Obesity: Laziness or Economics

There is no way of getting around it. People are fat nowadays. But there was a time when obesity was not an epidemic in America.

The average American dinner table didn't seem complete without fresh home-made apple pies, cookies or cakes. Yet obesity was less than 20 percent in America up until the mid-1970s.

Lemery Reyes, staff writer for XPressOnline, reported in 2004 that 50 percent of the U.S. population of college students were overweight. A 2004 U.S. Food and Drug Administration survey found that 17 percent of adolescents 12-19 years old, i.e., prospective college students, were overweight.

A multitude of organizations publish reports about the numerous health problems that arise due to obesity, such as heart attacks, strokes and, of course, diabetes.

Nutrition classes warn students not only about eating too much, but eating the wrong foods. The flip-side of that coin is anorexia where students, fearful of becoming obese, starve their bodies of nutrition.

Exercise gyms dot America's landscape as they purport to help America become healthy. Store bookshelves are filled with diet books while corporate health gurus run television advertisements that show skinny clients who successfully lost weight on their program.

Yet, the explosion of obesity continues. Obesity has risen from the 50 percent in the 1980s to 66 percent of America today.

What happened? Did Americans simply get lazy, as many studies suggest, or is there another reason behind the tidal wave of obesity that is sweeping across America?

In place of that Snickers bar, here is a "thought for food" to chew on.

Michael Woods, author of "New Food Could be Cause of Obesity," states that during the 1960s, the percentages of obesity were so low among men, women and children- less than 20 percent- that obesity was not considered a major health threat. However, by the mid-1980s, Woods states that obesity was affecting over 50 percent of the adult population.

What happened between the latter 1960s and 1980s?

Prior to the 1970s, the sugar used in food products came from sugar cane or beets.

In 1969, a new product using an old food, corn juice, was turned into high fructose corn syrup (HFC).

By the mid-1970s, the food producers replaced natural sugar with corn syrup in the majority of most food products that Americans consume.

The production of high-fructose corn syrup begins with its starch, the white milky juice of the corn. Linda Forristal, CCP, MTA; for the Weston A. Price Foundation, took the scientific process of production and simplified it.

In her article, "In the Kitchen with Mother Linda," she wrote that the process of producing corn syrup simply involves vats of murky fermenting liquid, fungus and chemical tweaking.

It is cheaper than sugar, and is very easy to transport. It is then piped into tanker trucks, which results in lower costs and higher profits for food producers.

After all, sugar is sugar, isn't it? Mehmet C. Oz, MD, says no.

Dr. Oz is a member of the RealAge Scientific Advisory Board, and coauthor with RealAge expert Dr. Roizen of the No.1 best-seller "You: The Smart Patient" (2006). Dr. Oz recently appeared on the Oprah show.

He said that food products that contain high fructose corn syrup should be avoided because the body processes the sugar in it differently than it does old-fashioned cane or beet sugar.

According to Dr. Oz, high fructose corn syrup alters the body's natural ability to regulate appetite because it blocks the ability of a chemical called leptin to tell your brain that the body is full.

Dr. Oz said that it is not so much the 150 calories in a soda pop. Rather, it's the fact that at that same meal, people will consume an extra hundred calories of food because of the lack of leptin.

In other words, when we absorb regular sugar, glucose, from natural fruits and foods, our body secretes leptin, which causes us to feel full. The chemicalized corn syrup, however, does not cause the secretion of leptin and we continue to feel hungry. Thus, we continue to eat, i.e., overweight, then obesity, then diabetes, then heart attacks, and so on.

Pizza often replaces a full meal for college students. Pizza seems harmless enough as students ingest flour, cheese, meat, tomato sauce, onions, and peppers. Hamburgers, nested between two delicious buns made of flour, covered with mayonnaise, ketchup, onions, peppers, relish, mustard, quench hunger pangs between classes.

Now, check out what was just eaten. The flour mix and tomato sauce uses high fructose corn syrup rather than sugar. The hamburger buns use high fructose corn syrup, as does the mayonnaise, ketchup and relish. Salad eaters are not left out of the corn producer's playing field. The salad dressings use high fructose corn syrup.

Machines filled with sodas, candy, potato chips, cookies, sugar, sugar and more sugar dot the college campus. Before that next bite of candy, or between the next slurp of soda, check out the list of ingredients.

And the true message is eat, eat, eat.

The corn producer's cash registers are ringing louder than the Liberty Bell.

The USDA conducts a dietary study every five years. In its 2005 guideline, any contributory relationship between super-size portions, and their natural or chemical contents, regarding obesity were refuted supposedly due to the lack of any specific experimental study.

Corporate food watch-dogs suggest that it may help if the portion sizes are smaller, which would diminish the caloric intake.

Meanwhile, most researchers continue to disagree as to the cause of obesity.

An old 1950s movie featured "The Blob" which took over a town. High fructose corn syrup is taking over America.

What seems to be obvious is that the advent of corn syrup in our food products coincides seems to coincide with the abnormal rise of obesity. Another "thought for food" must lead consumers to question whether the cause of obesity is really such a mystery as America consumes tons of high-fructose corn syrup.