My latest obsession: Food

If you were to ask my family or my Husband what I am annoyingly passionate about they would probably say being healthy. Some of my siblings think I am a "Health Freak" and when we start talking about food they say "Don't tell Alice what's in that or she won't eat it because its too fattening" or "Don't tell me how many calories are in this Alice, I just want to enjoy it". I don't consider myself a "Health Freak", but I do believe in doing everything I can to be my healthiest.

Growing up I never had a problem with staying thin. I have a fast metabolism and I was a very active child. I ate as much as I wanted to and never worried about over-eating (that word meant NOTHING to me). When I was in 9th grade I started going to Public School full time. Not only did I have less time to run around and be active, but I was also eating school lunches everyday. By the end of the school year I had gained 25 lbs (over Thanksgiving break alone I had gained 6 lbs)! I had no idea what had happened to me. All of a sudden I was chubby, pimply, and depressed. Through out the rest of my High School career I tried different diets and workouts and by my Senior year I had lost those 25 lbs and had gained an obsession with food. I had learned that I couldn't eat till I was bursting every single day at every single meal and that exercise was a key component in staying fit. I also learned that not all food is created equal (in the calorie/fat sense).

When I moved off to college I was studying Sports Medicine (Physical Therapy with an emphasis on sports related injuries), and one of my required classes was Basic Nutrition. It was like a light was turned on in my brain! I use to think muscles were cool... FOOD is amazing! The way our bodies process food; how we use it for energy and insulation and repair. How different foods provide us with different vitamins and minerals and the need to have a variety of foods in our diets.... I was hooked. I started REALLY focusing on what I was eating and what everything did for my body, or to my body. I was still a college student living off of $5 pizzas and PB&J sandwiches.

After Cameron and I got married I made it my personal goal to learn all I could about healthy cooking so that we could be and have a healthy family for the rest of our lives. When I got pregnant with Little Keith I did a lot of research on nutrition for while you're pregnant so that I could have a healthy baby and so that I would be able to recover quickly after he was born. One major thing I learned while I was pregnant is that exercise is VITAL to being healthy. You can be eating healthy and still not be very healthy.

This last month I have been researching the Obesity Epidemic. The word Epidemic means a "sudden widespread occurrence of a particular unwanted phenomenon". In America today everyone wants to be thin. The media tells us that to be happy, successful, or popular we have to be thin. So why is there an Obesity Epidemic? Why would a society so fixated on being thin become so BIG?

One of the books I read is called "Fat Land" by Greg Crister. He pin points when Americans began to significantly gain weight. According to James O. Hill, Physiologist at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, 25% of the population will ALWAYS be overweight/obese because of genetics. But in the 1980's the number of overweight/obese people started to dramatically rise. Today about 61% of American's are overweight, 20% of those are obese. What would cause such a significant rise in such an unwanted characteristic?

In 1973 prices on dairy and meat products had risen, due to bad corn and soy crops the year before causing a shortage of feed meal for livestock. Consumers were striking for lower food prices, but farmers were struggling to pay for feed. Earl Butz, the Secretary of Agriculture at the time, sided with the farmers and "liberated" them from the governments regulation on how much they could grow in their fields and when they could sell it. By the mid 1970's corn production had soared to an all time high.

In 1971 food scientists in Japan found away to economically produce a cheaper sweetener; High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). It is 6 times sweeter then cane sugar and made from corn. It helps protect against freezer burn and keeps long-shelf-life foods tasting fresher longer. It also gives bakery products a more "natural", browned in the oven, look. HFCS, however, does not breakdown in the digestive tract and arrives almost fully intact when it gets to the liver. The liver then stores it as fat, since it can't use it for anything else. The corn farmers were able to lower the price of livestock feed when they started to make HFCS, which they were able to make a large profit off of because it cost them very little to make it. The price of dairy products and meat went back down and consumers were happy again.

Another product introduced into America at this time was a cheap cooking oil; Palm Oil from Malaysia. Palm oil is more chemically similar to beef tallow then to vegetable oil. It used to be referred to as "tree lard". Palm oil increased product shelf-life, but more of it was required in the product to make it taste good, thus increasing the caloric count. Palm oil is more saturated then Hog lard which is 38% saturated. Palm oil is 45% saturated!

