Posted by: Cathy Arnst on August 20
More grim news about the nation's worsening obesity crisis. A state-by-state survey issued yesterday found that adult obesity rates increased in 37 states in the past year. More than 25% of adults are now obese in 28 states, up from 19 states last year. In 1991 no state had an obesity rate above 20%. Today more than 20% of adults are obese in every state except Colorado. Overall, two-thirds of adult Americans are now overweight or obese, and 23 million children (14% of kids age 2-5, 18.8% of those aged 6-11 and 17.4% for teenagers).
There's a widely held view that fat people have no one to blame but themselves--it's all a matter of personal responsibility (just check out some of these comments to my story). But as Kelly Brownell, director of Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy, has asked, "Did we all suddenly become so much more irresponsible over the last 10 years?"
Then there's the assumption that we just aren't exercising enough: Spending too much time in front of TV and computer screens, driving everywhere, cutting phys ed programs. But a study published in the May issue of the International Journal of Obesity found that, on average, we are just as active now as we were in 1980, and expend about the same energy as wild mammals (just look at the proliferation of gyms in your town). The study concludes:
As physical activity expenditure has not declined over the same period that obesity rates have increased dramatically, and daily energy expenditure of modern man is in line with energy expenditure in wild mammals, it is unlikely that decreased expenditure has fueled the obesity epidemic
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So, what is the driver behind all this weight? Corn. We are surrounded and tempted everyday by cheap, sugar-laden processed foods, and cheap processed food is made possible by the advent of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Introduced in the late 1970s, HFCS is a liquid that is much easier to use in manufacturing than beet or cane sugar, with a longer shelf life. It is also much, much cheaper, thanks to the $5 billion or so in corn subsidies the federal government hands out every year. There are no comparable subsidies for fresh fruit, vegetables or protein.
HFCS is the reason you can buy ginormous bags of potato chips, supersized soft drinks and bigger and bigger candy bars, all for very little money. Consequently, Americans now eat about 200 more calories a day each than they did in the 1970s, and the rise in obesity closely tracks the rise in the use of HFCS.
The U.S. government shelled out $37.3 billion in corn subsidies between 1995 and 2003. Add that to the $61 billion a year the nation spends on the direct health-care costs of obesity, and you can see how much this gift to farmers is costing the nation. If corn subsidies were ended, or junk food taxed, there might be some price parity with healthier foods (just as smoking declines when cigarette taxes are imposed, and $4 gas prices cause people to drive less). But as long as Iowa holds the nation's first primary, it is unlikely we will ever see a politician courageous enough to call for an end to farm subsidies. Anyone have another suggestion about how to combat cheap junk food?
For the full state-by-state report on obesity, click here. You should also check out an interactive map that shows how your state has done over time. Or look at the BusinessWeek slide show of the 10 best and worst states. And here’s a calculator for figuring out your own body/mass index.
Posted by: Cathy Arnst on August 15
If you are one of the millions of consumers taken in by the many ads and testimonials claiming that those ubiquitous orange Airborne tablets prevent colds, relief is at hand. In a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the company has agreed to make amends for false claims by refunding up to $30 million to consumers who bought the pills.
"There is no credible evidence that Airborne products . . . will reduce the severity or duration of colds, or provide any tangible benefit for people who are exposed to germs in crowded places," said Lydia Parnes, director of the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Consumers who bought Airborne products between 2001 and 2008 have until Sept. 15 to apply for a refund for as many as six purchases. The company says it will pay claims by Oct. 15, 2008. If you're eligible to file a claim, go to www.airbornehealthsettlement.com for more information.
For background on the charges against the product check out the informative blog terra sigillata, by a pharmacologist, which pulls apart false claims made on behalf of natural remedies (in fact, he pulls apart false medical claims in general--a blog worth bookmarking). Airborne is one of the many so-called "natural" products on the market whose makers claim, or at least imply, that they can do better than any prescription or over-the-counter medicine created by the evil pharmaceutical industry. Would that it were true. Airborne got an extra boost of credibility because it was "created by a teacher"! The nurse at my daughter's school recommended it for just that reason, and I, lemming-like, bought the product as a result. Why a teacher would know more about cold prevention than doctors I'm not sure, but millions like me chose to believe.
It's not that I think chemical drugs are the be-all and end-all. TV ads are replete with inflated claims about pharmaceuticals. But at least there is some regulation over the contents and safety of any product that went through the Food & Drug Administration. My problem with natural remedies such as vitamins and herbs is that their contents, and for the most part their claims, are unregulated. The FTC can only step in if claims are made about curing or treating a disease, but most of these companies tread a fine line just this side of out-right lying.
