Is obesity a disease?

Freakonomics Quorum: What is the Right Way to Think About the Obesity ‘Epidemic’?

Tidbits:

1. Obesity has been blamed for everything from dragging down the economy to global warming. Most recently, we’ve heard that obesity is “contagious.”
   
2. By the same statistical criteria used to call obesity a disease, one could also claim that being male, being overly tall, or even being black is a disease (i.e., all correlate with early mortality and morbidity).
   
3. Technology is what allows us to be fat. The inability to discipline ourselves is why we let it happen. The fascinating thing about progress is that it can be both good and bad. The discovery of nuclear fusion allows for cheaper, more environmentally friendly forms of energy. But it also allows for nuclear weapons. A generation ago, women spent an average of two hours per day cooking and cleaning; today, the cooking and cleaning is handled by a restaurant or food company. Weight gain is the consequence.
   
4. The reasons for this increase in the number of people who are overweight are debatable, but one need only review the increases in typical portion sizes (I am 50 years old and still remember small glass Coke bottles and 3 oz. McDonald’s fries) to understand that we are eating more than we ever did.
   
5. Starting in the 70s, manufacturers began to pump sugars into their packaged products, and the advent of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has only exacerbated our collective sweet tooth. HFCS has proven so irresistible to manufacturers because: a) it’s highly subsidized by legislation like the farm bill, which makes it cheap; and b) it’s a highly refined, stable liquid, which means it has a longer shelf life than table sugar and can blend seamlessly into products you wouldn’t associate with sugar — ketchup, for example, or marinara sauce. It’s no surprise, then, that we now consume 200 calories a day more than we did in 1970, and most of that comes from added sugars. By some accounts, we now consume up to 75 pounds of HFCS a year, and you’re likely to find it listed in the top three ingredients on the nutrition labels of products that simply were never intended to be sweetened — wheat bread, salad dressing, and crackers, for example.
   
6. Studies have shown that the average size of a dinner plate has grown 36% since 1960.
   

Random Thoughts:

1. Roger checks out of the Marines tomorrow. He has been in the U.S.M.C. for 75 months. 6 years ago to the day (August 24th, 2001) he graduated from U.S.M.C. boot camp.
   
2. Roger's latest PT (Annual Physical Test) was better than his PT in boot camp.
   
3. I had such a stressful week last week, and this week has been the same; banging my head and having a day off was a gift! Plus it helped me do a little mental level set about what is important!
   
4. A blog book report that I profited from today: Book review: Singing and Making Music by Paul Jones by Ryan Martin. I probably will not read this book, but the book review was great!
   
5. I read two articles about Pastoral succession tonight. I thought about these with regard to the Pastoral transition at Fourth:
   
   
   
   1. Succession sometimes sticky when beloved pastor leaves
      
   2. How long before the new pastor really feels part of a church?
      
   
   
6. I'm glad football season has started (I am watching the Green Bay - Jacksonville pre-season game)!
   
7. Rachel returns from Midland Michigan tomorrow night and does the 3-Day breast cancer walk this weekend (60 miles). She raised $ 2000
   
8. The floods in S.E. Minnesota were tragic! Bush taps 3 counties as federal disaster areas. I understand that some areas received 17" of rain!
   
9. Thinking about my Brother-in-law with cancer, and my Mother. My Mother is 25 years older than Tom (87 vs almost 62)! I pray for him. His chemo treatments are ready to commence.
   
10. Kathee and I read 1 Chronicles 5 & 6 tonight!
    
    
    
    1. Would anyone today name their son "Buz"? (5:14).
       
    2. Key to victory: "because the war was God’s" (5:22).
       
    3. The danger of spiritual compromise and syncretism: "they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers, and played the harlot after the gods of the peoples of the land" (5:25). Read what happened next in 5:26
       
    
    
11. My younger brother turns 54 on Saturday!