Nathan Brown
Writing 1010, 4B
Exploratory Essay
May 24, 2011
American Obesity; What causes it?
The obesity rates in the United States have grown tremendously. Obesity is an enormous
problem. It is going to pass tobacco as the leading cause of preventable death. This is not
problematic for me, but there are people in my life that are obese so I thought well I want to
learn more about it and what causes it, so I could understand better and try to help those around
me to overcome it so that it does not take their lives. As science and medicine work together,
they have started to come to the conclusion that obesity can cause many chronic diseases. So I
decided to search around and find things out, and learn opinions on what causes it and the effects
it has on people throughout the country.
I started with an article by Michael D. Lemonick, a senior science writer for Time
Magazine, called How We Grew So Big. He starts by giving some statistics about obesity. He
then gives his point of view of why we have grown so big.
It’s natural to try and find something to blame----fast-food joints or food
manufacturers or even ourselves for having too little willpower. But the ultimate
reason for obesity may be rooted deep within our genes. (1-2)
In my opinion, this could be true but, I think that there are more playing factors then just
our genes. Lemonick blames human’s evolution. “That was the condition of pretty much the
entire human race . . . things stayed that way until what some anthropologists call humanities
worst mistake: the invention of agriculture.”(3) I believe this to be partially true; because he
makes a point that it agriculture gave us a steady supply of food. This article was a nice start, and
informational for me to just begin my research about obesity in the United States.
I went on to read another article called America’s obesity problem is big news, by Anita
Srikameswaran a medical and science writer for the Pittsburg Post-Gazette. Anita gives more
statistics about the number of Americans that are obese. “For starters, the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention estimated that about six out of ten Americans were either
overweight or obese.”(1) I belong to Hunter high school, and we have 2300 students, and
according to the estimate that would be mean that 1380 students would be overweight or obese, I
doubt that there are that many students who are overweight. She puts her belief of the cause of
obesity in America.
“We have an unhealthy lifestyle … The eating habits are lousy and the activity
patterns are lousy, too. Genetics may play a role in obesity, but heredity isn’t the
sole cause of the epidemic, … Changes in the genetic pool take decades, if not
centuries, … it’s the environment that is changing. Even household pets are
affected. According to the National Research Council, 25 percent of dogs and cats
are overweight.” (1)\
I like that she did give a point that included more than one aspect of the problem unlike
Lemonick, she brought in genetics but also said that the environment is changing. She also
brought up the point that first we are not living up to the standards we should be, I think that she
put that very first because it is cause that we as a society are capable of reversing unlike the
change in our genetic pool. We can slow the environment down but we will not be able to
reverse what has already happened. These two articles were great, but it just was not enough
information, and they were just a start they got me interested even more to find out what other
people have to say about the obesity epidemic in America.
I decided to go to the local library and find a few books on the subject at hand. The first
book that I found is called Death by Super Market, by Nancy Deville. I was reading though and I
found a chapter in the book about MSG or monosodium glutamate. The title is MSG keeps us
coming back for more. So right away I thought this chapter should be able teach me something
about why America is in this epidemic. It talks about how factory food is designed to make you
want to go back for more. “How does the factory food industry get you to want to eat more? The
primary addicting ingredient is sugar, but the deal clincher is the flavor enhancer monosodium
glutamate (MSG).” (41) This was good to know that the factory food industry is just greedy, if
we eat more then they get more money because we have to buy the food. Reading this only got
me interested in learning more about monosodium glutamate. So I read on, and it goes on to say
where it came from, and why it is such a big deal in the United States.
MSG, made from the seaweed Kombu (sea tangle), has been used for thousands
of years by Japanese cooks to enhance the taste of foods. After WWII, military
powers through the grapevine that the American GIs were raving the Japanese
military rations were truly edible, even delicious. The military, interested in
learning how to improve the palatability of military K-rations, met with factory
food executives to discuss the flavor enhancer MSG. At this meeting, they learned
that this additive enhances any flavor it is added to. (41-42)
This chapter was very informative about the reasons that Americans love to eat and then
go back for seconds, thirds, and in some cases fourths, I have had my fair share of food at one
meal before because it just tasted so good, I do not know if that is because of the MSG or it was
naturally good.
