Fat Land - How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World

Written by Greg Critser (Geration RX) in 2003, Fat Land is certainly amongst the top of my recommended reading list. Unlike Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, Critser shines light on the obesity pandemic in a very palpable way that any reader can easily understand. In spite of the fact that this book is six years old - the truths within ring bells that cast a sounding alarm into the future of every American.

Urbanization drove the long-term forces behind the farm problems we began facing during the Nixon era. Once created as a cheaper alternative to sugar, the use of High Fructose Corn Syrup is now used in many products that normally don't even contain sugar - such as rolls and biscuits because it makes the products look "more natural" - as if they have just been browned in the oven. Fructose - as produced by modern food processors and used by the American consumer - is about the furthest thing from natural that one can imagine, let alone eat. Fructose, unlike sucrose or dextrose, takes a decidedly different route into the human metabolism. Where the latter would go through a complex breakdown process before arriving in the human liver, the former, bypassed that breakdown and arrived almost completely intact in the liver...metabolic shunting. With all of the mutated food products and bi-products on the market shelves, we are beginning to witness accelerated evolution. For example, obesity is a main cause of soaring rates of early puberty among girls as young as nine years old.

Considering these facts, it's as if becoming obese has become a NORMAL response to the American environment.

Also, the Politically Correct "Me Generation" played nicely into the current shape of our current social norm. In the 90's, weight gain was becoming accepted as people began practicing you're okay, I'm okay. Through the late 80's, early 90'sthe Dietary Guidelines Committee continuously loosened its recommendations on weight. In 1980, the message for American's was to "maintain an ideal weight" based on a very clear weight by height chart. By 1985, the message drifted to "maintain a desirable weight" and by the 90s the message became, "it's okay to gain significant weight as one ages."

The problem with this is of course, if you ask less of people you will always get less from people and a culture that condones obesity, whether consciously or unconsciously, undermines any attempts to convince people to pare down.

This philosophy of thought invaded just about every institution imaginable. As we moved through the "politically correct age" even the American church became like therapy. It was suddenly all about love and tolerance and acceptance, not about individual discipline. There is, of course, a societal cost to religion's abandonment of the little sins. Religion was at one time a maker of boundaries. Religious beliefs generate the development of moral communities, which in turn, serve to guide and constrain the action of individuals.

American's became so obsessed with self-esteem issues and tiptoeing around the stigmatization that goes with being overweight that they ignored the most basic truism about fat and stigmatization: The best way to prevent it is to avoid becoming obese in the first place. It should come to no surprise that obesity is largely an issue of self control.

Aside from these factors, Critser also sights technology's role in the obesity problem in America because as technology expanded to make life easier for people, the modern lifestyle led to a sever decrease in physical activity. American's worked more hours, spending more time commuting, and increasingly working jobs that were not "sweat friendly." The new American worker toiled not in a factory, but rather in the rising field of professional services. People became so over developed that they became underdeveloped. Convenience became king and by 1996 Americans were spending more than 40% of every food dollar on meals obtained away from home.

TV viewing and video gaming merged parent and child into one seamless inactivity bubble - a bubble filled with billion-dollar cues to eat, even when one was not hungry. Take, for example, that by 1993, 41% of all Saturday morning kid show ads were for high fat foods. What was once a time for children to get a few laughs on a non-school day had become a time to indoctrinate them on the benefits of grease, salt, and ever increasing amounts of sugar. Soon there was so much money for youth advertising that entire new ad agencies were formed simply to handle the "Saturday A.M. buy."

Then of course, Critser discusses the role of the school sytem in all of this. In schools, the cafeterias serve a menu laced with excess fats and sugars and for the most part, the food service staff has no idea how to make fresh fruits and produce palatable to kids. After school care is bereft of any meaningful physical activity. Teachers in the districts have few if any classroom materials for teaching TRUE sound nutrition and exercise practices.

The most tense battleground is that of soft drink pouring contracts, in which schools are paid large sums of cash in exchange for an agreement to sell only one kind of soda (usually Pepsi or Coke). Contracts that can run in the SEVEN FIGURE range - a great deal of money for any chronically hard-strapped school system. Nationally, there are thousands of such deals in place. They have become the norm in most large school districts, with principals, parents, and administrators justifying the consequent omnipresence of soda (and soda ads) on campus as a way to pay for athletic uniforms and a variety of after-school programs.

Consider that the soft drink industry alone spends upward of $600 million annually to promote its trash compared with the National Cancer Institute's paltry $1 Million budget for promoting fruit and vegetable consumption. Not much of a fighting chance there.

Critser also includes many revealing studies throughout Fat Land. Here's a list of the facts I found most interesting:

• There is a direct correlation between portion size and the amount of food a person eats in one sitting.

• There is a direct correlation between the spike in new food products on the market and obesity.

• There is a direct correlation between the amount of television viewing and the amount of high-calorie snacking.
  

• The largest concentrations of the obese, regardless of race, ethnicity, and gender, reside in the poorest sectors of the nation.

• The child of obese parents is at increased risk of becoming obese.
  

• The calories from just one soft drink a day give a child a 60% greater chance of becoming obese.

• Simple, consistent changes in diet and activity levels can dramatically alter an individual's metabolic destiny.

The main thesis of Mr. Critser's Fat Land seems to be that the economic and personal health costs of the overweight and obese are enormous and compromise the health of the entire United States. More Americans are obese than smoke, use illegal drugs, or suffer from ailments unrelated to obesity. That being said, MORE has to be done to combat the issue of obesity, particularly in the growing numbers of obese children.

I recommend purchasing this book (it's 1 cent on amazon) if not reading the FREE PDF VERSION HERE. A book like this should be in every family library and (along with Fast Food Nation) the messages within shared with the younger generations.