(2003-10-28) Szwarc Obesity Fast Food

Sandy Szwarc on Obesity, Fast Food, and Physical Fitness. "Trying to determine THE "calorie culprits" in anyone's weight gain is next to impossible," said Glenn Gaesser... Typically people get fatter - and healthier - during times of prosperity. Weights have steadily increased for the past 120 years... Women with a BMI of 40 have longer life expectancies than "normal" weight men... Their interpretation of their findings was that because we're working longer hours, more women have had to join the workforce, and we're struggling with depressed wages and little real gains in income, the food industry has merely met consumer demand for fast and inexpensive foods. The longer working hours have also reduced Leisure time available for increased physical activity... Bachelors eat the most fast food, followed by families with Pre-School to grade school children... Multiple researchers are finding that Poverty may be the result of obesity. Research by Esther Rothblum, a psychology professor at the University of Vermont, has concluded that being fat makes people "downwardly mobile," because of obstacles they face to education, work and marriage. Other researchers believe the stress of Poverty raises cortisol levels, a stress hormone which promotes fat storage and makes you fat.