Food Bytes 2: What the Media Are Saying About How We Eat
By Janet Peterson
Family unity and health problems related to obesity are two key issues reported frequently in various magazines and newspapers. Here are some highlights from recent publications. First, alarming news about obesity:
Dallas – The obesity epidemic is reaching down to the sandbox: More than 10 percent of U.S. children ages 2 to 5 are overweight, the American Heart Association reported …
That is up from 7 percent in 1994, according to the heart association=s annual statistical report on heart disease and stroke .
“These statistics are not anything but alarming,” said Dr. Robert H. Eckel, president-elect of the Heart Association and professor of medicine at the University of Colorado …
Experts blame the prevalence of junk food marketed to children, too much TV, and the decline in the number of families who sit down together to eat (Jamie Stengle, Associated Press, “Obesity making inroads among U.S. preschoolers,” Deseret Morning News, Dec. 31, 2004, A-1).
*
Atlanta – Heavy suitcases aren’t the only things weighing down airplanes and requiring them to burn more fuel, pushing up the cost of flights. A new government study reveals that airlines increasingly have to worry more about the weight of their passengers.
America=s growing waistlines are hurting the bottom lines of airline companies as the extra pounds on passengers are causing a drag on planes. Heavier fliers have created heftier fuel costs, according to the government study.
Through the 1990s, the average weight of Americans increased by 10 pounds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The extra weight caused airlines to spend $275 million to burn 350 million more gallons of fuel in 2000 just to carry the additional weight of Americans, the federal agency estimated in a recent issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (Daniel Yee, Associated Press, AObese Passengers Weigh Down Airlines,@ Deseret Morning News, Nov. 5, 2004, A-1).
*
They aren’t making little kids like they used to, so U.S. retailers are offering more choices in trendy clothes to fit the growing number of plus-size children …
A recent study by Duke University for the New York-based Foundation for Child Development, for example, found that 15.6% of children ages 12 through 19 were obese in 2002, up from 6.1% in 1974.
Now, just as plus sizes for women have taken off, so are plus sizes for girls and boys.
Twenty years ago, few retailers catered to this market; today a growing list of big names, including Wal-Mart, Target, Gap, Old Navy, The Limited, Lands= End and J.C. Penney, have begun offering or extending their lines of what is sometimes called >expanded sizing= apparel .
Sales of plus-sized apparel have grown to about 12% of the overall children=s clothing market – more than $3 billion a year (Maria Puente, “Bigger Cut of the Cloth: ‘Plus’ Sizes for Kids,” USA Today, April 21, 2004).
*
For nurses, it=s a job almost as unpleasant as changing bedpans: moving heavy patients from stretchers to beds and back again. With the average U.S. nurse now in her mid-40s and hospitalized Americans growing more supersized each year, patient-schlepping is putting more nurses in danger of being hospitalized themselves (Daniel McGinn, “A Heavy-Duty Job,” Newsweek, July 5, 2004).
*
In a historical first, there are now as many overnourished people as undernourished around the world. Here=s the recipe for obesity on such a global scale: Take technology – cars, washing machines, elevators – that reduces physical exertion. Increase calorie consumption, courtesy of increasing prosperity. Add television and video games. Stir in the intensive marketing of candy and fast food, and you have the makings of an epidemic …
The broadening of America is everywhere you look, or sit. The Puget Sound ferries in Washington have increased the width of their seats from 18 to 20 inches to allow squeeze-in room for people with bigger bottoms. In Colorado an ambulance company has retrofitted its vehicles with a winch and a plus-size compartment to handle patients weighing up to half a ton. Even the Final Resting Place has had to accommodate our growing girth. An Indiana manufacturer of caskets now offers a double-oversize model C 38 inches wide, compared with a standard 24 inches (Cathy Newman, AWhy Are We So Fat?@ National Geographic, Aug. 2004, 50, 52).
*
Pizza! Burritos! Buffalo wings! General Tso’s chicken! They’re delicious, convenient … as well as incredibly calorific. And don’t even get us started on the fat content.
Some nights, just popping open a carton of fried rice takes all the strength you can muster. Your fork is about to enter – make that dive into – a nutritional hazmat zone (grease, carbs, calories, guilt … danger!), but you’re way too tired and hungry to care.
