Sarah Palin's recent jibe at Michelle Obama's healthy eating campaign highlights why public policy on obesity fails to satisfy
What's so bad about some chubby kids?
Answer: obese kids are much more likely to be obese adults. Both childhood and adult obesity are predictors of the world's No 1 killer, cardiovascular disease. On top of that, both child and adult obesity have been linked to diabetes, several types of cancer, depression and anxiety, pain syndromes, as well as a host of other diseases. Obesity claims nearly 300,000 American lives per year.
However, the response from America's political leadership has been uninspired, to say the least. On one hand, first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign, which targets the burgeoning phenomenon of childhood obesity in the US, is commendable, if ineffectual. On the other, in a recent episode of her reality TV show, "Sarah Palin's Alaska", the show's eponymous politician-turned-pundit made the latest in a series of barbs at Michelle Obama's efforts. While searching for ingredients for a popular American dessert, she quipped that she was doing so as a riposte to the first lady "who said the other day we should not have dessert".
America's national perspective on obesity is marred by two principal misunderstandings ? one evident in Palin's flippant treatment of the epidemic, and the other apparent in Obama's misdirected policy agenda.
First, and cardinally, obesity is a slow epidemic, and therefore does not elicit the same sense of urgency as less deadly, but more rapid-acting epidemics, such as the H1N1 flu epidemic (which only killed 4% as many Americans as obesity did in 2009). Second, while exposure to other diseases seems independent of individual choices, obesity appears to be completely dependent on individual lifestyle choices. This is untrue. Convincing epidemiological research demonstrates that factors beyond individual behaviour ? factors such as race, poverty, neighbourhood, national region and even personal contacts ? can influence obesity risk by influencing access to healthy foods and opportunities for physical activity, and cultures of diet and exercise. So, obesity is more complex than the simple choice to go for a walk or to "eat dessert".
Palin is guilty of playing to the first misunderstanding: obesity is a serious public health emergency, and the nearly 300,000 American lives lost every year to this condition provide ample justification for government action. Our country cannot afford to have this issue rendered a political football, as Palin is attempting. It is irresponsible and reckless to mock efforts to stave off a deadly epidemic for partisan political gains.
To her credit, Obama has attempted to tackle the issue in a non-partisan manner ? in fact, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, legislation endorsed by the first lady, passed in the Senate by unanimous assent. However, a major flaw of the "Let's Move" agenda is that it primarily addresses individual behaviours, largely neglecting the structural factors that are so important in shaping them.
Obesity is expanding in the US, and childhood obesity is exploding. In 2009, the national prevalence of obesity among adults was 27%, almost two times higher than it was 25 years ago. Worse, nearly 17% of children aged 6-19 are obese ? that's more than triple the number of obese children than there were in the early 1970s. An effective response to this epidemic will come only when pundits and policymakers unite around scientifically-robust policies that address the causes as well as the consequences of obesity in America.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/25/sarahpalin-michelleobama
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