food museum blog

Fat David, Plus, Foodie is Baaaack; Also, Usage!!

Back, at last, after a long time away, and a road trip across these USSSS of A from St Petersburg to Albuquerque, a journey not noted for its fine cuisine, alas. So while I organize my foodie thoughts, experiences and pix, and prepare to resume, I thought you might enjoy this lovely image at left, forwarded to me, origin unknown. Clearly Dave has returned to his pillar in Florence after a few weeks holiday in the U.S.

Oh--also---consumed with following the Dem primary on line, I am once again urging all bloggers and posters to understand that "loose" means untied or unconfined,  while "lose" means go down to defeat. Also--"led" is the past tense of "lead", as in "she led in the PA polls by 20 points a few weeks ago."  And "lead," the noun, is the stuff appearing in all those Chinese-made toys. Thank you.

Are Americans Doomed to be Fat?

According to AP reporter Alex Dominguez 's story today, most Americans are doomed to be fatties.   "Over the long haul, 9 out of 10 men and 7 out of 10 women will become overweight. " Sez who? Researchers from Boston University, who just published the results of a 30 year study in the Annals of Internal Medicine.  They looked at 4000 white Americans between the ages of 30 and 59,  examining each person once every four years.

Gloomy prospects were true even for people who had reached middle age in pretty good shape. And more than 1 in 3 of those in the study were found to be obese, with a body mass index of 30 or higher.

Whew---and the overweight American situation may well be worse because the study did not look at minorities, a group at even greater risk for obesity, according to Mayo Clinic psychologist Mark Vander Weg.

According to AP, "The study shows Americans live in an 'environment in which it's hard not to become overweight or obese. Unless people actively work against that, that's what's most likely to happen to them.'"

Active(ly) is a key word here. Maybe  soaring gas prices will come to the rescue in some parts of the country---more people will bike to work,  walk to work, skip, jog or even ski to work.

And the environment is, to some degree, under our control. We can eat better, eat less ( !!!), sit down with family or friends to at least one leisurely homecooked meal per day. Can't we ? Do this? Actively? Come on, people.

(Photo from www.textamerica.com.)

Bill Clinton, Reformed Fat Boy, Will Share His Story with Students

Former President Bill Clinton  begins a tour of US schools this September in connection with an American Heart Association campaign aimed to "reduce childhood obesity in the US within 10 years," according to Sanjay Gupta's column in the August 1 Time Magazine.  Evidently Bill was 210 pounds at age 15, and not pleased about it.
Clinton suggests restaurants like McD's need to change their core menus. Tra La. The column points out that McD's is one of the largest purchasers of apples in the US, indicating this is  "progress." If those apples are going into the transfat and sugar laden apple  "pies" the company sells, that ain't progress, baby.  (  McD's website lists 250 calories per 2.7 oz baked apple pie serving, 34 carbs, 11 grams of fat of which 4.5 are trans fat.)  Anyway, as Morgan Spurlock points out in his film, Supersize Me, and his book, few people go to McD's for the salads and apples.
( Pic of BC from www.jaybrewer.net--Okay, we know Bill no longer eats the stuff, right??)

Feast or Famine: Fat Man Walking--Steve Vaught's Response to Obesity

Steve Vaught is walking across the US from San Diego. He has been on the road since April 10, having set out on his own anti-obesity odyssey as he realized he was almost 40, and weighing in at 400 pounds. According to an article  by Washington Post reporter Amy Argetsinger ( July 7), Steve had long been brooding about his weight, his inability or unwillingness to diet or exercise, and the effect those excess pounds had on his life and prospects. ( The state of California estimates that its segment of overweight and unfit citizens  could cost the government $28.7 BILLION in healthcare expenses, up 32% over five years ago, according to the LA Times' Lisa Girion, April 6, 2005.)

'" There's nothing appealing about fat people,' he says bluntly. " You can't impress them when you're fat." His jobs steadily declined in quality. In March he said he walked away from the latest, managing a muffler repair shop, after the owners sniped about him sitting down too much at work.'

