Medicine
If you go to the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you can download a colorful slide presentation that illustrates with stunning clarity how much worse the problem of obesity has become in the past twenty years. In 1990, every one of the 50 states could boast that fewer than 15 out of every 100 adults had an unhealthy weight; by 2008, more than 25 out of every 100 adults in 32 states were classified as obese. So who’s to blame, and what can be done about it?
The standard answer, that obesity results from a failure in willpower, is reinforced by popular television shows such as “The Biggest Loser,” where overweight contestants are removed from their natural environments and placed on super-intensive dietary and exercise regimens that lead to, in some cases, hundreds of pounds of weight loss over several weeks. But as Atlantic correspondent Marc Ambinder noted in a recent magazine article, this type of program is out of reach for all but the wealthiest individuals who can afford celebrity personal trainers.
Family doctors can certainly provide support and assistance to patients who want to lose weight, but there are limits to what we can do, given the time we have to devote to counseling and the extremely limited training we receive on practical strategies to assist with weight loss. For an increasing number of obese people (including Ambinder himself), bariatric (weight loss) surgery has achieved what medicine can’t – but even the recent explosion of bariatric surgery centers can’t possibly come close to treating one quarter of the adult population.
Obesity is as much a public health problem as a medical problem. Obstacles to living a healthy lifestyle include rising serving sizes and television screen time, combined with a lack of access to nutritious foods and safe places to be physically active in many towns and cities. The announced intention of U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama to tackle obesity in children shows how difficult and sustained an effort will be necessary to reverse the overall obesity epidemic. In May, the President’s Task Force on Childhood Obesity made a series of recommendations for wide-ranging action in institutions such as hospitals, restaurants, schools, grocery stores, and parks. Most of these changes will require more than just exhortation, but policy changes in local and national levels.
So I encourage you think about this question: what can you do to fight obesity in your family, friends, and community?
**
This post was first published on my CommonSense MD blog at Family Health Guide.
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There’s a lot of evidence that to prevent many serious health conditions, including diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and stroke, making healthy lifestyle changes are just as good, if not better than, taking medications. Lifestyle changes may consist...
Medicine
Obstacles to reversing the obesity epidemic
If you go to the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you can download a colorful slide presentation that illustrates with stunning clarity how much worse the problem of obesity has become in the past twenty years. In 1990, every one of the 50 states could boast that fewer than 15 out of every 100 adults had an unhealthy weight; by 2008, more than 25 out of every 100 adults in 32 states were classified as obese. So who’s to blame, and what can be done about it?
The standard answer, that obesity results from a failure in willpower, is reinforced by popular television shows such as “The Biggest Loser,” where overweight contestants are removed from their natural environments and placed on super-intensive dietary and exercise regimens that lead to, in some cases, hundreds of pounds of weight loss over several weeks. But as Atlantic correspondent Marc Ambinder noted in a recent magazine article, this type of program is out of reach for all but the wealthiest individuals who can afford celebrity personal trainers.
Family doctors can certainly provide support and assistance to patients who want to lose weight, but there are limits to what we can do, given the time we have to devote to counseling and the extremely limited training we receive on practical strategies to assist with weight loss. For an increasing number of obese people (including Ambinder himself), bariatric (weight loss) surgery has achieved what medicine can’t – but even the recent explosion of bariatric surgery centers can’t possibly come close to treating one quarter of the adult population.
Obesity is as much a public health problem as a medical problem. Obstacles to living a healthy lifestyle include rising serving sizes and television screen time, combined with a lack of access to nutritious foods and safe places to be physically active in many towns and cities. The announced intention of U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama to tackle obesity in children shows how difficult and sustained an effort will be necessary to reverse the overall obesity epidemic. In May, the President’s Task Force on Childhood Obesity made a series of recommendations for wide-ranging action in institutions such as hospitals, restaurants, schools, grocery stores, and parks. Most of these changes will require more than just exhortation, but policy changes in local and national levels.
So I encourage you think about this question: what can you do to fight obesity in your family, friends, and community?
**
This post was first published on my CommonSense MD blog at Family Health Guide.
- Weight And Class: Who Is Obese And Why Should We Care?
One of the things that people are most fixated upon, in both the health arena and in society at large is weight. In popular culture, weight is a major issue. Celebrities are (mostly) thin; when they are not, and look like more of the regular people who...
- The Most Unheralded Posts Of 2012
It is customary for bloggers to highlight their most popular posts at year's end (see, for example, this recent compilation of posts from the AFP Community Blog, several of which subsequently appeared on Common Sense Family Doctor), but this year...
- To Fix Your Health Habits, Do It All At Once
As a physician, I have mixed feelings about the popular reality television show "The Biggest Loser." On one hand, some of my patients are surely inspired by seeing severely overweight people, many of them suffering chronic weight-related health problems,...
- Dietary Guidelines For Americans Disappoint
Quick: How many milligrams of sodium did you eat during the Super Bowl? If your big game buffet was anything like mine (hot dogs, buffalo wings, fries, and cole slaw), you probably blew through your day’s allowance of sodium in a single meal, according...
- The Doctor Will "tweet" You Now
There’s a lot of evidence that to prevent many serious health conditions, including diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and stroke, making healthy lifestyle changes are just as good, if not better than, taking medications. Lifestyle changes may consist...