Chewing gum, taking medication and laying off fast food won't by themselves reduce America's waistlines -- obviously. But they may all have a part to play.
As hundreds of medical, scientific and behavioral researchers gathered at the Obesity Society's annual meeting in New Orleans last week to present their work, they increased the collective understanding of how appetite, metabolism, the environment and our genes may contribute to the nation's increasing girth.
The smorgasbord of issues illustrates the many-pronged approach health experts are taking in the fight against ever-expanding waistlines, says Eric Ravussin, outgoing president of the Silver Spring, Md.-based organization, which promotes research and education on obesity. Researchers realize that numerous factors are to blame for Americans' stubborn inability to shed their collective weight. "It goes from genetics to behavior," he says. "There's a whole session on gastrointestinal signals to the brain. [Researchers are] really trying to put these things together."
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Dine out and pay the price
One vital element is where and how often Americans are eating out. A study by researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia reported that Americans were less likely in 2006 than in 2004 to pay more for healthful foods (40.7% versus 28.5%), knew less about healthful menu items (18.5% versus 12.4%) and were more likely to regard healthful foods as bland (21.4% versus 15.8%).
Gary Foster, the Obesity Society's new president and a coauthor of the study, doesn't blame them for their reluctance to part with more money. (Data on 12,000 Americans nationwide was collected by Aramark, a food service and facility management company based in Philadelphia, which did not fund the study.)
"I don't think that's an unreasonable position for consumers to be in," says Foster, director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University. "Why pay more for healthy foods? In the end, taste and cost trump everything else, and convenience is in there, too."
Although there is a segment of the population that doesn't mind paying extra for fruits, vegetables and more healthful offerings in restaurants, he says, most won't bust their budget for them.
"The challenge," adds Foster, "is to make the foods tasty and affordable. This is not about finger-pointing. But it does signal that you have to be in the ballpark in terms of taste, convenience and cost, or people won't be willing to do it."
