Re: Fast food and obesity

[Drnanjo]

There is some correlational data that is intriguing - a 370% rise in obesity since about 1970, roughly the time when fast food chains REALLY began to take off.

More likely though the proliferation of fast and processed food (along withthe visually appealing "food porn" type advertising of said food with the constant exhortations to "super size it!") in our culture is only one part of a multi-causal chain that includes the gradual and almost complete elimination of strenuous exercise that was a part of the quotidian lives of our ancestors up until about 80 years ago (the automobile being the chief culprit), and the genetic vulnerability of certain ethnic groups to obesity (the Pima of Arizona being an example.)

We are a critter who evolved in a world where we had to work very hard to hunt and gather enough food to live, with a constant threat of starvation dogging us.  Now in the affluent societies on the planet we have abudant rich and appealing food and even the most "athletic" of us lives a relatively sedentary lifestyle.

I can't speak to the business of suing over this. But, if you are interested in a good read that will persuade you to avoid fast food restaurants, Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" is hard to put down even as it turns your stomach. Also regarding the way the "thrifty gene" interacts with our fast food environment, check out the work of Dr. Rudolp Liebel ("the genes predispose, but the environment disposes...")

Nancy Melucci
LACCD ---
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