WIN Wyoming
Thought Bullets
for
March 2001
I was recently asked to review a paper by Anne Hague, a graduate student at
University of Maine. Anne’s research will examine attitudes toward obesity
among elementary education students in Maine. I want to share some points
I gained from Anne’s background paper.
- Effects of obesity on children - There is evidence [obesity] is or will
be problematic medically for some of them, and is or will be
problematic socially for most of them.
Source: Deb Burgard, PhD, licensed psychologist;
http://www.BodyPositive.com.
- The number of people with eating disorders and borderline conditions is
triple the number of people living with AIDS.
Source: Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention;
http://www.edap.org.
- Americans spend over $40 billion on dieting and diet-related products
each year. This figure is comparable to the amount of money that the Federal
Government spends on education each year.
Source: Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention;
http://www.edap.org.
- Male action toys sport huge chests as well as shoulder and arm muscles.
At five feet ten inches tall, these males would have chest measurements of
46-62 inches and arm biceps of 18-32 inches.
Source: Male action toys sport huge muscles. Healthy Weight
Journal. 1999;13:67.
- Even if eating and activity were identical for all, we would
collectively still be vastly different in shape, ranging from fat to thin.
Source: Warning: keep dieting out of the reach of children. Tufts
University Diet and Nutrition Letter 1993;11(10).
- From mice and rats, we have learned that there are single genes that
can cause very profound obesity, and we have found in every instance that
there is a corresponding gene in humans. If we went out on the street right
now, and I showed you a group of adults with heights ranging from four and
half feet to six and half feet or seven feet, you would make no comment
about this. It’s expected. We all expect to see wide variations in height.
We accept that this is due to very strong genetic influences. My perception
of this is that there are equally potent genetic influences on body weight
as there are on height. But the population, because of our lack of
understanding of all the mechanisms, simply has not come to accept this yet.
Source: Dr. Rudolph Leibel of the Division of Molecular Genetics at
Columbia University, quoted from Frontline’s documentary titled Fat;
script available at http://www.pbs.org.
Compiled by Betty Holmes, MS, RD
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