In the past decade, an epidemic has been ballooning among
American consumers.
Now it is too big to ignore.
Obesity is on the verge of becoming the top killer in the United
States, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
It is second only to tobacco.
Billions of dollars are spent on weight-loss methods and
obesity-related problems each year. The low-carb craze is still
going strong. Sales of diet supplements and pills are consistently
on the rise.
But Americans just keep getting bigger and bigger.
Obesity is a multi-edged sword ““ it’s linked to
heart disease, various types of cancer, hypertension and lower-back
pain.
And what’s most terrifying is that these health issues are
developing at a young age.
“We really need to target our young people,” said
Karen Duvall, assistant clinical professor in the Department of
Family Medicine, and the director of the Preventive Medicine
Residency Program at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.
“They’re destined to become obese adults if they
don’t get this under control when they’re
children,” she added.
Duvall works with schools in the Los Angeles Unified School
District to prevent obesity before it starts.
“What we need to do is become innovative with kids,”
she said.
“We’re looking to think outside of the box, and
changing the choices that kids have for food at school.”
Schools are making changes like decreasing the number of vending
machines on campuses and increasing the amount of time spent in
physical education classes.
“Our kids are getting fatter, and they’re getting
diseases that adults should be getting,” said Susan Bowerman,
administrative analyst for the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition.
There has been a rise in the number of children developing type
2 diabetes, a version of the disease usually found in older
individuals.
“Whatever we’ve been doing to try to curb the
epidemic clearly hasn’t been working,” Bowerman said.
The federal government addressed the accruing issue last month
with the launch of the Food and Drug Administration’s
“Calories Count” initiative.
The FDA has proposed modifications to the nutrition labels found
on food items, and clarifying the meanings of terms like
“low-calorie,” “reduced carbohydrate” and
“fat-free.”
Twenty years ago, the average bagel was 3 inches in diameter and
contained 140 calories. Today, bagels have exploded to a diameter
of 6 inches and have 350 calories.
These expanding food items are an infamously American phenomenon
that has doubtlessly contributed to the epidemic, Duvall said.
Some European countries, on the other hand, have been better at
keeping their portion sizes moderate.
“If you go to a restaurant in France, look at the sizes of
the portions you get. Americans would cry and say they were being
cheated,” she said.
“If the steak isn’t falling off the plate at
Outback, they think they’re being cheated.”
More than ever, Americans are finding themselves in a
contradicting state of being simultaneously overweight and very
health-conscious.
The increased public sensitivity to weight and food consumption
has even made its mark in the fast food industry.
McDonald’s has phased out the supersize option for drinks
and fries on its menu, and introduced “Go Active” meals
for adults, which include a salad, water, a pedometer and a
pamphlet with walking tips.
These trends are also visible on the UCLA campus.
In the past few months, healthier additions like soy nuts and
low-carb cookies have made their way to the prominent shelves in
the Market of the UCLA Store.
“It’s my responsibility to keep up with the times
… to make sure we get in our store what people see on TV in terms
of these latest types of diets” said Mike Espy, the buyer for
the UCLA Store.
But maintaining a healthy weight is not only about eating. A
balance needs to be found between the amount of energy consumed and
expended.
The increased girth of the American population is also related
to the heightened pace of its lifestyle.
“Look at how we work ““ it’s all
computer-oriented,” Duvall said.
“We’re all tethered to machines to make our lives
easier, but it reduces the amount of physical activity that’s
required to accomplish a task.”
Lifestyle changes should begin in college, when students have to
juggle classes with staying active.
“We as educators need to make a statement that we have to
provide time for college students to address their lifestyle
issues,” she said.
“They should have time to go to the gym and
exercise.”
The Center for Human Nutrition also provides the Risk Factor
Obesity program for patients who are severely obese, those with
more than 50 pounds to lose.
Patients are supported with an interdisciplinary team of
physicians, dietitians, fitness experts and psychologists to
address all aspects of their weight problems.
Individuals can enroll in the program indefinitely, or for as
long as it takes to achieve their goal weight.
“It’s really important for people to understand that
obesity is a chronic illness,” Bowerman said.
“It really requires life-long diligence.”
Participants in the program come to UCLA every week and are
monitored on a modified fast with a high- protein meal replacement
of normal meals.
Aside from treating patients, the center also conducts clinical
trials of weight-loss drugs provided by outside sources like
pharmaceutical companies.
Researchers at UCLA are approaching the problem from a genetic
and molecular aspect as well.
Attention has been placed on a hormone, leptin, discovered to be
responsible for sending the “fullness” signal to the
brain.
A family was located in Turkey with leptin deficiency, a rare
genetic disorder that caused them all to become morbidly obese.
Julio Licinio, professor of psychiatry and medicine in the
Neuropsychiatric Institute and School of Medicine, treated the
family with a hormone therapy of leptin, from pharmaceutical
company Amgen.
By the end of 18 months, the family had reached normal weight.
But this treatment has not proved to be effective in people who are
obese without the deficiency.
“People who are obese … often have high levels of
leptin, but it’s not doing what it’s supposed to
do,” Licinio said.
“If we understand more of how it works, maybe we could
find a way to make it work better in people with just general
obesity.”
Many UCLA researchers are devoted to understanding the
mechanisms and hundreds of genes that regulate the metabolism.
But a comprehensive understanding is still distant in the
future.
“A lot of people are resorting to surgery because nothing
else works,” said Jake Lusis, a professor in the Department
of Cardiology.
“The research that’s going on now will lead to
better ways to treat that are less dangerous than surgery,”
he said.
Meanwhile, prevention remains the best medicine.
“People are always looking for the next magic bullet, some
kind of medication that will allow them to eat what they want and
not make too many changes,” Bowerman said.
“But there are a lot more benefits to eating a healthy
diet.”