Archive

Posts Tagged ‘Obesity’
September 3rd, 2013 at 1:17 pm
It’s good that people are taller, but it’s great that people are fatter

The average European man has grown 4.33 inches taller in the past 100 years, according to a new study produced by the University of Essex and the Australian National University in Canberra. Researchers cite a previously demonstrated link between decreased infant mortality and increased height as one reason for the growth spurt. The study’s author, Timothy Hatton, also says smaller family sizes are related to an increase in height, as are improved food availability and disease reduction.

News of the increase in average height has been met with cheers by American media. After all, it reflects a significant improvement in health — at least among European males, the focus of the study. Oddly, the media refused to celebrate last year when a British medical journal reported that obesity is now a bigger health crisis globally than hunger.

Malnutrition and other hunger-related illnesses have killed more people throughout human history than any other cause. Now, thanks to the development of high-yield, disease-resistant crops, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides — not to mention the increase in capitalism and free trade throughout the world — there is more than enough food to feed every person on Earth. Hunger and malnutrition today are almost exclusively a result of failed government food distribution policies.

The increase in height brought on by lower infant mortality rates and smaller families is exciting news. But it pales in comparison to the fact that, because of cheap, easily available food made possible through private innovation and market forces, humans throughout the world are now living longer and healthier than ever before.

And that obesity epidemic? Well, it turns out that it has been greatly exaggerated.

The average European man has grown 4.33 inches taller in the past 100 years, according to a new study produced by the University of Essex and the Australian National University in Canberra. Researchers cite a previously demonstrated link between decreased infant mortality and increased height as one reason for the growth spurt. The study’s author, Timothy Hatton, also says smaller family sizes are related to an increase in height, as are improved food availability and disease reduction.
News of the increase in average height has been met with cheers by American media. After all, it reflects a significant improvement in health — at least among European males, the focus of the study. Oddly, the media refused to celebrate last year when a British medical journal reported that obesity is now a bigger health crisis globally than hunger.
Malnutrition and other hunger-related illnesses have killed more people throughout human history than any other cause. Now, thanks to increase in the development of high-yield, disease-resistant crops, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides — not to mention the increase of capitalism and free trade throughout the world — there is more than enough food to feed every person on Earth. Hunger and malnutrition today are almost exclusively a result of failed government food distribution policies.
The increase in height brought on by lower infant mortality rates and smaller families is exciting news. But it pales in comparison to the fact that, because of cheap, easily available food made possible through private innovation and market forces, humans throughout the world are now living longer and healthier than ever before.
And that obesity epidemic? Well, it turns out that it has been greatly exaggerated.
December 21st, 2011 at 5:50 pm
Michelle Obama’s Food Nannying Leading to Black Markets in Public Schools
Posted by Print

Conservatives (myself included) have had a lot of fun over the past few years taking shots at First Lady Michelle Obama’s efforts to get Americans — particularly schoolchildren — to eat healthier food. Usually, however, the criticism is at a fairly abstract level, focusing on the administration’s seemingly endless appetite for nanny-state interventions. But as Michelle Malkin notes, the First Lady’s impact goes well beyond giving hectoring speeches … and the results aren’t pretty:

According to a weekend report by the Los Angeles Times, the city’s “trailblazing introduction of healthful school lunches has been a flop.” In response to the public hectoring and financial inducement of Mrs. Obama’s federally subsidized anti-obesity campaign, the district dropped chicken nuggets, corn dogs, and flavored milk from the menu for “beef jambalaya, vegetable curry, pad Thai, lentil and brown rice cutlets, and quinoa and black-eyed pea salads.”

Sounds delectable in theory. But in practice, the initiative has been what L.A. Unified’s food-services director Dennis Barrett plainly concludes is a “disaster.” While the Obama administration has showered the nation’s second-largest school district with nutrition awards, thousands of students voted with their upset tummies and abandoned the program. A forbidden-food black market — stoked not just by students, but also by teachers — is now thriving. Moreover, “principals report massive waste, with unopened milk cartons and uneaten entrees being thrown away.”

The story goes on to report that L.A. Unified produces a staggering 21,000 uneaten meals every day, partially because the healthy fare is so unpalatable; this while the woman spearheading this initiative is choking down 1,700 calories a sitting in her down time.

Of course, fairness compels us to admit that the First Lady’s diet habits are none of our business. But we’re not planning on butting out of her life until she returns the favor.

July 20th, 2011 at 3:06 pm
Soda Companies Fight Back Against the Regulatory State

What to do when your industry is singled out by government regulators as a threat to public health?  If you’re in the soft drink industry, use the Freedom of Information Act against state and local governments to get documents that show how regulators use taxpayer dollars to attack legal commercial enterprises.

Earlier this month, the American Beverage Association sued New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which has been at the forefront of education efforts in the fight against obesity. The ABA says the city improperly withheld documents it sought through the Freedom of Information Act.

ABA spokesman Chris Gindlesperger said his group made the same request as the New York Times, but that the newspaper received more information than the ABA.

“Public health departments are going out and aggressively misrepresenting our products in advertising and using taxpayer money to do that,” Gindlesperger said.

Big government advocates are complaining that the FOI requests are “an effort to overwhelm or smother government employees, who already have too much to do.”

Then again, maybe those same government employees could lighten their load a bit by stopping the PR campaign against an industry selling a legal product to satisfied consumers.

November 22nd, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Arizona Schools to Promote Health by Shaming Fat Kids
Posted by Print

An item from the Daily Caller:

Chubby elementary school children in Flagstaff, Ariz., have more than just bullies to worry about. If they’re too fat, their school will notify their parents.

Starting in the fall, students in the Flagstaff district will be weighed and measured at school. Students who are found to be overweight, marginally overweight, or underweight will have a letter sent home to their parents, which will include graphs showing a range of appropriate weights for a given age and height.

The Flagstaff District might want to consider placing a call to the TSA before implementing this policy. Americans have limited patience for inconvient and unnecessary big government. But when it’s humiliating and unnecessary … well, the pitchforks are on their way.