A doctor, an activist for fat people and a McDonald’s dietitian were among experts who offered a wide menu of ideas on Wednesday for shrinking the bulging waistlines that have made obesity the No. 2 cause of death in America.
Americans gain two pounds a year between the ages of 20 and 60, putting them at risk for diabetes, heart disease and other serious ailments, Dr. Xavier Pi-Sunyer told a conference at the State University of New York’s Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.
“We shouldn’t be gaining anything,” Pi-Sunyer, director of an obesity research center, said in an interview. “We have to focus on preventing that weight gain because it’s so hard to take it off later.”
He called for a nationwide education effort, “to make people restrained eaters in an environment where unhealthy food is so cheap and tastes so good.”
Claude Coliman, a regional minority health consultant for the U.S. government, said changing eating habits was difficult in low-income neighborhoods like the one outside the auditorium, where multifamily homes packed streets dotted with fried chicken and pizza restaurants.
“You have a lack of supermarkets offering healthier food in some neighborhoods,” she noted. “You have a lack of fitness centers.”
“If everything that’s around you is unhealthy and high-calorie food, it’s hard to stick to a good diet,” agreed Deja Butts, a high school student studying health sciences.
“In every store you see the 25-cent juice and chips that are four bags for a dollar. It’s available, it’s inexpensive and you’re going to go for it.”
Unhealthy advertising
Several of the 250 health professionals and students at the conference complained about the prevalence of advertising for unhealthy food. But Patricia Baird, a dietitian who discussed items recently unveiled by the McDonald’s hamburger chain as healthier menu choices, said Americans were too quick to pin the blame for obesity on corporations.“I believe in free choices,” said Baird. “As a former fat person, my choice was to eat four helpings of lasagna, three helpings of potatoes and two helpings of roast beef. Did I eat the salads my mother put on the table? No. Did my sister? Yes. Was I fat while she was thin? You bet.”
Another expert said concerns about obesity were overblown.
“When you talk about obesity being an epidemic, I don’t know about that,” said Sandy Schaffer, president of the New York chapter of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.
“Not everybody that’s fat is unhealthy,” said Schaffer, an aerobics instructor who wears a stout size 24. “I’m big but I’m healthy. At this size I can move and I’m physically fit. You have to separate out diet from exercise.”
Harold W. Kohl II, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control, said obesity had reached epidemic proportions. But he agreed that many experts did not focus enough on exercise.
“Anything people can do to engineer physical activity back into their daily life is absolutely critical,” he said. “It’s important to work 30 minutes of physical activity into your day.”
Dr. Clinton D. Brown, the conference chairman, said many such gatherings will be needed nationwide to get Americans to change their habits.
“People are finally realizing that obesity is a big problem,” he said. “We need to focus our resources and make a community effort.”