McWorld and obesity: Super-sized Diets and the effect on national health

Diet, nutrition, eating habits of Americans, and nationwide food consumption:

The United States is a reflection of the homogenization at hand in the food industry. Apart from the grassroots uprisings with the organic, local, and slow food movements, the majority of the public is addicted to fast, processed foods that contain a lot of salt, sugar and fat for increased shelf life and taste.

According to Eric Schlosser (2002), which depicts a McDonald's scene in Dachau, Germany, located in a newly-erected shopping center in close proximity to the first concentration camp established by the Nazis, that reads, "This McDonald's was in Dachau, but it could have been anywhere -- anywhere in the United States, anywhere in the world. Millions of other people at that very moment were standing at the same [proverbial] counter, ordering the same food from the same menu, food that tasted everywhere the same.” This statement is, in a nutshell, the idea of 'McWorld'; it's the homogenization of food consumed nationally, and increasingly globally. What's happening with McDonald's has the monopolizing prospects of a Microsoft with the potentially fatal health risks of the tobacco industry. McDonald's, in its creation of a "McWorld utopia" would exist -- and dominate -- in every state, country, and on every continent, making their menu the world's menu, and their offerings the world's diet. Such dominance would create an impenetrable stronghold on the farming system, which it would dictate in every way for its own purpose - to produce the systematic and unnaturally fast production of food products to suit the strict formula of the McDonald's end-products. According to Schlosser (2002), "A McDonald's restaurant is just the window of a larger system comprising an extensive food-chain, running right up to the farms." The realization of such a hegemonic food selection of "convenience foods" is a scary prospect, and a seeming requisite for global obesity and its related health issues. This streamlining of food supply, specifically food accessible and affordable to the middle class, working poor and impoverished members of a given society makes it a key issue. Also, the idea of companies like Monsanto gaining total control over the annual seed supply and the nature of that supply (e.g., organic, genetically modified, etc.), would have huge, possibly grievous, results if unmonitored by the government and the peoples’ organizations.

The link between eating behavior and disease, health outcomes

There’s no dispute that overweight and obesity is the result of a society addicted to and inundated with fast food, while lulling the minds of the people away from activity and true thought via technology and the malaise of the media. We know the calorie-dense input contrasted against minimal output will cause overweight and obesity over time. Those who become overweight and obese, with a BMI greater than 30, are automatically at an increased risk for a long list of debilitating and/or deadly diseases. Our BMI measurement is crucial because it’s a red flag to health professionals that further assessments (e.g., skin-fold thickness measurements, evaluations of diet, physical activity, family history, et. al.) may be needed to determine a persons’ likelihood for disease — ones relationship between weight and disease or death are correlative (CDC, 2009). According to the CDC, those within the “obese” tier of the BMI chart are at higher risk for: Type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, coronary artery disease, hypertension, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, and some cancers (i.e., endometrial, breast, and colon). Due to the associated illnesses of obesity, living day-to-day in a manner that fosters overweight and obesity is just as good as a guarantee of a future hindered or shortened by the diseases and ailments listed above (Long, 2007).

Beliefs related to eating patterns from two perspectives (e.g., psychologically and physiologically)

Culture, class and economics have a significant impact on ones’ psychology around food consumption and food practices. The questions of not only how one should behave around food, but also how one should look (i.e., aesthetic ideal) according to their ethnic community may vastly differ from the standards put forth by the medical communities who establish the meaning behind the numbers on say the BMI chart. Non-Black and Non-White Latino segments of the population tend to ascribe to a leaner and lower weight aesthetic as healthy, while members of the Latino and African-American Diaspora prefer a weightier and shapely physique, and consider that the pinnacle of health. However, the two perspectives seem intertwined. People manifest their thoughts and their thoughts are often formed by the examples or images in their immediate environment.

Related website sources:
Slow Food Inc.:
A wonderful source for background information about the slow-food movement, its philosophy, mission and how the movement is growing to inspire people around the world to get back into their kitchens to prepare organic, whole foods to nourish themselves and their families, and to sidestep fast food options that offer sub-prime.

CDC Healthy Living:

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Living sub-site is a wonderful resource for all
aspects about healthy living, from nutrition to exercise and beyond. The site’s Staying Healthy section has
links to additional information on child development, eating your fruits and veggies, food safety, healthy
joints, healthy pets, healthy people, healthy swimming, heart disease prevention, HIV/AIDS prevention,
healthy water, healthy weight, diabetes prevention, skin cancer prevention, preventive cancer screenings,
quitting smoking, STD prevention, and stroke prevention.

USDA.gov:
The United States Department of Agriculture’s site has a number of programs and articles that one
can access, at no cost, to educate and empower themselves and their communities. Some of the programs
found on the site are: Let’s Move: America’s move to raise a healthier generation of kids; Healthy Incentives
Pilot (HIP); Farm-to-School Initiative; Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion; Team Nutrition Initiative;
Eat Smart. Play Hard; Program Nutrition Education; State Nutrition Action Plans; and many more.

Related articles:
New research on obesity from University of Alabama, Department of Psychology summarized:
Discusses obesity as it relates to effected women.

Obesity, disordered eating, and the bariatric surgery population: implications for psychotherapy:
Discusses some underlying psychological causes for obesity and how they present post bariatric surgery.

Cross-cultural dietary patterns: A college course on ethnically diverse eating patterns:
A look at diverse food choice across a variety of cultures.

References:

About BMI for Adults (2009). Centers for Disease Control. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_BMI/#Used

Long, S. and Schlenker, E. D. (2007). The Food Environment and Food Habits. In Williams’ Essentials of Nutrition & Diet Therapy. St. Louis, MI: Mosby Elsevier.

Schlosser, E. (2002). Global Realization. In Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.
New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.