Nestle's Quick

Nutrition scholar Marion Nestle, noting that celebrity cook Paula Dean's recent announcement of her diabetes diagnosis said nothing about the salutary effects of weight loss, wonders why (and on the same day I sheepishly announced my one-man health care reform -- thanks, Dr. Nestle!):

Being overweight is the key factor in type 2. Most people can prevent it by not gaining weight. And most people with the type 2 disease can eliminate symptoms by losing some weight. Genetics is certainly a factor -- many overweight people never develop the disease -- but 85 percent or more of people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes are overweight or obese.

Since 95% of diabetes is type 2, one begins to discern the vast health- and cost-saving implications of putting down the Fritos.

One-Man Health Care Reform

A friend sent me this LA Times editorial this morning. Whom shall we blame for out-of-control health care costs -- insurance companies? health care providers? the uninsured (who drive up costs for everyone else)?:

Defending insurers is a bit like expressing sympathy for the devil, given how their premiums have skyrocketed. Not so long ago, this page blasted Blue Shield of California for proposing three rate hikes in quick succession that threatened to raise some customers' premiums by nearly 60%. Since then, however, the nonprofit has pledged to cap its net income at 2% of its revenue. The cap means that any future increases in premiums will be driven by higher charges from doctors and hospitals, not by increases in Blue Shield's operating margins.

Hospitals costs have risen particularly rapidly, with the average daily fee for a bed in an acute-care ward more than tripling since 2000. UCLA's reimbursements from Blue Shield have almost doubled in the last five years alone, the insurer says. That's partly because the university has been shifting onto Blue Shield some of the expense of treating patients with Medicare, Medi-Cal or no insurance. But it's a trend that even University of California officials acknowledge cannot continue.

One more culprit occurs to me: I and my fellow discretionary overweight insured. I can hold down health care costs and insurance premiums by losing 30 pounds and reducing the chances and expenses of adult-onset diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and stroke. I decided this morning I couldn't wait for Lent. Hold me accountable, reader!

You Stay Classy, Rush

HuffPo:

Rush Limbaugh called Michelle Obama a hypocrite on his Monday show, saying that, while the First Lady advocates healthy eating, she "doesn't look like [she] follows her own...dietary advice" and would never be put on the cover of Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue.

I Could Also Have Held The Garbanzo Beans

At California Pizza Kitchen on Saturday night, I piously decided on the Mediterranean chopped salad instead of cheese and pepperoni. Then I saw on the menu that my choice (including the optional garbanzo beans) was about 1100 calories, enough to sustain a family of four on a life raft for two days.

The source of this discouraging information? The first lady, who got the requirement into the health care bill. To which I say, "Thanks, Mrs. Obama." I wasn't wild at first about mandatory calorie counts when New York City adopted them a few years ago, because I was afraid it would hurt the industry. But I haven't read any evidence of it. After all, I went ahead and ate the salad.

And while Sarah Palin may take a different view, I don't thinking force-feeding calorie counts puts my basic human freedoms at risk. Information is almost always a good thing. Knowing about that honking fat salad, next time I might: a) Look for healthier or smaller choices on the menu (such as the half-order of the same thing). b) Go to a different restaurant. c) Just get the cheese and pepperoni.

Eat Less

Lose weight. Whoa.

God's Boot Camp

"It hurts to be beautiful." Now there's a gospel message! Plus it's bad advertising. We'll leave aside the obvious problem that I, just for example, could work out four hours a day and never be mistaken for Brad Pitt (or, to be more age appropriate, Sean Connery). The larger issue has to do with our culture's prevailing value, which is avoiding pain at almost all costs. Relatively few of us will actually pay to suffer.

But is it better than saying that weight loss and fitness are effortless? Maybe. Still, I'd prefer the double meaning of a middle-ground message: "Being beautiful is easier than you think." So it is, when, as a matter of rigorous (and popularly priced) spiritual exercise, you begin to see yourself as God does. Besides, even Marine recruiters minimize the pain of basic training until they actually get you inside the gates of Camp Lejeune.

Palin's Rhetoric: Tastes Good But Less Filling

Speaking to Laura Ingraham the day before Thanksgiving, Sarah Palin took on the first lady's campaign against childhood obesity:

Take her anti-obesity thing that she is on. She is on this kick, right. What she is telling us is she cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat. And I know I'm going to be again criticized for bringing this up, but instead of a government thinking that they need to take over and make decisions for us according to some politician or politician's wife priorities, just leave us alone, get off our back, and allow us as individuals to exercise our own God-given rights to make our own decisions and then our country gets back on the right track.

Except that if Obama was really saying that some parents can't be trusted to make good decisions about their kids' eating, she'd be right, since they've been filling them up with french fries and chicken stars. As a result, in Alaska, for instance, 12% of high school students are obese, according to the CDC. As for getting kids onto the right track, it must be the beaten track to the vending machines, because 54% of Alaska's high schoolers don't even get weekly PE.

I'll bet I could go on line and fine someone who manages to blame big teenagers on big government. Just go to the mall some time. Are we a rounder people than 20 years ago? Fifty? You know that we are. Is government plotting to super-size us so we'll be easier for al-Qaeda to find? Did Barack Obama really make you eat that orange-flavored chicken?

Sure, if you check out what the White House has in mind, it's a typical regulatory bulk-up. That's what government does, especially when people seem to be unable to take care of themselves. In response, Palin might've said this:

There's no question that we've got a problem with overeating in our country, and it's hurting our kids most of all. But while I agree with the first lady's assessment of the problem, I sure don't care for her solutions. If we don't start following some common sense rules about nutrition and exercise, you can bet that there's a team of bureaucrats back in Washington that's already trying to figure out how to get a warning label and fatty tax onto your Krispy-Kreme. Unless we want that to happen, I want all my mama grizzlies to pack an apple in their little cubs' lunch this morning instead of a juice box.

Medieval Metabolisms

We're not necessarily eating more than in olden days. We're just not jousting and chopping wood.

Who's Eating Who?

In the U.S., turkeys and consumers are bulking up simultaneously. Read the details in the "Economist," then skip that turkey sandwich (or at least hold the mayo).