Food Porn Addiction
Posted on: Friday, 16 May 2008, 18:00 CDT
Americans sure do pop a lot of pills.
This week an insurer called Medco Health Solutions Inc. released a survey indicating that more than half of all insured Americans take prescription drugs regularly for chronic conditions.
The most widely used drugs are those to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol - problems often linked to heart disease, obesity and diabetes, The Associated Press reported.
In part, the study reflects good news: more drugs are available that actually do what they're supposed to do, helping people to manage dangerous physical problems.
The main message, however, is thoroughly negative: Millions of Americans live unhealthy lives, and our health care system treats their symptoms rather than altering the underlying causes.
Had our culture been invented specifically to produce obese, diabetic couch potatoes, it could not be better suited to that end. Supermarkets' aisles bulge with high-calorie, low-nutrition processed food products. A multibillion dollar advertising industry pushes what the Center for Science in the Public Interest calls food porn. A typical example is Burger King's Quad Stacker, a single sandwich that boasts 1,000 calories and more than a day's worth of fat and sodium.
Meanwhile, public space is built around the needs of cars and private space is designed around the television. Exercise has to be planned, instead of being something that happens as a normal consequence of living life.
Americans who want to stay fit must fight a constant battle against their environment. And even if they win, they still have to pay their share of rising health insurance costs along with their less-healthy brethren.
Libertarians argue that government action against these trends would interfere with individuals' rights to choose. However, behavioral economists - and normal human beings - have long known that appetites often trump rational self-interest. Advertisers aren't appealing to cost-benefit calculation when they show images of piping-hot pizzas or glistening milkshakes. They're appealing to our most basic drives. And if a few million consumers become diabetic or suffer heart attacks as a result, well, that's just the price of doing business.
Ultimately, an unhealthy food environment is a form of pollution. Individual companies benefit, while society pays the costs. Much could be done to reduce that pollution, however, from reducing federal subsidies for corn production to improving nutrition education.
The typical American should be someone whose days are filled with health and energy, not a handful of pills.
(c) 2008 Intelligencer Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Intelligencer Journal
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds