Unhealthy Food Choices: Privilege or Right?

This photo was featured on the L.A. Times opinion blog referenced below. I'm using it here to illustrate a point.

Today's rant is brought to you courtesy of an L.A. Times opinion blog post that one of my friends shared today on Facebook. For those of you short on time or interest, I'll spare you the details and get to the point: A Florida senator wrote a bill to restrict what recipients of federal aid can buy with that money. By federal aid, the senator means food stamps or what we call "EBT" where I live. The bill would prevent the use of EBT in restaurants or on most foods not found in the meat, dairy and produce aisles. The Times' editorial board has called the bill socialistic. Some Times readers commented that recipients of food stamps are eating on the taxpayers' dime and therefore, don't have the luxury of free will when it comes to what to buy.

The Times hasn't asked what I think, but I have my own blog so I get to share my opinion anyway.
I have never set foot in the state of Florida so I can't speak to its system. But I am a native of California's Central Valley and know a thing or do about how public assistance works here.The food-stamp program has changed a lot over the last few years. Marketing efforts have given it a new image. It's now officially called CalFresh, which complements CalWorks, the new name for cash aid. If you visit the CalFresh website, you'll see the state wants recipients to make good food choices and strives to educate them on how to stretch those free food dollars the furthest. In addition to being able to use your EBT card at Jack in the Box, you can also use it to buy cheap fresh fruits and vegetables at our local farmers' markets. Welfare has come a long way, baby!

Despite all this education and glitzy marketing, obesity still reigns supreme. Local university researchers are amazed at the number of children with obesity-related co-morbidities such as high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes. Sadly, most of those obese children come from homes with CalFresh assistance. And their obesity is evidence that healthy eating is not the norm. This proves that education (the Times' suggested solution) alone is not the answer. Knowing what to eat and feed to your family and actually taking the time to do it are two different things.

My knee-jerk reaction is to say forget choice and dictate every singe morsel purchased with public funds, if for no other reason than to serve the taxpayers' best interests. Obesity is expensive. Obese children become obese teens and later, morbidly obese adults. Obesity-related illnesses are expensive to manage and treat. But that reaction comes from the perspective of my inner 200-pound child, who still remembers the emotional and physical challenges of growing up poor and obese.

As much as I want to save our future generation from the curse of obesity, I know that children are at the mercy of the adults in their lives. American adults will stop at nothing to get what they want when they want it. I can remember as a child, seeing people in the grocery store parking lot trade food stamps for cigarettes. If this Florida bill were to gain steam and become law, food-stamp recipients wouldn't instantly become Jamie Oliver's newest converts. They would just find a way to trade those EBT dollars for the unpermitted foods they want. Instead of trading food stamps for cigarettes, people would start trading them for jelly doughnuts and potato chips.

So, if I'm saying education isn't the answer, and mandating the purchase of healthy foods isn't the answer, then what IS the answer? I wish I knew. If I did, I could use my public relations background to market it and pat myself on the back all the way to the bank.

Nutrition education and activism must continue, and each of us must lead by example. When we step up to the plate to make better choices for ourselves, we serve as an example to those around us. So the solution lies within each of us and what we buy at the store for our household, because that dictates the food served in our home and to our household guests.

Dinner time at your house may be the first time your child's favorite playmate ever lays eyes on roasted asparagus or green beans that weren't victimized by the canning process. That playmate might bravely try that asparagus, like it and go home and tell his family about it. And who knows? Maybe asparagus will makes its way to their dinner table the following week. You never know. So the next time you have company over for dinner -- whether adult friends or kid friends -- consider making dinner instead of ordering takeout, and watch for the ripple effect.

AP: Liver Disease Plagues Overweight Kids

This story from the Associated Press is sobering. Docs are finding the need for children to have liver transplants is increasing, thanks to obesity. As a fat kid, I knew the mantra of the time that I would grow out of it, that I was just big-boned or my personal favorite, that I may be big but at least I was healthy, was a gigantic load of crap.

Too bad it's taken 20 years for medical professionals to put two and two together on that one.

2007 Walk From Obesity

Mark your calendars: The 2007 Livermore Walk From Obesity will be from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 6.

Money raised from the three-mile walk will benefit the ASBS Foundation and the Obesity Action Coalition. The ASBS Foundation is the nonprofit arm of the American Society of Bariatric Surgeons, and it has done a lot in the way of advocacy on behalf of the morbidly obese. According to the foundation, it "is serious about improving the lives of the morbidly obese by focusing on ... Increased funding of research specifically in morbid obesity (and) increased public and professional education."

