Why Girth Rates Are Increasing Despite More Diets
and Weight Loss Products

By Amy Scholten, M.P.H.

As the number of weight loss diets, diet foods and weight pills has expanded, so have the waistlines of millions of Americans. Though we have more nutrition information at our disposal than ever before, it doesn’t seem to be making much difference. Are our genes responsible for our wider jeans? Are environmental toxins slowing our metabolisms? Is increasing girth a sign that our bodies are somehow “under attack?”

What’s the mystery behind the incredible expanding American?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, two-thirds of Americans are now overweight. From 1950 to 2000, obesity rose by 214 percent. Let’s face it—we know that we should eat more fresh vegetables and fewer French fries. And we have more low fat, low calorie products on the market than ever before. Why hasn’t this had a positive impact on the average American’s food choices or weight?

Increase in Prevalence (%) of Overweight (BMI > 25) Obesity (BMI > 30 and Severe Obesity (BMI > 40) Among U.S. Adults
	Overweight BMI > 25	Obesity (BMI > 30)	Severe Obesity (BMI > 40)
1999 - 2000	64.5	30.5	4.7
1988 - 1994	56.0	23.0	2.9
1976 - 1980	46.0	14.4	No Data
1964 - 1970	39.5	11.3	No Data
1950 - 1960	33.0	9.7	No Data
Source: CDC, National Center for Health Statistics; National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Health, United States, 2002, Flegal et al, JAMA, 2002-288:1723-7, NIH, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Clinical Guidelines on the Identification, Evaluation and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults, 1998

The problem isn’t genetic...fortunately! The obesity epidemic has blossomed only during the past couple of decades. “Fat genes” have not been magically introduced into the population during this time. What has occurred during this time are a number of environmental changes that are creating what could be considered toxic lifestyles—toxic because of their ultimate effects on individuals and society.

America Runs on…

The Dunkin Donuts slogan “America Runs on Dunkin’,” says a mouthful of what’s going on in our society. First we need to ask ourselves a serious question: Why are we always running and what are we running from…or toward? It’s obvious that since the 1950s, the pace of life has greatly increased. More of us are running from job to job, from crowded interstates to lonely suburbs, from relationship to relationship, from uprooted community to uprooted community, and from multi-tasked after school activities to mind-numbing pleasure-plexes of homogenized mall sprawl. Cars, highways and fast food drive-thrus help us run through our (sedentary) lives even faster. Cell phones and email help us to communicate quickly in sound-bite style to those with whom we no longer have time for face-to-face conversations.

Dunkin’ Do-Nuts

Next we need to ask: Now that we have become human doings (“do nuts”) instead of human beings, how are we nourishing ourselves? Infatuation with speed has led many of us to become dependent on calorie-laden fast food and convenience food. But marathon living hasn’t necessarily led to increased satisfaction. Many report feeling more stressed, more rushed, more alienated, more anxious and more depressed—in short, more hungry—than ever before. And with a plethora of tasty sugar-laden, high-fat food tempting us on every corner, food has become the new drug—the legal way to get an endorphin rush…albeit temporarily. Yet it doesn’t really make us happy—only overweight and addicted.

Does drive-thru living really nourish us? Does it replace the satisfaction of healthy long-term relationships, meaningful conversation, fulfilling work, communing with nature, creativity, and time for reflection and just being? Do we really taste our lives anymore?

As writer Anne Morrow Lindbergh once said “This is not the life of simplicity but the life of multiplicity that the wise men warn us of. It leads not to unification but to fragmentation. It does not bring grace; it destroys the soul.”

Still the Land of Choice

Though many of us feel like choice-less victims of the amped up Great American Treadmill, we have more power than we realize. First and foremost we have the power to choose what we put in our mouths. Second, we have the power to choose to deeply reflect on our lives (not the lives society tells us we should have) and honor the things that truly fulfill us. This is not always quick and easy. It’s much easier to distract ourselves with those M&Ms…but we’ve seen where that has gotten us!

In short, we should be happy that the obesity problem isn’t all about genetics.

Amy Scholten, M.P.H. is the president of Inner Medicine Publishing and author of The Inner Medicine Permanent Weight Control Program.