Stop Subsidizing Obesity | Your Health Journal

From Your Health Journal?..?I very rarely will post or commend an opinion in the media, but I encourage you all to go read an opinion in the New York Times by Mark Bittman, who makes some excellent points in his statement entitled Stop Subsidizing Obesity. Mr. Bittman starts off by mentioning how times have changed over the years, as doctors very rarely concerned themselves with nutrition many years ago, which now, has changes, as obesity in the United States has reached epidemic proportions in all 50 states. Adult onset diabetes, which is now frequently called Type 2 diabetes (which is environmental, and in many cases caused by obesity) is significantly on the rise, with many individuals also showing high risk factors for heart disease. The article also gives an interesting statistic stating that 17 percent of children in the United States are obese, 16 percent are food-insecure (this means they have inconsistent access to food), and some number, which is impossible to nail down, are both. What I liked most was the mention of food stamp usage near the end of the article ? as several cities, including New York, have programs that double the value of food stamps when used for purchases at farmers markets. Please go to the New York Times web site to read the entire article, as Mr. Bittman makes some valuable points in his writings.?

?Snip? from the article?..

Not long ago few doctors ? not even pediatricians ? concerned themselves much with nutrition. This has changed, and dramatically: As childhood obesity gains recognition as a true health crisis, more and more doctors are publicly expressing alarm at the impact the standard American diet is having on health.

?I never saw Type 2 diabetes during my training, 20 years ago,? David Ludwig, a pediatrician, told me the other day, referring to what was once called ?adult-onset? diabetes, the form that is often caused by obesity. ?Never. Now about a quarter of the new diabetes cases we?re seeing are Type 2.?

Ludwig, who is director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center in Boston, is one of three authors, all medical doctors of an essay (?Viewpoint?) in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association titled ?Opportunities to Reduce Childhood Hunger and Obesity.?

That title that would once have been impossible, but now it?s merely paradoxical. Because the situation is this: 17 percent of children in the United States are obese, 16 percent are food-insecure (this means they have inconsistent access to food), and some number, which is impossible to nail down, are both. Seven times as many poor children are obese as those who are underweight, an indication that government aid in the form of food stamps, now officially called SNAP, does a good job of addressing hunger but encourages the consumption of unhealthy calories.

The doctors? piece, which addresses these issues, was written by Ludwig along with Susan Blumenthal, a former assistant Surgeon General and U.S.D.A. medical adviser, and Walter Willett, chair of Harvard?s Department of Nutrition (and a stalwart of sound nutrition research for more than 30 years). It?s essentially a plea to tweak SNAP regulations Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Benefits, the program formerly and more familiarly known as Food Stamps) so that the program concerns itself with the quality of calories instead of just their quantity.

To read the full article?..Click here

Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/?p=10938

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