PHIL’S CORNER

by Phil Carville | Co-Owner South Yuba Club

Last month I talked about how physical activity determines body weight. Increased activity yields lower, healthy weight, and decreased activity creates high, unhealthy weight. I had promised to talk about food and diet this month.

SICK

Yesterday in the grocery store, I saw a woman with two children in line.  Her shopping cart was overflowing with packaged/processed industry ‘food stuffs’ – chips, soda, pre-made meals, canned items – and no fresh fruit or vegetables in sight.

She was about thirty years old, 5’ 5” and weighed over 250 pounds. Her two young children were overweight bordering on obesity. I don’t know if she understood that the ‘calories’ (foods) she was buying were essentially poisons that are ruining her health and that of her children.

Would she purchase those items if she knew it was a toxic ‘alphabetic soup’? A is for Arthritis, B is for Blood pressure, C is for Cancer, D is for Diabetes, E is for Encephalopathy, F is for low Fertility and so on all the way to XYZ. Would she make some changes if she knew the implications.

MISCONCEPTION

Sometimes it is hard to put calories into perspective. Studies have shown that stating the number of calories on food packages sometimes increases consumption. People see ‘one serving’ in a package has only 300 calories – but there are 20-servings in the package. She thinks “Wow, 300-calories is low, I think I will buy two packages.”  – not knowing that two packages are seven days of a woman’s daily calorie requirement.

DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING

Big Food, Big Soda, and Big Alcohol fear regulation, so they have followed the Big Tobacco strategy which is to deliberately suppress and undermine scientific evidence. Big Tobacco’s classic trope was ‘personal responsibility’ which is ‘if people understand the risk, they should be free to purchase tobacco’.

This is fine, but people do not understand the risks. No purveyor of unhealthy products wants the public to know the truth. The goal is to keep the public in the dark.

In 1967 when a court ruled that the tobacco industry had to run one ad stating the dangers of tobacco use for every four ads marketing tobacco on radio and TV.  Big Tobacco knew they could not compete with the truth, so that stopped all radio and TV advertising. Yes, keep the public in the dark.

TRUTHFUL ADVERTISING

American tobacco packages have a small text warning that tobacco could harm your health. However, tobacco packaging in Canada has a large picture on the package of the consequences of tobacco use: for example, a picture of a gaunt smoker lying in bed about to die, or a gaping open cancerous tongue, or my favorite – a drooping cigarette with a caption “Tobacco use can make you impotent”.

AMERICAN DIET

The leading cause of death in the United States is the American diet. The goal of the food industry is not to make people fat, but to make money. Unfortunately, the way to make money is to increase ingredients like salt, fat, sugar, caffeine, and flavor enhancing chemicals. Job security for food industry executives depends on quarterly profits for shareholders – not on the quarterly health of customers.

The woman in the grocery line does not understand that her obese children will face job insecurity, discrimination, lower lifetime wages, other financial hardship, and the pain and suffering of early onset diseases. These are avoidable personal tragedies.

Nationally, the cost weight-related disease and diminished productivity exceeds $220,000/person. The Milken Institute estimates that obesity is more than a trillion-dollar drag on the economy –more than what we spend on national defense.

YOUR HEALTH

The Covid-19 pandemic is over, and you can make two big ‘Resolutions’ for 2023.
First, educate yourself on good food vs. bad and stay away from ‘heavily process food stuffs’.
Second, get back to exercising again. You know what to do. Just do it!
We live in a wonderful, vibrant, and diverse community. Let us appreciate and make the most of it… by taking care of yourself and your family. You are wonderful and 2023 will be great. Enjoy!

Phil Carville is a co-owner of the South Yuba Club. He is happy to respond to questions or comments.
He can be reached at philc@southyubaclub.com.