America as our Messiah. Or, this fat gene, except in a few cases, does not exist as the medical establishment has defined it I find this theory much more acceptable, especially given the vested inter est in spreading self serving propaganda as the medical establish ment has been allowed to do. With a plump market of more than 150 million well-fed and rich Americans, the medical establishment had more than enough motivation to create, exaggerate and selectively generate data to give further support to its institu tions. The medical establishment includes the Amelia Medical Association, doctors, pharma ceutical companies, research centers, hospitals and the advertising, distribution and retail industries. The weight loss industry and magic-diet businesses were eager to lap it up. In fact, they funded many of these studies that convinced all peo pie they were “sick.” The result is one of the biggest fleecings of America our naive population has ever seen. The truth, I’m afraid, is much simpler and less technocratic. It comes down to two facts rooted in post-World War II America. The first fact is economic. We now have the economic and agri cultural ability to produce more food than we’ll ever need. This didn’t happen until the green revolution of the 1950s. The green revolution made food extremely cheap and gave us more free time to eat it, because less time was needed to produce it. We had the option of exporting more or exploit ing this luxury. Sadly, we chose the latter. Combine that with a resonating emphasis on largeness and size in American society that may have always been here, and you get a lot of fat people. This explains why most of the world’s fat people are in the United States and why we didn’t become fat until after World Warn. I’ve used die word fat instead of obese because that’s what we’re talk ing about here: People who are bom normal and become fat If someone is fat, chances are it’s not because he or she has adipocyte hyperplasia or the obesity gene. I refuse to believe we are a genetically abnormal nation. Instead, I believe we are a cultur ally degenerating nation that has been duped and taken advantage of by a powerful medical technocracy. Itls about time we saw through their ridiculous nomen clatures and claimed respon sibility for our own gluttony. Everyone should eat, exercise responsibly They say that big is beautiful. Big is fun. But big is not in. The National Center for Health Statistics reports that 54.3 percent of Americans are obese, meaning they are 20 percent more than their ideal weight Many of these larger people are healthy, exercise, have prominent jobs and very active social lives. Others are suffering from severe health problems. But in our society, bursting with fat-ffee foods and products, exercise videos and health centers, just why are so many Americans overweight? lUiCU V1VVY UUtl V/UVOllJ 1VOUIIO uutll some moral inadequacy and “fat” people could lose weight if they would just exer cise a little will power. But research shows the answer is not that simple. Why not blame television and the fast food industry? Blame potato chips, greasy hamburgers and fries. Are they the foods that force their way into our mouths? Are they responsible for people in our country being obese? Maybe. There are plenty of reasons why people are obese. Strong biochemical and genetic forces come into play every time we eat. Some are diabetes, thyroid problems, poor diet, insufficient exercise and heredity. Certain drugs like estrogen, progestins, insulin and steroids also cause weight gain. It is generally believed if you consume more calories than you bum, you will natu rally gain weight. This is true. However, we must remember some people metabolize food differently. A recent study concluded that heavy people actually bum calories faster than underweight people do because their metabolism speeds up as they put on the pounds. But most people have a choice as to ~j what they eat and don’t eat. It is the indi > vidual’s decision to follow a good diet or eat junk. I have observed that Americans are generally more overweight com pared to Europeans. Having been raised in England, I was amazed at the American lifestyle when I first arrived here. Everything is so big in America. Food is so plentiful and the por tions are grand, yet we waste so much. Americans are generally worka holies and busy people - • with little time to spend on their health and diet. If you go to Europe, you’ll be amazed just how small everything is. People eat less, drive less and generally exercise more, which explains why there are fewer over weight people. The long-term health effects for many obese people are harmful. Many relatives on my mother’s side are overweight. I don’t think it is completely hereditary because I do not possess this trait Most of them are over weight because they eat too much, and they eat the wrong food. They eat high-calorie foods and fatty foods. They eat in large quantities, and they seldom exercise. And they wonder why they are big. They simply eat too much. My 10-year-old cousin Caroline is almost 6 feet tall, wears size 18 to 20 and weighs more than 250 pounds. My aunt has tried everything to help her reduce her weight, and nothing seems to work. She is very active for someone so large, yet she has diffi culties doing certain things. I think she has some kind of illness that prevents her from controlling her weight I am afraid for her health because her size is extremely unusual for someone so young. Only exercise and a good diet are crucial when it comes to losing weight Individuals have a choice to eat well or to eat poorly. People who are overweight need to learn to control what they eat and understand how they respond to uespite me many causes of obesity, the individual who is overweight has many choices and is mainly to blame for his or her problem. This leaves people in a situation to seek help and help themselves. David Baker is a senior sociology, anthropology, and African studies major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist Lesley Chvusu is a junior broadcasting major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist