A big fat crisis : the hidden forces behind the obesity epidemic

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Title:

A big fat crisis : the hidden forces behind the obesity epidemic - and how we can end it

Author:

Cohen, Deborah (Deborah Ann)

ISBN:

9781568589671

Physical Description:

262 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Contents:

Human nature and food : It's not your fault ; The limits of self-control ; The overwhelmed brain ; Eating is automatic -- The food environment : Abundant and cheap ; A food desert? Try a swamp ; Marketing obesity -- An alternate vision : A plea for change: we are all in this together ; A safer food environment ; The supermarket of the future ; Fit and fat: what about physical activity? ; In the meantime: what individuals can do ; Conclusion -- Healthier meal guidelines for adults and children.

Subject Term:

Obesity -- United States.

Obesity -- Government policy -- United States.

Obesity -- United States -- Prevention.

Overweight persons -- Social aspects -- United States.

Public health -- United States -- Planning.

Summary:

In a world where there is too much food, we currently have no constraints that limit our natural tendencies to automatically eat what is readily available. Dr. Cohen has created a major new work of nonfiction that will transform the national conversation surrounding the weight crisis in this country and throughout the world. Based on her own research at the RAND corporation, as well as the latest insights from behavioral economics, psychology, cognitive science, and the social sciences, A Big Fat Crisis reveals the surprising forces behind the obesity epidemic and how we, as a nation, can overcome it. Her conclusions contradict conventional wisdom and widely held expert opinion, and go against our own intuitive beliefs about the way we eat. They represent, in short, a paradigm-shift in how we approach the problem of obesity-and the solution. A Big Fat Crisis argues that the obesity epidemic is the product of two forces: (1) Immutable aspects of human nature, namely the fundamental limits of self-control, the lazy decision-making of the brain's non-cognitive system, and the automatic and unconscious way that we are hard-wired to eat; and (2) A completely transformed food environment: all of the food-related elements of our surroundings, including food stores and restaurants, prices, portion sizes, the types of food available to us, and food marketing and advertising. A Big Fat Crisis offers concrete solutions, arguing that the most important and modifiable steps in the chain of events that leads to obesity are at the point of purchase and the point of consumption. Like cholera and typhoid in the 19th century, obesity is a public health crisis. Ending it requires solutions that transcend individual behavior. Change begins with a fresh perspective and a clearer vision of what we need to do. We can tackle the obesity epidemic. We just can't do it alone-- Provided by publisher.

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	362.1963 COH	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Obesity is the public health crisis of the twenty-first century. Over 150 million Americans are overweight or obese, and across the globe an estimated 1.5 billion are affected. In A Big Fat Crisis , Dr. Deborah A. Cohen has created a major new work that will transform the conversation surrounding the modern weight crisis. Based on her own extensive research, as well as the latest insights from behavioral economics and cognitive science, Cohen reveals what drives the obesity epidemic and how we, as a nation, can overcome it.

Cohen argues that the massive increase in obesity is the product of two forces. One is the immutable aspect of human nature, namely the fundamental limits of self-control and the unconscious ways we are hard-wired to eat. And second is the completely transformed modern food environment, including lower prices, larger portion sizes, and the outsized influence of food advertising. We live in a food swamp, where food is cheap, ubiquitous, and insidiously marketed. This, rather than the much-discussed "food deserts," is the source of the epidemic.

The conventional wisdom is that overeating is the expression of individual weakness and a lack of self-control. But that would mean that people in this country had more willpower thirty years ago, when the rate of obesity was half of what it is today! The truth is that our capacity for self-control has not shrunk; instead, the changing conditions of our modern world have pushed our limits to such an extent that more and more of us are simply no longer up to the challenge.

Ending this public health crisis will require solutions that transcend the advice found in diet books. Simply urging people to eat less sugar, salt, and fat has not worked. A Big Fat Crisis offers concrete recommendations and sweeping policy changes--including implementing smart and effective regulations and constructing a more balanced food environment--that represent nothing less than a blueprint for defeating the obesity epidemic once and for all.

Author Notes

Deborah A. Cohen, MD , is a senior natural scientist at the RAND Corporation. Cohen received her BA at Yale University, MPH in epidemiology from the UCLA School of Public Health, and her MD from the School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. She has served on several advisory panels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Brazil. She lives in Santa Monica, California.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

With a kind but brisk bedside manner, RAND Corporation scientist Cohen (co-author of Prescription for a Healthy Nation) delivers a diagnosis in layman's terms in this powerful book: two-thirds of American adults and one-third of children are overweight or obese, not because of a lack of self-control, but because of the "modern food environment" that makes it easy to consume too many calories. In the first half of the book, Cohen presents numerous research studies that level myths about "mindful" eating, instead arguing that we're "biologically designed to overeat" and easily influenced by 24-hour fast-food drive-thrus, oversize restaurant portions, supermarket displays, candy in checkout aisles, and TV commercials. She argues for a "critical paradigm shift": to view the epidemic as a public health crisis and institute controls that guide eaters to "choose health over heft." Anticipating resistance, Cohen spends the rest of the book defending government interventions, citing examples like ratings for restaurant hygiene and conjecturing how "common-sense regulations" resembling those on alcohol sales might "make unhealthy foods" less accessible and enticing. While Cohen believes that collective action is the only real solution to epidemic, she also helpfully suggests ways to modify one's food environment and offers dietary guidelines in the appendix. Photos. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

What can be done about "the public health crisis of our time"? The national conversation about obesity, childhood or otherwise, has been a bus mired in the mud and spinning its wheels to get out. No matter that the first lady of the United States has been driving the bus or that the critical mass of diet/obesity books ensures that nearly every obese American could have their own individual text. RAND senior natural scientist Cohen (co-author: Prescription for a Healthy Nation: A New Approach to Improving Our Lives by Fixing Our Everyday World, 2005, etc.) acknowledges as much--she consigns healthier eating guidelines to the appendix--but her work, with one foot in science and the other in culture, instead examines the driving forces behind the obesity epidemic. Specifically, she poses the challenge as twofold: human nature and the unconscious and/or irrational decision-making process around what and how much to eat, and "the modern food environment": inexpensive, high-calorie, convenient, low-nutrition foods, crafted in labs to push all the right "tastes good, give me more" buttons. Cohen takes a behaviorist approach to identifying the antecedents for eating choices, suggesting that the focus on self-control as a key element actually undercuts efforts to make change, given people's assumptions about human nature and our genetic makeup. Studies indicate that biological imperatives, coupled with increasingly complex methods of marketing, hobble even the best intentioned plans. The author makes a compelling case. If an "epidemic" of obese people are finding it too difficult to achieve their health goals, it's a societal imperative to address the environmental factors that undermine these attempts. Think of it as preventative care rather than knee-jerk reactionary responses. If Cohen's book can get more obese people onboard that aforementioned bus, perhaps the conversation can finally move forward.]]]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Cohen, an epidemiologist and medical doctor at the RAND Corporation, makes a convincing case that obesity involves far more than a failure of willpower. Were people really more disciplined 30 years ago, when only one in six U.S. adults was obese, instead of the one in three today? Unlikely, she says. Physiologically, our capacity for self-control has not shrunk over the past several decades. She blames both the way humans are wired to overeat when presented with the opportunity and the transformed food environment, which makes large portions of cheap, high-calorie foods too easily available. Little nibbles add up: The average individual weight gain of 22 pounds over the past 30 years in the U.S. can be explained by our eating just seven extra calories per day. Cohen proposes standardizing portion sizes and running counter-advertising against unhealthy food products. Her other ideas include following the model of state limits on the number of places that can sell alcohol: why not do the same with doughnut shops and ice cream parlors? And why not restrict all-you-can-eat buffets, and use warning labels, like those for cigarettes and alcohol? Though some ideas seem far-fetched, Cohen certainly presents a fresh, thought-provoking take on how to fight the obesity epidemic.--Springen, Karen Copyright 2010 Booklist

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Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

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