For an in-depth look at the tawdry history and false claims of the herbal remedy industry, read Natural Causes: Death, Lies and Politics in America's Vitamin and Herbal Supplement Industry, by Dan Hurley. I blogged about the book and this issue last year in the entry Colds, Flu and Snake Oil. I know it may seem counter-intuitive to reject herbs and vitamins as bad for you, but in many, many cases they are. At best, they might confer a placebo effect.
So remember, as your kids return to school, that there no known preventives or cures for the common cold, other than good hygiene. Vitamin C, Echinacea, cough syrups--all worthless. For myths and facts about the common cold, visit this site maintained by the American Lung Association.
By the way, the one natural remedy that does seem to help a cold is mother's own--chicken soup. University of Nebraska researcher Dr. Stephen Rennard discovered in 2000 that this age-old treatment may stimulate the anti-inflammatory system, thus relieving symptoms. For his recipe, via his Grandma, click here (though he does point out that other recipes, and even store-bought soup, work just as well).
Posted by: Anne Newman on August 14
A revival of black blues music from Piedmont Virginia was the last thing I expected to find as I stepped into my father’s homeplace for the first time in more than 45 years. Little did I dream as a child that one day the modest house, nestled in the whisper of a village on the North Carolina border, would hold the memories of two vastly different but equally proud oral traditions: the tales of my family, whose English ancestors arrived near Jamestown in 1618, and those of blues musician James Arthur “Boo” Hanks, an octogenarian who plays a classic style made famous by Blind Boy Fuller—and who’s set to appear next Sunday, Aug. 24, at New York’s Lincoln Center Out Of Doors 25th Annual Roots of American Music Festival.
For 21st century families, the discoveries made on a blue highways road trip can be magnified by the lens of the Internet. For my two children, my husband, and myself, a trip last summer to my 92-year-old father’s home village continues to take turns that surprise us. While we met the current resident of the house, Tony, and were delighted to see his renovations (and the out-of-tune piano and stool I used to spin around on as a kid), we also came away with the debut CD he helped nurture of Boo Hanks’ music. An aficionado of black blues, Tony had played host to blues sessions at our old homeplace, where more than half a century ago my grandfather, a 1906 graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, and his wife welcomed members of the church he ministered.
Now, from our home in New Jersey, we can track Boo’s progress as he plays in venues from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in May to Paris this summer via the Web site of the Music Maker Relief Foundation. With such high-powered advisory board members as B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, and Jackson Browne, the Hillsborough (N.C.)-based nonprofit “helps the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern music gain recognition and meet their day-to-day needs,” according to its Web site. The group specifically seeks musicians over 55 with annual incomes of less than $18,000. In addition to Hanks, the Music Maker Revue in New York will feature six musicians, from Alabama Slim to Big Ron Hunter who, like Hanks, cut his first CD late in life.
How surprising can these Internet-powered family journeys be? It was only tonight, as I was drilling through the Web to nail down research for this item, that I discovered Hanks will be playing next Sunday just blocks from my Manhattan office. And with software like Family Tree Maker or open-source sites like Utah-based Neumont University’s PhPGed View project, it’s possible to continually unearth new information about ancestors long ago. But users beware: Open source is not always solid source--there's plenty of competing information out there. Tonight, for example, while exploring the Utah-based site, I learned that Robert Newman, one among 150 out of 180 to survive the voyage to America, sailed in a ship called the “Neptune” and lived in 1623 in Elizabeth Cittie with 6 other people. Yet, thanks to the leather-bound Newman Story first published in 1958, I’ve read since childhood that it was the “Furtherance” that bore my ancestor to America and that he lived in a place called Basse’s Choice. That seems to be corroborated by Family Tree Maker.
A trove of stories about Southern roots can be found at the Southern Oral History Program, a 35-year-old institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that was the 1999 recipient of the National Humanities Medal. But what about families of recent immigrants or, like my husband's family, those who came through Ellis Island in the wave of migration from Europe at the turn of the last century? My husband has mined online records of Ellis Island for information about his Eastern European ancestors on such free sites as www.ellisisland.org, Mormon-run www.familysearch.org, and the more general www.cyndislist.com, as well as fee-based sites such as www.genealogy.org and www.ancestry.com.
And what about those blue highways? Personally, I think nothing can take the place of family road trips. Who knows, you might stumble on the next new act to play Lincoln Center.
Reader, please share your stories about your family time travel.
