Sedentary work and obesity: another view
On May 26, the New York Times published a report of a new study on causes of obesity. The study examined changing rates of physical activity in the workplace. Its conclusion? Sedentary work is a major cause of rising rates of obesity in the United States.
The shift translates to an average decline of 120 to 140 calories a day in physical activity, closely matching the nation’s steady weight gain over the past five decades, according to the report.
Eric Schlosser and I wrote a letter to the editor pointing out a few flaws in that argument. The Times did not publish our letter, but here it is:
To the editor:
It makes sense that sedentary work is a factor in the current obesity epidemic (May 26). But it cannot be an important cause. The changing American workplace cannot explain why the obesity rate among the nation’s preschoolers has doubled in recent years and that among elementary schoolchildren has tripled.
The rise in obesity worldwide is linked to the embrace of the American diet, not to a decline in manufacturing.
In China, childhood obesity has increased at least five-fold since 1985.
Simplest explanations are usually best. Reversing obesity means eating less and making healthier food choices.
It also means making it easier to do that by setting policies that promote smaller portions, lower prices on fruits and vegetables, restrictions on marketing food to children, and healthier school meals.
Of course, an increase in well-paid manufacturing jobs would help too.
—Marion Nestle and Eric Schlosser
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Comments
Dr. Nestle,
Per your statement: Reversing obesity means eating less and making healthier food choices.
Every expert I know states: “Eat less, exercise more”. However, if you live by the advice of your second suggestion – make healthier food choices – you can, in fact, eat more.
That is the “magic” of healthy eating. While you can’t eat unlimited amounts of food, you can certainly eat a lot. Ultimately this means, willpower and deprivation play no role in “diet”.
Most food and health experts do not tell people how and what they eat. To give people an idea of eating more and living a healthy lifestyle, I have done this at one of my sites: Life without Lipitor — http://www.LifewithoutLipitor.com.
I invite people to observe how you can Eat More!
Kindest regards,
Ken Leebow
Has anyone tracked employment of women and obesity among both adults and kids?
Seems to me that pedi obesity is largely a function of dual working parents (sometimes working more that one job each), with little time to prep food, and much guilt and need to “indulge” the little ones with fast foods and kid-friendly favorites. Mom’s now have no time for themselves, so exercise has decreased, yet demands on them RTS. There’s less leisure time for physical activity, and little attempt to plan shopping, cooking and eating.
No simple answer, perhaps, just my assessment from 25 years in practice!
a good counter-argument. While they can prove the dangers of sitting in a desk all day, they can’t prove that it has caused the obesity epidemic.
I agree that the American diet is a major contributor to obesity. But this problem does not have one simple explanation. I think our sedentary jobs are also major contributors because they affect every part of our lives. Americans (especially parents with school-age children) have no time to exercise, but neither do their children. They are dropped off at daycare, bused to school (where most of the recess or PE classes have been canceled), then bused back to daycare until a parent picks them up. Once home, there is a quick meal, homework to do or supervise, then baths/bedtime. Any time left is unfortunately devoted to TV, but it is true that late night is not the best time to exercise anyway.
This lack of time is one reason our jobs are contributing to preschool obesity. Our horrible diet is one part of it, but not the whole. I wonder how many calories people (and children) burned in the days when they had to bring all their water from a well or stream, kill and grow their own food, and beat the carpets with a stick to clean them. This was how they spent their days, rather than sitting at a desk all day, then needing to find time to go to the gym.
Granted, even if our jobs required us to move and work hard physically, people could still be obese. Donuts or Pop-Tarts for breakfast, a super-burrito for lunch, and a six-pack of soda or beer everyday with two frozen pizzas for dinner will do that.
@ Lori: If it’s working moms that are contributing to childhood obesity, then what is the explanation for childhood obesity in families where 1 or more parent works at home, or is unemployed?
I’m a lazy cook, so I eat a lot of prepared meals, and I manage to maintain my weight, while working full time at a very sedentary job. If prepared/take out food is the cause of obesity, why am I not fat?
