Weighty health dilemmas need sound public policies

Ketchup, despite what some have tried to claim, is not a vegetable.

In 1981, the Reagan administration, as a cost-cutting measure, proposed the U.S. Department of Agriculture consider ketchup a vegetable when creating menus for school lunches. Although the proposal failed, it sent a message to children and their parents about the relative importance of nutrition in public life, a message which still bounces off Americans’ expanding waistlines today.

The United States’ obesity epidemic is more than just a growing culture of couch-ridden individuals. Although obesity is influenced by a complex interaction among several factors, such as individual life choices and genetics, an individual’s environment also plays a tremendous role.

U.S. policies, including the post-World War II construction of the interstate highway system, has led to the rapid growth of suburban sprawl. The public school system cannot keep up. Even if there are no freeways to cross, the mere distances between home and school demand motor vehicle transport. Such conditions make it unsafe for children to counter obesity by walking or biking to school.

In cities such as Houston, the lack of legislative support for effective public transportation has made personal vehicles an absolute necessity. Everyone drives because navigating the city on foot is impossible. Sidewalks and pedestrian-crossing signals are in disrepair, and most attempts to install bike paths for non-recreational travel have taken little consideration of cyclists’ safety in the face of high-speed motor vehicle traffic.

Obesity, like any public health concern, underlines and perpetuates the socioeconomic and health disparities which already exist in American society. As with many such issues, the poor — especially children and the elderly — are the most affected.

Low-income communities are more likely to reside in poorly maintained neighborhoods, which lack facilities for recreational activity and have disproportionate numbers of low-cost, fast food restaurants. For those who live in neighborhoods without sidewalks or with eight-lane highways to traverse, walking anywhere is not an option. The deteriorating physical environment lends itself to increased crime rates, making outdoor activity physically unsafe.

We can blame obesity in children on bad parenting, but that doesn’t help the kids who can’t choose what their subsidized school lunch contains or if their neighborhood is safe enough to run around in.

U.S. agricultural policies are also partly to blame, manufacturing one of the secret ingredients of an obese nation — corn syrup. Americans grow more corn than the world’s human and cattle populations can consume. To solve the surplus problem, we turn corn into high-fructose corn syrup, a hidden staple of the U.S. diet, sweetening everything from soft drinks to hamburger buns.

With over-generous government subsidies and improved production methods, the industry churns out corn syrup at pennies below refined sugar. It’s practically free. The problem, though, is that the fructose in corn syrup may metabolize in a more harmful way than sucrose or glucose.

Unlike glucose, fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion, which means carbohydrates are not metabolized as quickly, thus leading to fat storage. With high-fructose corn syrup, we are more likely not to notice just how much food we’ve consumed, so we’ll continue eating and gain weight without even feeling exceptionally satiated.

Health is more than drugs or individual choice: The battles we fight today against diseases like obesity, AIDS, heart disease and cancer don’t have simple causes or simple solutions. We cannot ignore the roles society and government policies play in the health of private citizens. Actively confronting the detrimental aspects of our social environment is the most essential part of ensuring a healthy United States.

Nancy Luo is a Hanszen College senior. Cara Eng, a Baker College senior, contributed to this column.

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