Posted by: Cathy Arnst on August 13
Fellow blogger Lauren Young celebrated the Olympic athletes who are also mothers in the previous post. I'm equally in awe of the moms, and dads, of the athletes. As sappy and intentionally manipulative as it is, I do find myself getting choked up whenever NBC focuses on one of the parents in the stands, living the triumphs and spills along with their child. I am in awe of the sacrifices they had to make to get their kid to this one, shining moment--or this one internationally televised failure. Look at Debbie Phelps, mother of swimming phenom Michael Phelps. Sure, she is basking in the reflected glory of her son's gazillion gold medals (what's the point of putting in a number; he'll add another one tomorrow). But think of how many hundreds of hours this divorced, working mother had to spend poolside while he practiced and raced. Plus, she had to battle educators who thought, because Michael had ADHD, that he would amount to nothing.
And there's the expense. The cost of raising a child prodigy can be astronomical. Add up the tennis court or ice rink fees for the casual athlete, and multiply that 1000 fold. Then add in coaches, clothes, equipment. Over at the website MomsTeam, for parents of young athletes, blogger Lucy Ferris writes about the cost of raising an elite athlete:
It’s going to be expensive. In case you started reading this article hoping to hear otherwise, let me disabuse you of any such notions right now...At the so-called elite level, the level of national and international competition, the level where it becomes understandable that a young athlete would concentrate on one sport, we are a nation of elites, and the phenomenon is fueled by private coaches, private clubs, corporate sponsorship, and parental sacrifice... For the middle-class American parent with a wildly ambitious and reasonably talented child, the competition is daunting. At the age of nine or ten, a golfer or swimmer may pull away from the pack because of talent and focus. By the age of twelve or thirteen, all the golfers or swimmers at his or her level will be talented and focused, and it will be the ones with superior training and resources—including hefty financial resources—who pull away from that pack.
It is common during Olympic Games to hear about families moving to Florida, Arizona or even France so their child can get the proper training (I remember one winter Olympics the family of a Romanian ice skater sold their business and moved to Vancouver so she could get proper training. She didn't win any medals). Professional tennis and golf players start on an intensive traveling schedule while still children. Anyone with a kid on a traveling soccer team can just imagine the resources needed to support that kind of lifestyle. And it's not just the money--think of the parents' time, indeed the whole family's time and emotional resources, all devoted to seeing this one child succeed. Most of those sacrifices will be for naught, since there are very few who will rise to the level of a Michael Phelps, Roger Federer or Tiger Woods.
Even the kids who are striving for little more than a college scholarship will find little reward at the end of the training session, according to this New York Times story, Expectations Lose To Reality of Sports Scholarships. The article reveals that the average value of a college athletic scholarship is only $8,707. That won't cover tuition at most state schools.
I'm sure it's beyond rewarding to sit in the stands and cheer your child to yet another Olympic medal. Is it worth all the sacrifices? Probably, if you're Debbie Phelps. But if your child didn't make the cut for the Olympic team, it might be a harder call. I want my daughter to develop intense passions; I want to cheer her on at her dance performances, violin recitals, running events, science fairs. Do I want her to be a child prodigy? Not so sure. Anyone out there with experience raising a prodigy care to comment?
Posted by: Lauren Young on August 12
Like many (female) Olympic viewers, I am a sucker for Michael Phelps, but the other Olympian I am rooting for is gymnast Oksana Chusovitina. Chusovitina is 33, which makes her a dinosaur in her sport.
She is also a working mom who is competing in her fifth Olympics, a record appearance at the games.
What makes Chusovitina’s story especially compelling is that she has been motivated to work at an age when many other gymnasts are retired to support her family. A native of Uzbekistan, Chusovitina competed first for the U.S.S.R., pre-breakup. Later in her career, she was forced to leave her homeland after her son Alisher was diagnosed with leukemia in October 2002. Chusovitina initially took Alisher to Moscow for treatment, but after learning that the hospital wanted an upfront payment and couldn't guarantee proper care, she went to Cologne, Germany where she had friends. The global gymnastics community donated about $200,000 to defray the costs of Alisher's treatment; Chusovitina ended up becoming a German citizen.
And she continued to compete because the prize money she earned paid for Alisher’s care. "If I don't compete then my son won't live; it's as simple as that," the 27-year-old Chusovitina told Reuters in 2002. "My son underwent an operation, and the only reason he managed to get that treatment is because I am earning money.”
Even if she doesn't win one on the mat, this mom deserves a gold medal. Elsewhere in the blogosphere, blogger Elizabeth F. at The Whole Family says she is worthy of mother of the year, too boot. And Mother Talkers has an interesting take on Olympic moms.
Which athletes have captivated you during this Olympics? Have any working parents caught your eye? (Cue Olympic theme song...)
