Good News, Bad News

Posted on 01/14/2010 at 11:17 am by Bob Cesca

The good news is that the CDC says Americans aren’t getting fatter. We’ve reached a plateau in terms of obesity.

The bad news is that it’s because it’s impossible to get fatter — we’ve reached our “biological limit.”

And the limit, according to Ezra Klein:

That leaves us with a third of American adults who are obese, and 17 percent of children.

As soon as healthcare reform is passed, food reform and prevention are mandatory.

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  • Irish Girl

    I think it’s important to point out how obesity is defined…..I researched it and found a variety of definitions….some common ones were:1) you weigh more than 20% more than your ideal weight for height, age, etc.2) you have a BMI over 30 kg/mUltimately, the US is too big (myself included, am trying to lose weight, AGAIN).Does anyone out there have some ideas on how to eat vegetarian and still get enough protein? My hubby and I are going to switch to a more vegetarian lifestyle (not complete vegetarian, but as close as we can).Any advice, links, etc would be appreciated. :)

  • Eric

    While I agree that, from what I’m able to observe in my own neck of the woods, we could afford to weigh less, I’m curious as to how the CDC arrives at it’s conclusions.If they rely solely on BMI (body mass index) findings, then I’m left wondering if their findings are as accurate as they could be.I’m quite tall (6’10″) and weigh, consistently, around 250 lbs. The BMI calculator tells me I’m overweight; I need to lose 15 pounds. While I’m no longer skinny (and I was painfully thin for years) no way do I look or feel overweight.

  • hollyglightly123

    I agree with you that food reform needs to be addressed but there’s an overall systemic problem and nobody’s looking at the system. There’s a web connecting all the different parts of this – ag, health insurance, pharma, financial markets, environment, energy. It’s all connected but rather than looking at the system as a whole and seeing the chain reaction, we attack one portion of it at a time. I am a realist. I see WHY we do it that way. I am fully aware of who could drive something like this forward and who wouldn’t (Looking at you Lieberman, Lincoln, Nelson et al). It’s just so sad to me. I feel kinda like Palin when I say this, but there really IS a common sense solution to all of this, which can be seen if we have the common sense to take a step back and look at the full web. But personal/political interests just don’t allow us to.

  • http://radicalsahm.blogspot.com/ Radical SAHM

    @Irishgirl: Don’t worry about it! Beans, legumes, nuts, eggs and dairy will carry you just fine. Don’t let protein anxiety get in your way!The flip side of this is that we are undernourished at the same time we are over-fat. I often wonder if our collective sheeple mentality is partially due to our diet. And by “our” I do not mean me. I don’t eat any of that crap. Shit’ll make you sick, yo.

  • LK

    Irish Girl,I agree, you can get your protein from nuts, (organic if at all possible)eggs, beans and legumes. I would try to eliminate dairy if possible and definitely only buy Milk that is rgbh free. If you do eat fish, try and eat those that have the least mercuryhttp://longevity.about.com/od/lifelongnutrition/a/fish_mercury.htmBasically eating whole and real foods (that are truly organic if feasible ) as opposed to processed foods will be your best options.

  • eve

    Irishgirl, I have started cooking more vegetarian meals. I use the term I saw somewhere — I’m a flexitarian. ;) We still eat meat — just not every meal or every day. In just a few months I have gotten to the point where I prefer vegetarian meals. Just feel better. But I don’t think it’s necessary to say I’ll never eat another bowl of chili or have a hamburger.Mark Bittman has a blog on the NYTimes and he says he is vegan until dinner. So he has one meal a day that he might have meat and other non-vegan foods. Bittman’s blog is recipes and food commentary like posts about farming.http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/I've been reading a lot about protein. One great plant source for protein is quinoa. It’s like a grain, but is really a nut. Cooks easily like rice. Tasty and very versatile.http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-recipes/basic-quinoa.phpTonight we are having black bean/sweet potato patties with lime/avocado/sour cream sauce and a salad of mango and avocado.http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=186966608360

  • http://radicalsahm.blogspot.com/ Radical SAHM

    I can’t recommend “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer highly enough. Read it and then keep it with your copies of Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It exceeds both in reasoning and honesty, IMO. A beautiful, thought provolking book.

  • http://radicalsahm.blogspot.com/ Radical SAHM

    provoking.

  • J M Ashby

    I would be more inclinded to believe the “plateau” is from Americans finally waking up and realizing they’ve been eating themselves to death.Food reform is almost more important than healthcare reform in my book. I eat healthier than many people I know, but that isn’t saying a whole lot. I could do much better than I do, if I could afford it. What we need in this country is for nutricious food to actually be affordable. Right now it isn’t.

  • http://www.homestarrunner.com/ Raindog

    As soon as healthcare reform is passed, food reform and prevention are mandatory.Prevention…of food?Yeah, that would solve the problem.

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    I’m sort of with JM Ashby on this one. Except, I think the recession might have had something to do with obesity leveling off, as well. We don’t call it tightening our belts for nothing, ya know?

  • wildflowermaven

    I doubt we’ve reached our biological limit. That would mean that only 30% of adults can be obese, I think this number could be much higher. Perhaps we have reached our psychological limit, or our monetary limit, or our sanity limit, but biologically, if you eat more than you work off, you will gain weight, and keep gaining.

  • Gottverdammt Klaus

    Food reform?As in… what exactly? I’m geniunely curious.Eating healthy isn’t all that hard even on a tight budget, possibly excepting some difficult situations in small towns in BFE.Don’t eat too much red meat. Eat more fish and leafy greens. Avoid processed food. Lighten up on sugar and salt. Stop drinking soda, tap water’s free. You know it and I know it, which means at least a few other people know it, thus we don’t need Washington to get involved. The government – meaning the taxpayer – shouldn’t pay for either ignorance or stupidity.It’s not as though 30% of Americans have thyroid problems.

  • Ghetro

    @j m ashbyI wish I thought the same about the “plateau”. The problem is that, since it represents a proportion of the population and not raw numbers, the number of overweight/obese people is still increasing. Moreover, the oft cited “biological limit” explanation that has been going on paints a pretty grim picture – that doesn’t mean that all of the people who could possibly be big have gotten there, it more likely means that we are losing big people at the same rate that new ones come along.”Losing” people is just as euphemistic as it sounds….