Boston Globe: France’s food fight

[marmar]

France’s food fight

By Derrick Z. Jackson
Globe Columnist / April 17, 2010


SEBASTIEN CZERNICHOW is a French nutrition researcher cheering on America’s flurry of federal, state, and local laws and initiatives against obesity. What some call the food police, he calls progress. The prevalence of obesity in his nation is leveling off after a decade of government interventions.

“I want to be cautious, but we’re seeing early signs that even though we’re still having a global rise in prevalence, we may have created a protective environment in France,’’ said Czernichow.

In the United States, the fattest developed nation in the world, the new national health care law calls for large restaurant chains to post calorie counts on menus and signs, similar to what Massachusetts and other states and cities have already mandated. First Lady Michelle Obama’s obesity crusade has soda companies playing defense, running ads to boast how they are removing sugary drinks from schools.

....(snip)....

Czernichow said he wonders if the United States will see those effects, especially after recently eating in Boston restaurants. Massachusetts is the second-least obese state in the nation, yet, Czernichow observed: “The energy density of the food in your restaurants is so high and the portion sizes are amazing, not only for fast foods, but in your healthier seafood restaurants. I ordered swordfish at one restaurant and the dinner would have fed me, my wife and my two kids.

“I had lunch in the South End. What you call appetizers, we call dinner. The salad was so high on my plate. I talked with the waiter and we laughed because I thought I was on some kind of reality show with a hidden TV camera, seeing how much I would eat.’’ Even as Czernichow laughs, it makes you question whether our patchwork of initiatives can work in the fight against fat. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/04/17/frances_food_fight/

[CTyankee]

1. That recent study showing obese rats went on a hunger "strike" when

their diets were switched from high fat and sugar to healthy. They were starving themselves rather than eat the healthy food...

Now that's pretty sobering if that can apply to humans. I fear the worst...the food industry here has succeeded in addicting people to obesity inducing foods...god, how I hate them (industry people not their obese victims).

[marmar]

2. "I fear the worst...the food industry here has succeeded in addicting people...."

I fear you're right. I know how tough it is to battle my own cravings for salty, sugary foods.

[CTyankee]

3. When I quit smoking, I did so primarily because I no longer wanted to be regarded as a smoker.

Smokers were beginning to be regarded not as sophisticated, smart people but grubby people who were losers. I could smell the nicotine on my outer clothes but also on my pantyhose! I had a new relationship with a nonsmoker (he's now my husband) and I wanted to change for the sake of that relationship. Once I made up my mind, I never picked up a cigarette again...and I didn't miss them...

I think that is the key to giving up something you like: you have to like the opposite better. You have to have a strong motivation to want something else. Sometimes it isn't really an "intellectual" decision, but much more complicated with emotions and what you deem your needs. Only when that happens, IMO, can a change in bad habits take place...I tried for several years to "cut down" or quit but only when I made the decision "I am not a smoker" did that happen. Funny, my father did the same thing. My mother had a "kick in the pants" from a doctor who gave her the direst of warnings while she was in a hospital bed after a middle of the night rush to the hospital with a bleeding ulcer that nearly killed her...