The reasons for calorie imbalance are multiple, individual, societal, and nuanced and many different tacks must be taken to get the sailboat of healthy weights across this very windy great lake.
David Katz says it best: never imagine that one sandbag will hold back the flood — many sandbags together must be used.
Do you really think kids’ habits haven’t changed? When I was a kid we ran up and down the streets all day. Today every kid I know is on “play dates” with limited outdoor freedom and range because everyone is afraid of strangers abducting them.
Also, too, video games. Parents use them as a babysitter in ways my mother never did.
Great letter! I find the science reporting in the NYT to generally be of a pretty low quality. Journalists simply do not have the training to critically evaluate the studies they report on.
One of the points I’ve picked up from you is the false dichotomy of the eat less/move more mantra. I keep explaining this to people and it is difficult to get the message across as the food/media industry has done a very good job of making us all think we just don’t move enough.
I see some very heavy people out walking on the parkway where I live and I feel sort of bad for them–I want to go out and remind them that this won’t be enough if they don’t EAT LESS as well.
Having said that, while I don’t go to a gym, I do move as much as I can throughout the day. I garden(summer), shovel snow (winter), use a push mower (large lot!), have no garage door opener, hang out my wash, use stairs, etc. Every convenience you provide yourself with will eliminate some calories you used to use and it can add up. Of course, I also count calories.
People have had sedentary jobs for hundreds of years. The only difference now is that people aren’t walking to work, riding horses, or other more physical means of moving. They aren’t working as physically to cook, clean, and manage the house, thanks to modern technology. They’re watching TV and playing video games at night, or on the computer after spending eight hours in front of a computer for work.
The bottom line is that people aren’t just eating unhealthy food in large quantities, they’re just not doing as much physically. People are eating a farmer’s breakfast but not doing a farmer’s work.
It’s food in, activity out. For some they need better or less food, for others better or more activity, for many a combination of this. (But don’t forget phytoestrols, BPA and other environmental factors that may be contributing to, but not nullifying, this equation).
Dr. Mark Tremblay, a Canadian researcher in obesity, very well known here, has this on one of his slides (CC = channel changes)(for those readers under 40, you might have heard that we used to have to get up off the couch and walk to the tv to change the channel [that AND walk a mile to school in the snow AND home for lunch & back to school, etc]):
“A LITTLE MEANS A LOT!
THE CASE OF THE TV REMOTE
Average age 78 years
20 years x 52 wks x 25 hrs/wk = 26,000 hrs of TV
58 years x 52 wks x 12.5 hrs/wk = 37,700 hrs of TV
(26,000 + 37,700) x 5 CC/hr = 318,500 CC in lifetime
318,500 x 0.5 kcal / CC = 159,250 kcals
159,250 / 3,500 kcal / lb of fat
45.5 pounds of fat!!!”
[...] of Obesity? June 10th, 2011 Leave a comment Go to comments One of our favorite food bloggers, Professor Marion Nestle of NYU, has taken issue with the editors at the New York [...]
[...] Sedentary work and obesity: another view <<While we’re calling out bad headlines, here Marion Nestle explains why it is food, not our jobs that is making us fat. (Food Politics) [...]
[...] obesity in the U.S. Yet one of my favorite bloggers/authors Marion Nestle gave a pretty interesting counter argument. A heavier fate can be avoided simply by eating less and choosing healthier [...]
Obesity is used to describe a person’s health where his weight of the body is greater than the normal average weight by 20 percent or more. Such person is referred to as obese and with it comes the risk of type-2 diabetes, cardiac arrest and other heart problems, high blood pressure, breast cancer, prostrate and colon cancer, gall bladder ailment etc.
In United States approximately 3 lakh deaths annually are due to obesity. Some of the common reasons for obesity are detailed hereunder:
Overeating – The foods/ drinks that we intake provides energy for carrying out normal body activities like digestion, breathing, walking, standing, sitting etc. For an ideal weight, then amount of energy obtained should balance the energy utilized. But if the amount of energy obtained is greater than the amount of energy utilized the excess energy gets converted into “fat” and results in gain in weight. This is one of the most common reasons for overweight and Obesity.