General Tso’s chicken (2 cups): 830 calories, 37 grams total fat, 7 grams saturated fat
Pork fried rice (half a carton, about 2 cups): 740 calories, 25 grams total fat, 5 grams saturated fat
Beef burrito (with rice, beans, cheese, salsa): 1,120 calories, 35 grams total fat, 15 grams saturated fat
Hamburger: 660 calories, 36 grams total fat, 17 grams saturated fat
Pizza with pepperoni, sausage, and extra cheese: 360 calories, 17 grams total fat, 7 gram saturated fat, per slice (Naomi Barr, “The Trouble with Takeout,” O Magazine, April 2005, 103-06).
*
Two new studies find that American teens are heavier than their counterparts in most other industrialized countries and that fast food probably bears much of the blame. According to a study of fifteen-year-olds in fifteen developed nations, 15 percent of girls and nearly 14 percent of boys in the United States are classified as obese … Meanwhile, another recent study finds that nearly a third of U.S. children aged four to nineteen eat at least one fast-food meal daily C and that they take in 187 calories more a day than those who don’t, for an average of about six extra pounds a year (“My Big Fat American Child,” Atlantic Monthly, April 2004, 44)
*
Over the next few decades, life expectancy for the average American could decline by as much as 5 years unless aggressive efforts are made to slow rising rates of obesity, according to a team of scientists supported in part by the National Institute on Aging (NIC), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
The U.S. could be facing its first sustained drop in life expectancy in the modern era, the researchers say, but this decline is not inevitable if Americans – particularly younger ones – trim their waistlines or if other improvements outweigh the impact of obesity (AObesity Threatens to Cut U.S. Life Expectancy, New Analysis Suggests,@ NIH/National Institute on Aging, March 21, 2005), www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/03/050321085233.htm.
*
And now, for other meal-related news:
Before you head to the store, make a list! It’s a great stress-buster, because shopping from a list gets everything out of your head and onto paper (or into a PDA). Food-shopping with a plan also saves time, curbs impulse buying and combats confusion – all of which reduce stress. I=m not suggesting that you surrender your life to meal-planning but simply reminding you that if you have to start from scratch every time you=re inclined to cook, you never will. It’s the smart cook who makes weekly food-shopping a manageable routine, not a chore (Sheila Lukins, “The Right Foodstuffs,” Parade, Jan. 2, 2005, 8).
*
“I love nurturing and caring and feeding my family,” says Marian [Getz, executive pastry chef at Wolfgang Puck Caf in Lake Buena Vista, Florida]. “My passion is cooking, but I=m a very busy person. And sometimes I just want to curl up in a chair and read.”
To create a little >curl up= time, Marian streamlines her recipes, breaking them down to the bare bones to cut back on the number of ingredients or steps …
She often bakes extras, including big pans of macaroni and cheese, or three cheesecakes at a time, so she has plenty to give away to someone in need. “My best personal tip,” Marian says, “is to cook with love.” (Jeanne Ambrose, “Make It Fast … With Love,” Better Homes and Gardens, April 2005, 252, 254)
*
Make supper a family affair. Parents and kids eat better and build stronger family ties when they share a meal (Lou Schiller and Jeanne Ambrose, “Watching Over a Family=s Heart,” Better Homes and Gardens, March 2005, 138).
*
Brigham Young University sociology professor Bruce Chadwick said … It’s really not surprising that having regular family meals together can make a difference in the lives of children …
“It sends a signal to the kids that their parents love them and care about them,” Chadwick said. “That goes a long ways.”
Chadwick said meeting together around the table at least once a day allows parents to monitor their children’s activities and behavior.
“There is a lot of good that comes from meals together … It’s not just the breaking bread, although in some cultures that’s very important. It’s the mom and dad showing that they care” (Sharon Haddock, “Do Family Meals Deter Addiction?” Deseret Morning News, Sept. 24, 2004).
*
Diane Scalia … calls herself a >chefpreneur= – an entrepreneur who caters, works as a personal chef, teaches cooking classes, and has written a cookbook. Everything she does stems from her conviction that food nurtures the body and spirit.
“Homemade foods are healing because they remind us of a time and place we keep close in our hearts, when our lives were not so complicated,” Diane says. “My work and life are really about food and family and bringing people to the table. What children want – what their parents want – is to spend time with their family. Being around the table at mealtime feeds them on a level that goes beyond sustenance. Sitting down to dinner is a ritual that builds a strong family, more than being in a car all day going from activity to activity@ (Jeanne Ambrose, “Heart of the Kitchen,” Better Homes and Gardens, March 2004, 240, 242).
document.write(year); 2010 Meridian Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