OAC is an advocacy group that fights on behalf of anyone who is obese or touched by obesity. The nonprofit's goals are as follows:

* Educate patients, family members and the general public on obesity and its effects on the healthcare community.
* Help patients gain access to medical treatment for obesity.
* Work to ensure that those obesity treatments are safe and effective.
* Strive to eliminate the negative stigma associated with obesity.
* Elevate and empower obese individuals to take action that makes a difference in their lives and the lives of others.

The walk is not exclusively for thin people or for obese people. It's not for bariatric patients or those on weight-loss programs. It's open to everyone who has a desire to help put an end to this debilitating disease. As one item I read said, "We walk on behalf of those who cannot because obesity has robbed them of their mobility or their lives."

As I've blogged about before, fighting the disease of obesity and advocating for those afflicted with it is very important to me. I don't think there is another cause that I can say incites such passion in me. And I am thankful that gastric-bypass surgery has given me the ability to fight this fight for those who cannot.

I am volunteering to help organize the event in addition to organizing a local team. If you are interested in participating in the team, want to organize one of your own, or want to volunteer to help plan it, let me know and I will get you the details. I don't have the details on fundraising requirements, but I believe each walker is expected to raise at least $100.

If you are outside of the East Bay Area, there may be a walk scheduled for your area. Visit the walk's site for further information. It's not yet updated with dates for all the walks, but that should happen by next week.

Paying it Forward

My health scare in January has led me to reevaluate a lot of things in my life. I took advantage of the month I was off work to examine my priorities and determine whether they were in line with my values. Since then, I've made the appropriate changes. Some decisions were easier than others.

For instance, I realized that not only do I love my job and people for whom I work, but working at the Tracy Press also fulfills me. Truly, I'm a lucky person. Few people are lucky enough to love what they do. I need to appreciate being among the few in this case.

Loving my job was an easy realization to come to. The more difficult ones have to do with what I want outside of professional circles. There needs to be more to me than just a journalist. After all, having interests outside of our careers is what makes us well-rounded as humans. It gives us context and passion -- all things that are very important.

One thing I know for sure is that I want to take a more active role in advocacy for the obese. More than 60 percent of U.S. residents suffer from the disease of obesity, which means every man, woman and child in this country is touched by the disease. Yet even today, it remains one of the few areas where discrimination is prevalent and accepted. And that has to stop.

Having lost almost 200 pounds, much of which I had carried on my 5-foot, 3-inch frame since childhood, I have two choices: I can let my "normal" exterior fool me and those I meet by pretending I never had a weight problem, or I can use the experience and my newfound energy and mobility to help others. I've chosen the latter.

Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions, and it's time more people speak out against it as well. The Tracy Hospital Foundation has embarked on an education campaign that includes billboards around town. They help, but more has to be done. It's not fair or realistic to leave the fight up to medical professionals, schools and legislators. As someone who suffered through childhood obesity, I think I have a lot to bring to this particular fight -- and I intend to make my voice heard.

The first step I plan to take in my personal fight against obesity will be participation in the American Society of Bariatric Surgeons' Walk From Obesity. The nationwide event raises money to fund obesity research and advocacy efforts. Walks will be scheduled all over the country in September and October. Specific dates and locations will be announced in May. Keep reading here for more details.

Pictures say 1,000 words

Risks of dying from obesity higher than that of bariatric surgery

Researchers from the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, Conn., report that the risk of dying from morbid obesity is 50 to 85 percent higher than the risk of dying from bariatric surgery.Scientists announced the study findings at the 23rd Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery in San Francisco this past week.

“Morbid obesity is a killer disease that requires intervention,” said Dr. Randolph B. Reinhold, lead author and chairman of Saint Raphael’s surgery department, in a prepared statement. “This study puts into perspective that for some people, the risk of not having surgery is higher than having surgery.”

According to a press release from the society, the study evaluated 1,185 morbidly obese patients from 1997 to 2004. Of those people, 908 had bariatric surgery and 112 did not. The remainder were not available for the study. Over the course of the study, 2.9 percent of the surgery recipients died compared to 14.3 of those who did not have surgery.

“Bariatric surgery has been proven to be effective in achieving sustainable weight loss in people with morbid obesity and reducing or eliminating obesity-related diseases,” Reinhold said.