OC – Obesity Country?

ANAHEIM, California – Here I am in the heart of Orange County, OC to us couch potatoes back home, as in that television series featuring beautiful young eye candies. The tagline for the show specifically says, OC: Orange County, it’s where the beautiful people live. So, don’t blame me if my expectations are a bit high. As my wife and daughters did some serious shopping at the malls here, I decided to do some serious people watching… ok, ogling. Boy, did I get a disappointing eyeful.

Back in Manila, I could do pretty much the same thing and see someone catching every couple of minutes or so. Here, the intervals were longer. Most of those passing by were what my cardiologist would call a walking time bomb. The percentage of people age six to 19 who are overweight in the United States has more than tripled since 1980, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Thirty percent of adults 20 years and older, more than 60 million people, are obese. No wonder American health authorities have declared obesity one of the biggest health risk factors in this country, like smoking. From my observations, obesity seemed like an equal opportunity problem that respects no age, no race, no gender.

I could well sympathize with their problems. My cardiologist wants me to lose 20 pounds, which is just like saying that if I don’t watch it, I’d have obesity as a major health risk myself. But here in the land of milk and honey, temptation is all around you. The pies at Marie Callender’s are difficult to resist. The steakhouses here serve steak that melt in the mouth. And there’s Krispy Kreme.

Well, the other thing here is that the servings at the restaurants are quite large. Two Pinoys can overeat on just one order. Remember the documentary Super Size Me? That’s reality here in both fast food and high end restaurants. But after people have become more health conscious and after McDonald’s and some other fast food outlets were sued for endangering the health of people who couldn’t resist all those fatty meals, people are now being given the so-called "healthy options."

So, if you really want to eat in a manner that would make your doctor proud of you, it is also quite easy to do that now. There are enough health conscious Americans to constitute a good market and there is a good variety of choices. Providing healthy eating choices is now big business here too, as it should be back home.

Good healthy meals no longer mean boring food. I tried eating just salads for lunch and I am doing just fine. There is a restaurant chain here called Soup Plantation and you can eat your heart out in healthy veggie salads and soup. But then again, I couldn’t resist the variety of salad dressings, not all of them healthy. Hopefully, my being able to cut down on rice and other carbo-laden food sort of balances off the times I have strayed.

Just to show that healthy eating has become big business is the entry of former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali into the business last week. According to news reports, Mr. Ali plans to introduce reduced-calorie foods and beverages for young adults. The new line has the lofty aim of fighting youth obesity, with no snack containing more than 150 calories. Each is fortified with vitamins and fiber, said Edward Rapp, a senior member of Mr. Ali’s new company, GOAT Food and Beverage.

The first products to roll out in convenience stores early next year will be packaged snacks with names like Rumble, Shuffle and Jabs – fruit-laden rolls and finger foods baked into vaguely signature shapes like boxing gloves and punching bags. Some flavors, like barbecued chicken and Buffalo wings, are a twist on snack classics, while others, like sweet corn and cole- slaw, evoke the farmer’s market.

Jack W. Plunkett, chief executive of Plunkett Research, a market research firm in Houston, said nutritionally enhanced foods were increasingly good sellers. He also noted that Mars Inc., a multibillion-dollar company that is developing GOAT products with Mr. Ali and Peter Arnell, chairman of the Arnell Group, would be involved only if it believed the foods would be major sellers, earning $50 million to $100 million a year. In arrangements involving food products, Mr. Plunkett said, celebrities are usually cut in for three percent of sales.

But I am really amazed. Given how media emphasizes the slim standard of beauty, why is it that most of the people I have seen in the malls don’t seem to care? So much for the power of media to influence people! In fact, even in the beaches, they don’t mind showing off as much epidermis as Shamu does. It is not politically correct to call them fat nor is it polite to look at them with amazement and wonder. Where oh where are the OC eye candies we see on television? There are some of them around, but not nearly enough to satisfy my Hollywood-heightened expectations.

This is the real world. And pound for pound, for someone from a third world country, you see the imbalance in the world distribution of food and nutrition. Then again, it could also be genetic. So, don’t blame those that my doctor would call obese. They simply couldn’t help it.

Excuses

Speaking of excuses, Dr. Ernie E. sent me this Associated Press story about a medical study that listed the top 10 excuses used for being overweight. According to the story, David Allison, a University of Alabama biostatistician, invited 19 other scientists in the United States, Canada and Italy to work on the report. They looked at more than 100 studies on potential contributors to obesity besides diet and exercise, and concluded there was at least some support for 10:

1. Inadequate sleep. (Average sleep amounts have fallen, and many studies tie sleep deprivation to weight gain.)

2. Endocrine disruptors, which are substances in some foods that may alter fats in the body.

3. Nice temperatures. (Air conditioning and heating limit calories burned from sweating and shivering.)

4. Fewer people smoking. (Less appetite suppression.)

5. Medicines that cause weight gain.

6. Population changes. (More middle-agers and Hispanics, who have higher obesity rates.)

7. Older birth moms. (That correlates with heavier children).

8. Genetic influences during pregnancy.

9. Darwinian natural selection. (Fat people outsurvive skinny ones).

10. Assortative mating, or "like mating with like," as Allison puts it. Translation: fat people procreating with others of the same body type, gradually skewing the population toward the heavy end.

The doctors however warned that people should not try to alter these factors, like, for example, "we would never recommend that people start smoking to reduce their body weight."

The same for medications that can lead to weight gain, though doctors may want to consider alternatives if a patient piles on pounds, said Dr. Louis Aronne, a Weill-Cornell Medical School nutrition expert who is past president of the Obesity Society, the leading group of researchers in the field.

The point is, there is more to obesity than diet and exercise. "These are 10 reasonable hypotheses, and as scientists, we should be open-minded," Allison said.

Last word on Pagsanjan

The original complainant on the Pagsanjan horror experience, a Ms. M. Mirasol, wrote to close this episode.

I had left for the US the day my Pagsanjan misadventure came out in your column. While there I was informed by relatives that other readers related similar experiences. Thanks to Mayor Ejercito for his swift and positive response.

I am just wondering if I should be the one filing the charges and not the local tourism department. They have investigated already based on my complaint. Should not sanctions come from them, against the hotel (which is accredited by the department of tourism, by the way) and the erring boatmen? If I don’t file charges, does it mean nothing will come out of it?

I have no wish to go back there and relive what happened. It’s enough that awareness has been generated about these nefarious activities sabotaging our tourism industry in the hope that our officials will do something about it. Though I was outraged by the incident, I can find it in my heart to feel compassion for the hardworking boatmen who feel unjustly compensated. Let there be adjustments in the boat ride fee if necessary, but make everything legal so there will be no need for intimidation and harassment.

Thank you Mr. Chanco, for giving attention to this.

Animal ambitions

From Ike de Mesa of Hilton Head, South Carolina, comes this classic.

A teacher asked her class, "What do you want out of life?"

A little girl in the back row raised her hand and said, "All I want out of life is: four little animals, just like my Mom always says."

The teacher asked, "Really and what four little animals would that be?"

The little girl said, "A mink on my back and a jaguar in the garage, a tiger in the bed and a jackass to pay for all of it."

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]