There has been much media attention given in recent years to the problem of rising obesity in Western society (USA, Australia, UK), mainly due to lack of exercise and ready availability of high-calorie processed foods. And there is something seriously wrong with society when even adolescents are resorting to stomach-banding surgery in order to lose weight, and how they can get so overweight in the first place. I also notice quite a few overweight younger children around, which is quite dismaying to see.
Processed food is deliberately designed to be addictive:
Hooked on junk food
JUNK food is as addictive as drugs, studies in animals and humans show. Foods rich in sugar, salt and fat trigger biological mechanisms that are just as strong and hard to overcome as drug addictions. An article in New Scientist magazine says one lawyer even believes there is enough evidence for a legal fight against the fast-food industry for harming our health, similar to class actions against tobacco giants. Researchers speculate the mounting evidence could lead to tougher regulation of junk food. (Herald-Sun, 2/9/2010)
Another more detailed article: “Fatty Foods Addictive as Cocaine in Growing Body of Science”, Bloomberg, 2/11/2011. Of course, the food corporations are in denial (as were tobacco manufacturers) but the evidence is mounting and the cost to society is enormous, in terms of diseases such as type-2 diabetes, heart disease and other obesity-related problems. Governments should definitely take measure to combat them, such as restricting the numbers of fast food chain outlets and taxing them heavily. Last week there was a Victorian council proposal to increase the rates of fast food outlets to discourage their proliferation. There would predictably be protests of “nanny state” (such as some of the usual rather tiresome protests in this Whirlpool forum post) but everyone has to pay for the resulting strain on the public health care system.
I find fast food (such as McDonald’s) as addictive as anyone else, but manage to restrain myself to only occasional indulgences (every few months or so). I just read this article, “The ugly truth about having a gastric bypass: The frank diary from an obesity nurse”, which provides motivation to try to not get to that size! I notice that the obese people featured all got that way simply through overeating addictions:
She tells me she’d always been big but really piled on the pounds when she had children. She felt lonely and the more depressed she became, the more she ate. Now hugely overweight, she has type 2 diabetes.
I talk to grumpy Dave while doing some routine checks. He opens up and tells me his story. It’s quite a typical one. He used to be a plumber but thanks to his junk-food diet got so fat he found it difficult to fit under people’s sinks. Then his knees got so painful he had to give up work. Stuck on incapacity benefit and with no self-esteem, his weight ballooned until now, aged 38, he weighs 30 stone.
Obese people are addicted to food in the way some people are to alcohol, cigarettes and worse. It’s a mental health issue.
A combination of readily-available junk food and depression can become a disabling and disfiguring condition for many. It’s easy to criticize them for lacking self-control, but learning this can be difficult and being depressed does not help. I am prone to comfort eating and it is hard sometimes to resist indulging – I could end up very overweight if I did not exercise.