The information that I had learned was still not enough to satisfy me. I knew that I could
not have found all the possible causes of obesity. I found another book about it. The book is
called The End of Overeating, by David A. Kessler, MD. At first I thought that this book would
be all about stopping obesity, but I was wrong, that just shows you cannot judge a book by its’
cover. This book did not mention MSG being the problem but it is the sugar, fat, and salt. It talks
about the palatability of food when used scientifically, and that it means the food capacity to
stimulate the appetite and prompt us to eat more. David says, “Palatability is largely based on
how food engages the full range of our senses. Usually, the most palatable foods contain some
combination of sugar, fat, and salt.”(12) From my own experience, the right combination of fat
and salt and/or sugar does make me feel like eating more because it tastes so good.
Because fat provokes so many different sensations in the mouth, we can’t always
tell which foods contain the most fat or why we prefer one sugar-fat mixture to
another. But we can certainly point to what we like best. (13)
Sugar is sweet, and most of crave it a lot. We also crave fat because it tastes good. So if
you combine the two with the right amount portions make whatever it is taste even better, which
in turn sends us back for more of it. With that said you can have too one thing though. David
puts this well, “Many of us have what’s called a “bliss point”---the point at which we get the
greatest pleasure from sugar, fat, or salt. Scientists depict this as an inverted U-shaped curve.”
(14)
I know that everyone has experience this bliss point. I also know that everyone has
experimented with the amount and has gone over the bliss point where the food becomes less and
less pleasurable. The most common ingredient that is over used beyond the bliss point is salt
because the curve is much steeper, but the point also depends on the food it is in like soup or
potato chips.
I have learned a lot from all the sources but I had to go just a little bit further. I found one
last book to read and find out a little bit more that I did not already know, up to this point. This
book is called Toxic Fat; when good fat turns bad, by Barry Sears, Ph.D., author of the #1 New
York Times Bestseller, The Zone. I did not have to get very far into this book before I found all
that I needed. Sears likens obesity unto a cancer that threatens every organ in the body. Spears
lets us know that we need to do more than just diet and exercise. He says:
This means that all of our efforts to follow the advice of simple slogans such as
“eat less and exercise more” may be meaningless, and our current obesity crisis
will continue unabated, if not accelerate---unless we attack the problem from a
different perspective. (2)
I think that Barry Spears has a very true point, because for how many years have people
tried to diet and exercise and then end up giving up and gaining all the weight they lost back, in
some cases they even gained more than they lost so they are in worse shape than when they
started. He talks about a natural fatty acid called arachidonic acid (AA), which is toxic at high
enough concentrations. He says that this fatty acid is the key to understanding the obesity
epidemic and providing a link between obesity and chronic disease.
Toxic Fat Syndrome is the real epidemic that threatens our health. After years of
inflammatory assaults cause by toxic fat, enough damage occurs to a particular
organ that we call it chronic disease. That chronic disease might be heart disease,
diabetes, cancer, or even Alzheimer’s, but it had its start as Toxic Fat Syndrome.
(2)
I think that Barry Spears has a point. It is logical that the constant inflammatory assaults
on the body can affect every organ and lead to chronic disease as we call them. He makes it very
blunt that this is happening and we can fix it, it may not be easy but we can do it.
American Obesity has become a bigger influence to me then before because of the
research I have done, just because right now I am not obese and I am underweight does not mean
that I am out of risk. I understand now that reasons that people become obese is mostly from
overeating foods that are high in calories and fat and do not balance the other side of the equation
where you should burn the same amount of calories you take in. I do not have a problem now
because I am fit and have a high metabolism, but I still should watch what I eat so that I make it
a habit, so when the times comes that I get old and don’t have all the energy I do now, I will not
become overweight or obese and be another statistic. My thinking has change a lot about what to
do about the obesity epidemic. I have come to a satisfactory solution.
Works Cited
Deville, Nancy. Death by Supermarket: the Fattening, Dumbing Down, and Poisoning of America. Fort
Lee, NJ: Barricade, 2007. Print.
Kessler, David A. The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite. Emmaus,
PA: Rodale, 2009. Print.
Lemonick, Michael D. "How We Grew so Big?" Web. 6 May 2011.
Sears, Barry. Toxic Fat: When Good Fat Turns Bad. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008. Print.
Srikameswaran, Anita. "America’s Obesity Problem Is Big News." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Web. 7
May 2011.