The Fattening of America

I know you’ve noticed it, everyone in this country has. And if statistics count for anything, there’s about a 50/50 chance you’re part of it. What is it? The fattening of America.

Not long ago, I heard a brief intro to a story on All Things Considered, the daily program on NPR (unfortunately I didn’t get to hear the whole story when it aired because I was at work). It was stated that either 50 or 60 percent (don’t remember exactly, but who cares? It’s bad) of Americans are now overweight and that of those, 30% have reached the level of obesity. In medical terms, that’s the danger zone. To the rest of us, it’s when we shake our heads and wonder how someone can let themselves get so friggin’ fat that they have trouble walking, getting into a car or onto a bus. Forget armchairs or airplane seats.

Obesity causes all kinds of medical problems, such as diabetes, heart disease and of course, joint and back problems. These people often become cripples, can’t work and their problems become society’s problems. Then they die young. What causes it? I don’t know. Why is the problem getting worse? I don’t know that, either. But we know there’s a lot of food consumption involved and that’s voluntary.

Okay, let’s get to the more common issue of people being overweight without reaching the point of morbid obesity. We see this constantly, everywhere we go. And where I live, it’s at least two times more common in women. I would estimate that about half the women I see in my area carry on the average 25-30 pounds of excess fat, excess to the point of what I’d call unattractive. And, of course, the amount seems to increase with age; teenage girls around here are “rounder” than they used to be and too many women in their 40’s are sporting rolls.

What’s causing this trend?

Simply put: diet. Surveys in recent years have shown that fewer and fewer people are actually cooking their meals the way my mother did – from scratch. The last study I read about concluded that fewer than half the meals served to families in their homes are actually made from “real” food – they’re mostly take-out, prepared frozen foods and the like. In other words, you get the ingredients someone else puts in and they put them in to make money, with absolutely no regard for your health. And to make money, they use more and more artificial ingredients, chemicals and seasonings to make theirs taste better than the competition while maximizing their profits. The most common: MSG.

Mono Sodium Glutamate

For reasons that appear to be more political than anything else, MSG entered the food supply without the agreement of the US Food and Drug Administration. And it’s in virtually ALL prepared foods, fast foods and take-out meals. Colonel Sanders used to advertise his “secret blend of 11 herbs and spices” before his company was bought by a conglomerate. Now the Kentucky Fried Chicken “blend” consists of pepper and MSG. Tastes great, doesn’t it?

You’re not safe in the grocery store, either. For reasons I can’t fathom, food companies are allowed to use many different names for MSG so you can’t spot it on the label: “natural seasonings”, “natural flavors” and “spices” being a few of the more common. I even found the word “spices” on a bottle of horseradish! Come on, what IS horseradish if NOT a spice by itself? “Dangerous, artificial, flavor enhancing chemical” is what it should say. Anyway, just try to find a bottle of salad dressing without it. It’s not easy!

Like a lot of people, I react to too much MSG – no matter what they’re calling it. It makes me feel like I drank WAAAYYY too much coffee. So I did some research into it and discovered that MSG apparently can also make you fat! In a lab, if they need rats to be fat, they inject them with MSG when they’re young and from then on, the rats are fat. Without some artificial means, you can’t make a rat get fat – by nature, rats only consume enough food to maintain their ideal body weight.

So, are you getting my connection here? In the years that MSG has been used more and more, and people have been eating more and more processed foods, the weight problems more and more people are experiencing have increased. It’s only a hypothesis but there HAS to be something going on and it makes sense to me. I’m also thinking if it strikes women so much more than it does men, there’s most likely a reason, perhaps the hormonal differences between us.

Now, how does this tie in to the purpose of my site, my book and this blog? Well ladies, in the mating/reproductive/survival of the species scheme, your job is to attract as many male admirers as you can, thereby having a lot of options for choosing the mate. It’s all instinctive. Of course, you want to be able to choose a good man, anyway, for your own happiness.

I don’t have to tell you (I will, anyway) that most men are not attracted to women who are overweight. Sure, it’s a “competition” and if you’re only carrying 20 extra pounds, that makes you more attractive than the woman who’s carrying 50 but you’re still going to lose out badly to the women who aren’t hauling around any extra weight. They’ll be choosing from among the best men, while you’re likely to be left with the losers.

This doesn’t make the men happy, either; they’re all competing for the 40-50% who are somewhere close to our ideal – who are sexually attractive. Of course, they’re not exactly ALL competing, though – many have given up.

What can you do? Eat right, cut out the processed and junk foods and cook healthy meals. If you have kids, they’ll do better in school and be better behaved as a bonus. If you’re not cooking, start. If you don’t know how, learn – it’s not that hard. And get some decent exercise along with a decent diet.

And now for a rhetorical question: What’s up with all the overweight – even obese – women wearing tight clothes and spandex? Are they trying to SHOW OFF the bulges, rolls and wrinkles? Frankly, from a man’s point of view, it’s gross!

Owen
www.man2woman.net