Miscellany: Items of interest from the broader church and world

Many agree that the United States has an obesity problem. And it goes beyond this country. “The percentage of obese humans globally has doubled in the past 28 years,” writes Robert H. Lustig in his book Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity and Disease (Hudson Street Press, 2012, $25.95). But not everyone agrees about how to address the problem.

In her review of the book in the June 26 Christian Century, LaVonne Neff writes that “Lustig’s number one concern is health, not weight.” Getting bigger is not the problem, he says. Many people who are obese are metabolically healthy and have normal life spans. But the increase of obesity has been accompanied by an increase in “type 2 diabetes, lipid disorders, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, hypertension, polycystic ovarian disease, heart disease, cancer and possibly dementia,” writes Neff.

What ties these diseases together? Most are associated with “the body’s response to the flood of insulin released to deal with the excess sugars most of us imbibe,” writes Neff.
Lustig argues that many of our health problems today”can be traced to the inordinate amount of fructose—fruit sugar—we consume.”

Much of that comes from high-fructose corn syrup, which the U.S. government subsidizes. It’s a cheap sweetener “used in everything from soft drinks to pasta sauce to whole grain bread,” writes Neff. It’s also in concentrated fruit sweeteners.

Actual fruit is good for us; this stuff isn’t. Lustig writes: ”Our current fructose consumption has increased fivefold compared to 100 years ago, and has more than doubled in the last 30 years.”

Why the increase? Lustig blames the government and the food industry, and he doesn’t hold out much hope for changing either one. Neff writes: ”Makers of convenience foods stuff them with sugar to lengthen shelf life and attract consumers, especially children. Soft drinks and junk foods are readily available in schools and in corner stores pandering to the after-school trade.”

Lustig writes that “there are no government-imposed bans on the marketing of high-sugar-content products to children in the United States.” In May 2012, Chile became the first nation to ban junk food marketing to children.

The Sugar Association, corn growers and many others lobby Congress to keep such bans from happening.

Last year, Mayor Bloomberg of New York tried to ban large containers of soft drinks and was ridiculed by many citizens, who cried out for their freedom to harm themselves.

I have several friends who simply by stopping a daily practice of drinking soft drinks lost a significant number of pounds and—more importantly—felt healthier.

Eliminating fructose from our diet is no easy task, but perhaps we can reduce the amount we use and look for its presence in the food we buy. And if you’re buying something other than fresh fruit and vegetables, it’s likely there in some form.

Despite his pessimistic title, Lustig ends his book on a hopeful note, writes Neff, as he calls on people to make noise. After all, change has happened, such as “bans on smoking in public, the use of designated drivers, airbags in cars, and condom dispensers in public bathrooms. All unfathomable 30 years ago.”

Neff ends her review with a theological reflection: ”We can eat real (not processed) food. We can exercise. We can join with others to demand accountability from the kings and merchants. We can hope for the time when the fruit is restored and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Our faith calls us to care for our own health and the health of others.