It is a well-known fact that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and much of the developed world. Our bodies have not yet evolved to accommodate our new sugar, salt and cholesterol-rich diets, seeing as these things were all but delicacies in the Paleolithic Age. Now, rates of obesity-related illness are through the roof in both adults and children. It seems no matter how much Americans are told by the government they should go and live healthier lives, obesity won’t go away.
This is enough to leave many people content to fling their arms to the sky and admit that the top-down approach to tackling the issue of obesity has failed and that no amount of regulation will save the slowly fattening American people. I for one believe the system simply has done too little in terms of intervention, and refuse to be cowed into thinking there is nothing the government can do to help.
The familiar pattern of conservatives digging their heels in against the threat to whatever “traditional way of life” is at stake repeats itself when it comes to thinking about what could be done against the quiet threat of obesity. Ever since the McGovern Report, agriculture and livestock businesses have fought the idea there is anything wrong with the American diet, citing emotionalist responses against farms and ranches who are simply giving America what it wants—more food.
Time and time again, health professionals and nutritional scientists have been eschewed by the Department of Agriculture for an opinion friendly to their backers in agribusiness. I never really wondered why a bureaucratic agency responsible for looking over the agricultural sector of the economy was also tasked with coming up with dietary advice and planning for America as well, but when I put some thought into the issue, I discovered I was far from the only one who cocked their head at this quandary.
Even if legislating against the influence of farms and agribusiness that profit from America growing obese would ever happen, it is far from enough to change the issue in the long run. It has to start with how children are socialized and placed into society once they begin leaving the home. School lunches and television do a poor job of showing children what should be put in their bodies. Children form an association between the happy state they’re in from watching children’s shows and the similarly jovial advertisements for fast food, breakfast cereal and other foods packed with fat and high fructose corn syrup, among other processed goods. The issue of unhealthy school lunches can be equally as harmful to children. In lower income areas where school could be the only place guaranteed to serve them food, it might even be more harmful. Since President Reagan, school budgets for lunches have been axed, and schools have gone to interesting measures to compensate. Personally, I don’t know how pizza can be defined as a vegetable, or how an MSG-basted, plastic-wrapped school lunch qualifies as a healthy meal for kids, but apparently it’s been good enough to the point where parents now simply accept this as their child’s dietary reality.
Before people begin envisioning a horrifying future where vegan communists and the health Gestapo demand everyone eat a rigorous diet of solely potatoes and clutch desperately to their two-liter soda bottles, I want to clear the air on why I feel meaningful reform needs to be made. Health-based legislation should act as a rudder to steer America away from health risks associated with poor diets and sedentary lifestyles. I look toward the skyrocketing rates of obesity and wonder where our heroes in law enforcement, the military, firefighting and medicine will come from in the next century. I have concerns as to just how much money could be saved in medical entitlements if we look to our children and put them in environments with decent food.
To what lengths will we as Americans fetishize personal responsibility and try to refer to obese people as lazy? Unless we remove the stigma associated with wanting a government that can promote a healthier environment for all citizens, children and adults alike, the answer to that question is never.
Sergey is a freshman majoring in economics. What do you think of his arguments? Are policy makers in the nation’s legislature doing enough to rectify the problem of obesity? If not, would you propose any specific solutions? We would like to know what you think. Please send all thoughts and comments to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
