Not so Slim Picks

Why are Americans getting fat? This is the question that economist Eric Finkelstein and writer Laurie Zuckerman attempt to explain, if not answer in their book The Fattening of America.

It turns out 2/3 US residents are overweight and the number of obese citizens has doubled in a generation for a variety of reasons. So, if you were looking for some sort of Clue type mystery where Col. Transfats did it in the carbnasium with the high fructose corn syrup, this really isn’t the book you want to read.

Actually, despite the thin book being full of information about weight gain, food, diet and exercise, you might not want to read it anyway – The authors’ reliance on the choices fat Uncle Al or slovenly cousin Carl make end up sounding folksier than Sarah Palin trying to explain shades of lipstick for pit bulls or hockey moms - whichever one wears the lipstick, I never did understand the point she was trying to make. Information = good; Style = earnest but you can’t use anecdotes to explain complex theories before you start to sound like you are either dumbing down your findings or end up being a tad condescending. The anecdotal might work really well in lectures and presentation but in a serious book, not so much. Trust the reader, that is all I’m saying.

Anyway, exercise, genetics, diet, environment, affordable diabetes treatments and personal choice all play a role in the growth of the United States or at least its citizens. Finkelstein, the economist, is immersed in the current school of thought that people are rational decision makers, utility maximizers, as the economists like to call them: People make sane choices about what they do to themselves, in this case through their diet. This is true as far as, if I had 6 dollars, hadn’t eaten all day, was tired, ravenous and didn’t want to think about cooking - those 3500 calories from Popeyes start to look better than going to the store and trying to turn those 6 bucks into a filling meal with fresh vegetables.

While I agree with the thought people make the good decisions for themselves, like the Popeyes scenario above, what researchers like Finkelstein never account for is why can you get heavily subsidized fast food but not reasonably priced good food or healthy food. His silent assertion you can’t do anything about the bigger picture, you can only decide to have fast food or not, is sad and defeatist. Even if you don’t think there needs to be a junk food tax like in the UK and EU, the US’s decision to heavily subsidize, corn, soy and wheat ultimately makes fresh fruit and veg more expensive and makes it harder to choose anything but the cheapest food available.

Gary Taubes didn’t try to solve the mathematical problem of the expanding waistline, but did take a look at fatphobia in Good Calorie, Bad Calorie. Taubes, a journalist, takes a look at all the data and makes a pretty convincing case that fat isn’t the cause for weight gain and saturated or not fat does not cause heart disease.

When insulin levels are elevated, we store calories as fat. Carbohydrates, especially the heavily refined fructose (sugar, corn syrup – possibly, maybe artificial sweeteners have a similar effect) raise insulin levels and cause the body to hoard energy. Carbs, not fat, seems to be the culprit.

Taubes’ thesis was controversial - in the bag for Atkins, unscientific, not a doctor - when it appeared excerpted in the NY Times Magazine a few years ago. Don’t believe the hype - That article, like his book is a sane (albeit intricate and detail ladened) tome of ‘just the facts’ which does a lot to explain how come I am hungry an hour after binging on sushi but a meal of a small steak, creamy- rich cauliflower gratin and a green salad keeps me sated for hours.