Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Obesity no epidemic
[David Martosko, "Obesity Claims Overstated, Consumer Advocate Tells FDA," Health Care News, The Heartland Institute, 1 August 2004.]
A lot of what politicians do is what I refer to as misdirection, which is a magician's term. If I want to make a coin seem to disappear from my right hand, I need to get you to look at my left hand for a moment while I get rid of the coin. Politicians use this technique to get the public's mind off of those issues and problems that the politicians are either unable or unwilling to confront -- and to keep our attention instead on those issues or problems that they are willing or able to confront. - Barry Glassner, Author of The Culture of Fear
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"We’re just too darn fat, ladies and gentleman, and we’re going to do something about it," proclaimed the formerly plus-sized, multiple-chinned Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson last spring while announcing a new government ad campaign designed to help citizens shape up.(Thompson has shed an undisclosed number of pounds while on a public diet.)
"We’ve got so many people who are fat," declared the slender Michigan governor -- and former beauty queen -- Jennifer Granholm at the National Governors Association meeting in March. "And that is really contributing significantly to our health care costs."
Along with more than a dozen of her peers, Granholm strapped on a pedometer to see who walked the farthest during a 16-week period. Other gubernatorial fat fighters include South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (undertaking a 300-mile bike trek), Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (publicly forswearing Snickers), and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (sponsoring a 10-kilometer walk/fun run).
Thus the United States turns from nation building abroad to nation bodybuilding at home. In a world beset by terrorism, poverty, and malnutrition, who could have imagined that being fat would become the subject not simply of the derision and scorn it has long inspired but a political topic every bit as heartburn-inducing as a Tabasco-flavored Slim Jim? - From "American Slender" by Nick Gillespie at Reason
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The three most commonly cited statistics associated with the obesity epidemic are (1) that obesity causes 300,000 American deaths per year; (2) that 61 percent of Americans are overweight or obese; and (3) that the economic cost of American obesity is $117 billion a year. All three are seriously flawed.
- It turns out that in order to allege that 300,000 Americans die each year from obesity, you would have to claim that everyone who dies while overweight dies because of that excess weight.
- Many in government and the mass media have blindly accepted the claim that obesity costs Americans $117 billion per year, believing the figure came from the Surgeon General. But the original source is a single study published in the March 1998 issue of the journal Obesity Research. The Obesity Research study has serious limitations, as the authors themselves admit. "We are still uncertain about the actual amount of health utilization associated with overweight and obesity," they wrote.
- Overweight and obesity are diagnosed by using the body mass index (BMI), a deeply flawed standard. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Overweight may or may not be due to increases in body fat. It may also be due to an increase in lean muscle. For example, professional athletes may be very lean and muscular, with very little body fat, yet they may weigh more than others of the same height. While they may qualify as 'overweight' due to their large muscle mass, they are not necessarily 'over fat,' regardless of BMI." This language is taken from the CDC's Web site. It's that agency's official position.
The nation would surely be better served by a serious and scientific approach to addressing obesity. As the Food and Drug Administration builds a framework for messages to the public about weight reduction, it is important to avoid inadvertently exaggerating or misrepresenting the problem. And steering clear of needless hyperbole can be as simple as checking your facts and figures.
[David Martosko, "Obesity Claims Overstated, Consumer Advocate Tells FDA," Health Care News, The Heartland Institute, 1 August 2004.]
A lot of what politicians do is what I refer to as misdirection, which is a magician's term. If I want to make a coin seem to disappear from my right hand, I need to get you to look at my left hand for a moment while I get rid of the coin. Politicians use this technique to get the public's mind off of those issues and problems that the politicians are either unable or unwilling to confront -- and to keep our attention instead on those issues or problems that they are willing or able to confront. - Barry Glassner, Author of The Culture of Fear
----
"We’re just too darn fat, ladies and gentleman, and we’re going to do something about it," proclaimed the formerly plus-sized, multiple-chinned Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson last spring while announcing a new government ad campaign designed to help citizens shape up.(Thompson has shed an undisclosed number of pounds while on a public diet.)
"We’ve got so many people who are fat," declared the slender Michigan governor -- and former beauty queen -- Jennifer Granholm at the National Governors Association meeting in March. "And that is really contributing significantly to our health care costs."
Along with more than a dozen of her peers, Granholm strapped on a pedometer to see who walked the farthest during a 16-week period. Other gubernatorial fat fighters include South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (undertaking a 300-mile bike trek), Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (publicly forswearing Snickers), and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (sponsoring a 10-kilometer walk/fun run).
Thus the United States turns from nation building abroad to nation bodybuilding at home. In a world beset by terrorism, poverty, and malnutrition, who could have imagined that being fat would become the subject not simply of the derision and scorn it has long inspired but a political topic every bit as heartburn-inducing as a Tabasco-flavored Slim Jim? - From "American Slender" by Nick Gillespie at Reason
----
The three most commonly cited statistics associated with the obesity epidemic are (1) that obesity causes 300,000 American deaths per year; (2) that 61 percent of Americans are overweight or obese; and (3) that the economic cost of American obesity is $117 billion a year. All three are seriously flawed.
- It turns out that in order to allege that 300,000 Americans die each year from obesity, you would have to claim that everyone who dies while overweight dies because of that excess weight.
- Many in government and the mass media have blindly accepted the claim that obesity costs Americans $117 billion per year, believing the figure came from the Surgeon General. But the original source is a single study published in the March 1998 issue of the journal Obesity Research. The Obesity Research study has serious limitations, as the authors themselves admit. "We are still uncertain about the actual amount of health utilization associated with overweight and obesity," they wrote.
- Overweight and obesity are diagnosed by using the body mass index (BMI), a deeply flawed standard. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Overweight may or may not be due to increases in body fat. It may also be due to an increase in lean muscle. For example, professional athletes may be very lean and muscular, with very little body fat, yet they may weigh more than others of the same height. While they may qualify as 'overweight' due to their large muscle mass, they are not necessarily 'over fat,' regardless of BMI." This language is taken from the CDC's Web site. It's that agency's official position.
The nation would surely be better served by a serious and scientific approach to addressing obesity. As the Food and Drug Administration builds a framework for messages to the public about weight reduction, it is important to avoid inadvertently exaggerating or misrepresenting the problem. And steering clear of needless hyperbole can be as simple as checking your facts and figures.
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