Diabetes and obesity therapy has always included a focus on
the importance of diet and exercise, though success on this front for most people
has been elusive (an oft-cited stat: two thirds of people in the US are overweight
or obese, and the highest BMI segments continue to grow the fastest). At this
year’s ADA, which ended Tuesday, we noticed a focus on lifestyle interventions that reaffirmed this
trend (improved diets equal improved weight and glycemic control) and shared a
common plea: improve your diets! However, as noted, behavioral changes have
proven to be exceedingly difficult for Americans to adopt.
Historically, much of the blame has been placed on the patient, widely
considered a consequence of their unwillingness to wean themselves off
hamburgers and lumber off the sofa. We appreciate that the reality is more
complex.
Robert Kenner’s new
politically charged film Food Inc.,
released yesterday in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, puts forward ways
in which the ability to make lifestyle changes is influenced by a higher power:
a highly mechanized food industry that skews the system to bad calories -
unhealthy, artery-clogging, obesity and insulin resistance inducing calories.
In this documentary, author Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) characterizes the food
industry as one that promotes a diet that frequently leads to serious health
problems. For example, in a powerful scene at a youth health community group
(in which topics including diet and exercise are discussed), the group is asked
how many of them have a relative or close family friend with diabetes. Then,
how many had two … then, how many had three. Seeing how many in the room knew
at least three people with diabetes hit home the prevalence of type 2 diabetes
in a way that all the usual statistics do not. The implication of the movie is that the
families of most people in the class cannot afford healthier
foods. In a follow-up segment, Schlosser asserts that the biggest predictor of
obesity is income level and contends that these poor eating habits have
contributed to the epidemic levels of diabetes.
We found Food Inc.
to be an informative, albeit one-sided, commentary on the traditional food industry
and its health consequences. We were happy to hear the mention, although brief,
of the industry’s effect on the current diabetes and obesity epidemics as we
think it will raise further visibility of the problems. While we think this
film has an important message, we would have liked to have seen more explicit
emphasis on the far-reaching effects our eating habits have on healthcare
costs. Ideally, we would like to see much more focus on solutions – perhaps
government programs that could subsidize healthy foods like fruits and
vegetables, and introduce taxation of soft drinks and other unhealthy foods
that contribute to obesity.
- by Tony Sheng, Mark Sorrentino, Jessica Swienckowski, and Kelly Close