Today Steve is headed across the desert to Winslow, Arizona. You can follow his progress on his website.  We don't know how much he weighs right now but we imagine he has dropped considerable pounds already. His extreme diet jump start is deemed "nuts" by many, of course--he  set out on this journey having had no exercise for years, weighing too much, without an elaborate support team or even much of a plan. ( Keeping hydrated across the desert in summer!! )

Recently The FOOD Museum  embarked on another major report on the dual subject of obesity and undernourishment--see the piece called Feast or Famine on our website. It appears that right now one third of  the world's population is overweight, and one third is severely lacking in food.  This imbalance is to be addressed in a major seminar by the World Food Prize International Symposium, Des Moines, October 12-14, concurrent with the official announcement of the 2005 Prize going to India's Dr. Modadugu V. Gupta, for his work in enhancing nutrition for the world's poorest people.

Cartoon, artist not known to us, found at www.sln.org/uk.

Feeding Tubes Follow Eating Disorder

We suppose there are times when feeding tubes conveying products simuilar to Ensure or other mixes sometimes called "blenderized" foods  are welcomed by patients and their families--they are medical necessities.  And comatized folks, many of whom will wake up to lead decent lives, surely benefit from these methods.
But to feed an unresponsive someone for 15 years through a tube surgically inserted in her stomach?
Ironically, the actual Terri in the news these days suffered grievously because she was over weight.  She hated her state of body, feared she would never attract a mate, and thus dieted fiercely to become acceptably thin. She found her husband and then worried she would lose him  if the pounds didn't stay off.  According to several news sources, she became a vomiter and one day vomited so much her potassium-deprived heart stopped.  The lack of oxygen to her brain thus caused the state she has been in for 15 years.

Fat Americans Watch Their Lifespans Dwindle

Yes, Americans, as you get fatter and fatter,  you're knocking four to nine months off your lives. And eventually, within 50 years, according to a piece in The Washington Post by Rob Stein,  your lifespans are going to shrink by two to five years.  The story reported on a study just published by the New England Journal of Medicine.
"...obesity is taking ( a toll) on the health and happiness of the population,"  according to Kelly D. Brownell, a director of the Center on Food Policy and Obesity at Yale.

Some experts think this report is flawed, overly pessimistic, etc. But few dispute that 2/3 of the American populace is overweight,  and 1/3  of those are obese.

What causes a person to become overweight ? One source says  it's an "energy imbalance over a long time." Too many calories, too little exercise.  Obese people are at least 20% over an "ideal" weight for their height.

Can't we just eat less, people, and walk more?  Please?????

( Pic courtesy www.idegolibido.com/magnets)

Patrick Deuel: surgery saves half ton man

Patrick Deuel is recovering from obesity surgery to reduce the size of his stomach.  The 42 year old former restaurant manager topped the scale at 1,072 pounds prior to checking into a Sioux Falls hospital.  He had been bed-ridden for months and has been obese all his life.  His aim is to take a walk outside with his wife by Valentine's Day. 

Here are some links on obesity and obesity surgery.

Yahoo Links: Obesity

Obesity Online

Obesity surgery: about the lap band device   

Center for Disease Control: Obesity page

Nauseate Me!

Aaagh...Foodie went to the local $1 movie house to see "SuperSize Me!," Morgan Spurlock's prize winning fastfoodamentary, and almost lost her dal and basmati rice right there in row four, feet up.
Seeing Spurlock stuff himself for 30 days with McDonald's finest offerings is as close to a horror film as she is likely to witness these days. Eating crap, while confined to a jammed urgent care lobby with teenybop top ten hits piped in for all eternity, and nothing to read but a three year old People Magazine, would be a true Foodie hell.
Back to the film---It's better put together and more riveting than "Farenheit 911"--it has the traditional beginning, middle and end, see--and the outcome is fraught with unknowns--will formerly healthy, vigorous Spurlock go into cardiac arrest climbing the stairs to his apartment? Will his three physicians have him committed? Will his mother rush to New York from West Virginia carrying a casserole?
Stats you would rather not know, even if you have NEVER eaten a Big Mac, come hurtling your way, sometimes via funny cartoons, sometimes from "the experts," including my favorite,wise and mellow Marion Nestle of NYU.
All those young kids lined up in the school cafeteria to get garbage.......Foodie cannot go on. She needs something cold, wet, something akin to, um, a beer, maybe one of those nifty, icy New Zealand beers waiting right there in the fridge..
Almost favorite scene--at the end, Spurlock and his nutritionist sit next to a Mount Fuji of refined sugar, precisely how much Spurlock took in during his 30 days.
See this flick!