Genetics Make It Messy, But It Is Plausible to Fix

The idea that I raised in class that we must make other, healthier items like fruit and vegetables favorable over junk food I still stand by in somewhat solid ground. Although I am sticking with my original thesis, I would like to acknowledge the esteemed food critic and New York Times op-ed writer Frank Bruni’s column and response column on the 16 and 17 of April respectively. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/opinion/bruni-and-love-handles-for-all.html?_r=1&ref=frankbruni He wrote on the soon to be released documentary, which will be featured on HBO, “The Weight of the Nation” which talks about how obesity is not at the fault of the one overweight as it might seem. Here Bruni delves into that it is our biological makeup as human beings, the increase in overproduction-relative to what our human race has been used to in the large scheme of things- and America’s culture.
Bruni wrote that we as humans are used to eating as much as we can. Worst case scenario, we would store that extra food in the form of fat to use later when we are not able to eat as much food. In today’s society, for most, there is not a day that we do not have excess. Especially Bruni writes, now that we have perfected agricultural production to make foods fast, easy, cheep, and salty and sugary. This is what is going to cause obesity Bruni as does the documentary he writes about argues.
“This is probably summed up best by Michael L. Power and Jay Schulkin in their book ‘The Evolution of Obesity.’ ‘We evolved on the savannahs of Africa,’ they write. ‘We now live in Candyland.’” Frank Bruni said this to draw the comparison to today’s America in which humans live. It is a place full of sweets that comes at every turn and with every role of the dice. Almost unavoidable it seems.
In a response article the following day Mr. Bruni wrote addressing responses from his post that why is obesity not as bad in Europe then, if everything you are saying is true. http://bruni.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/the-girth-of-the-globe/ He first acknowledged that Europe has in fact had a rise in obesity but not to the point of America’s rise in obesity. This he blames on the culture of America, a place of super-sizing versus the more moderate European approach to eating. This is the one point that strengthens and keeps alive my argument. It seems from the years of research put in for this documentary that humans if they have an excess of food at all times, until they adapt as a race, they will continue to eat it at will with a result in obesity. On the other hand, culture impacts what you eat and if the culture can promote fruits and vegetables over junk food then there should be no reason why Americans, and humans worldwide cannot start to prevent obesity. It will not be easy, nor are any of the suggested ways, but if culture does have an effect and we do not have significant control over how long it takes us to adapt then we should control what we can. We should use culture to promote a healthier life style that makes the demand of junk food decrease and demand for fruits and vegetables to increase so that we can start to a healthier lifestyle.