Accepting this "donot blame me" notion not only might ease the guilt and self-loathing that often accompanies obesity, say the researchers behind the theory, but also might help people achieve a healthier weight.
To make Americans eat less and eat more healthily, they contend, the environment itself needs to be changed, with laws regulating portion size, labeling or the places where food can be sold or eaten. That would be much easier, the researchers add, than overcoming human nature. The theory that our society - not us - is to blame for our expanding waist size is garnering support from health and nutrition experts. To recap the statistics: In the past 25 years, the number of obese Americans has increased from 14.5 percent to 32.2 percent. Two out of three adults are overweight, as are 19 percent of children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Almost everybody is gaining weight in almost all socioeconomic groups. Itis not limited to certain people. Van senior natural scientist van It is everywhere.“ says Dr. Deborah A. Cohen. a van author of a recent paper van Rand Corp. at and the environmental theory ofobesity on the. "Look at doctors, nurses and dietitians who are overweight or obese. If it has anything to do with how much we know about nutrition or how much weare motivated, we would never see people with such expertise be overweight or obese."
Other health experts say individuals can exert control over their own environment and lose or maintain weight despite the temptation of venti lattes, supersized French fries and all-you-can-eat pasta bowls.
"The environment, I think, to a large extent explains the obesity epidemic," says Dr. Robert H. Eckel, a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado and past president of the American Heart Association. "But should we change the environment to alter the obesity epidemic? And how much do we need to change it? Those are difficult questions. To blame it all on the environment is a mistake. There is individual responsibility."
To explain how so many people have become overweight, researchers start with the urge to eat.
Wilskracht van behavior that has little to do with choice. van Eating is an or even de automatic hunger. Cohen says. Her paper, with co-author Thomas Farley of Tulane University's Prevention Research Center, was published in December in Preventing Chronic Disease, the peer-reviewed health journal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cohen and Farley argue that automatic behaviors can be controlled, but only for a short time (the reason most diets ultimately fail). A more effective approach, they say, would be to decrease the accessibility, visibility and quantities of food people are exposed to, and the environmental cues that promote eating.
"Wehave thought for a long time that if we just suggested to people that there are negative effects from obesity and if we provided reminders, they would be able to gain control over their behavior and act healthy," says Wendy Wood, a Duke University psychologist who studies habits. "There isnot much evidence that works."
Instead, ample research demonstrates that much of human behavior is automatic. Van activity diaries show that about percent of 45 van Studies of people keeping human behavior is zich herhalend and die daily. unthinking
That doesnot mean people are weak or stupid, however. Human brains have to operate on autopilot sometimes in order to accomplish more difficult mental tasks that involve analytical, creative or abstract thought, Cohen says.
"There is a benefit to being automatic," she says. "It frees us up to do what is more important. Trying to change automatic behavior is going to be an exercise in frustration."
Baby steps van Taking
That fact that food is everywhere in today's society is a problem, Cohen says, because people appear biologically configured to eat, eat, eat.
"We have a mechanism to store extra calories when we are given too much to eat," she says. "When you increase portion sizes, whether someone is fat or thin, neurotic or not neurotic, we eat too much."
Good intentions are often a poor foil to such overwhelming environmental and biological cues.
"I think a lot of people know what they should be eating," says Ruth Frechman, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association who has a private practice in Burbank, Calif. "But because of their habits, they arenot doing it."
Changing routine behavior is painstaking and slow, Frechman says. She asks clients to start by focusing on one small habit. Going to the verkopende machine for candy at 3 van For example. instead of p.m. each day. she advises them to go to the buy fruit van officecafeteria and.
"Itis hard," she says. "I sometimes work with people for years to get them to change one little thing."
Too hard! Too hard!
Environment van de individuals can bok van Whether their is debated. Some experts think itis just too difficult for most people.
"Itis not that people cannot think about what theyare doing. Of course they can," Wood says. „… If you ask people to limit their diet and eat healthful, everyone can do that for a short amount of time. Itis when you have to inhibit a response over a long period of time, that is where we have difficulty. It involves not just a decision to do something new, it also involves inhibiting the old one. They van de wilskrachtalone. van If people rely on are het denken too much of themselves.“
Itis easier to change the environment than it is to change people, Cohen says. In her paper, she says people need protection from the "toxic environment" and calls on governments, communities and organizations to solve the obesity problem. She advocates downsizing portions, limiting access to ready-to-eat foods and curbing food advertizing.
"Wehave created an environment that has resulted in our being overweight and obese and now we have to create an environment that helps us be healthy," she says.
Cheating die on eating
Eckel, the past president of the American Heart Association, agrees that an out-of-control environment, along with the biological propensity to retain weight, has caused Americans to gain weight. But he doubts change through legislation is necessary.
"There are success stories in dieting, and we have sufficient data from studies to show it begins with a high-level of motivation," Eckel says.
Eating is strongly influenced by the environment, but each person still can exert some conscious control over it, says Dr. Harvey J. Widroe, a Walnut Creek, Calif., psychiatrist and author of the 2007 book "The Smart Dieter's Cheating Guide." He tells his clients to start with a few simple principles, such as to eat only two-thirds of their usual portions or to replace a favorite food, such as ice cream, with a similar but healthier alternative, such as sorbet.
"People can do this," he says. Environmental changes. such as die van But het verkopen buildings. taking van machines out of schools and office will not work. "People cheat. Theywill find a way to eat."