The introduction of HFCS and Palm Oil, both cheap to manufacture, reduced prices on meat and dairy products as well as convenience foods. Coke and Pepsi both switched from 50-50 sweetener blends to 100% HFCS, allowing them to boost portion sizes and still make substantial profits. McDonald's fried its potatoes in palm oil and even built its own oil processing plant in Malaysia. The Obesity Epidemic had begun.

In the 1980's more families had 2 "bread winners" and parents didn't have the time or energy to make home cooked meals every night, so more and more of them began to eat out or to order in. During this time fast food restaurants had begun to "supersize" their menu items and the combo meal was introduced. The introduction of the combo meal was a huge business move for fast food restaurants. By combining a burger with fries and a drink, customers thought they were getting more for their money when actually the were paying the same price for the burger and paying MORE than the regular price for an individual fry or drink. Then you add in "supersizing" the fries or drink for seemingly a few cents more, and since it cost very little to make the fries and soda pop, the fast food companies profits began to soar.

Because of supersizing and larger portion sizes, Americans began to have confused concepts of a correct portion size. They would eat what was on their plate, even if it was 2-3 times more then they should be eating. American's saw Bigger as Better.

In the mid 1980's there was a popular idea going around that kids "wanted" what their bodies naturally needed. They thought that kids WOULDN'T over eat so you should let your kid eat what they want, when they want it and as much as they want. This however was wrong. A study done by Barbara Rolls of Penn State, took a group of 3 year olds and a group of 5 year olds and gave them a series of plates of Macaroni and Cheese. The first plate was the correct portion for their age, the second slightly more, and the third was supersized. The 3 year olds consistently ate their normal portion amount, leaving food on the last two plates. The 5 year olds, however cleared their plates every single time. Somewhere along the lines we no longer know when we are full. When we see larger portions our minds think we are hungrier then we really are and we try to eat all the food in front of us, whether we need to or not.

Another food item that has been supersized is snack foods. Not just the amount eaten in the snack package, but the number of snacks eaten in a day! Todays philosophy is to "graze" throughout the day; constantly eating high calorie "snack" foods, which usually have enough calories to equal a meal, IN ADDITION to 3 large meals a day!

I mentioned earlier that in my 9th grade year I was eating school lunch every day, which contributed to my weight gain. I knew that the food was greasier then what I got at home, but I was only eating it once a day and it tasted SO good! (what 14 year old doesn't like fries, pizza, and hamburgers?) But why are the schools serving such unhealthy food? Some kids eat breakfast AND lunch at school and they are getting high calorie, low nutrient food at both meals. Back in the '80's schools were making a lot of budget cuts and one area that they used to spend a lot more money in was school meals. School meals used to be mostly home made with fresh products, but that was now becoming too expensive. They began to outsource the food production so that they could cut back on the cost to make food and would get "ready made meals". In High Schools students were beginning to leave campus to go get fast food, which cut into the school lunch profit. The schools wanted to keep students on campus and to buy THEIR food, so they began to purchase fast food at regular price and then sell it at a slightly higher price. Students liked the convenience of having the fast food available at the school so much that they didn't mind the price increase. The schools began to make money and keep students on campus. It seemed like a win-win situation. What people didn't realize was how this would affect the growing population.

There is a lot more information in the book, especially about the lack of exercise and Physical Education in America today, but the food info is what really surprised me. I'd heard people talk about HFCS but never paid much attention to it. I figured THEY were health fanatics, but the more I learn about it the more I realize how bad it is for the human body and how prevalent it is in our food. I thought I knew portion sizes pretty well, but the other day I actually took measuring cups and measured out my food and was very surprised to see how small it looked compared to what I normally serve myself.

I'm not trying to convince people to change how they eat or to make anyone feel guilty about the things they eat. I just found this information interesting and surprising and thought it could be helpful if anyone else was interested in these things as well. I still love french fries and I still eat sweets. But I try to make more of my own treats, so as to avoid HFCS, and to eat correct portion amounts. James O Hill said "Being Obese is a normal response to the American environment." Well I'm going to prove him wrong. I believe that you can still be healthy and fit in todays America. You just have to remember Moderation in all things.