The War on Weight

Slimming Solutions

In the search for solutions, Yancey points to how activists attacked smoking, which obesity is often compared to as a public health menace. "Why are we seeing such low smoking rates now? Well, it is no longer easy to smoke. You have got to go stand outside, pay a lot of money for a pack of smokes. Because of the marketing landscape, there will be relatively few people who start up smoking. The same thing could happen with obesity." For example, what if the landscape we lived in made it easier to take the stairs than the elevator, or more aesthetically appealing than sending an e-mail?

Some ideas have also been put to practical use at Hope Street Family Center, a collaborative project between UCLA and California Medical Hospital Center designed to serve the "working poor" in Los Angeles with resources for early childhood education and home support. Director Vickie Kropenske says Hope Street organizers discovered that programs designed to relieve stress or teach cooperation also helped to fight obesity: free yoga classes for parents (originally designed as a tension reliever) and a Circus Arts program for kids that helps them stay active (initially meant to teach them about the arts and teamwork).

Cut It Out

What else can we do to cut the obesity epidemic down to size? Read many more suggestions from UCLA experts in Matters of Opinion.

An army of dedicated health-care professionals is waging the war on weight, and hopefully, they will succeed. But if we do win the fight, it won't just be because we're all walking to work every day. It will also be because the culture as a whole has changed the way it views folks who are less than svelte.

"The Protestant ethic that equates a fat body with [being] undisciplined and indulgent... means that America has been particularly prone to moralizing weight," concludes Saguy. "We've been shaming fat people for years, and it doesn't seem to be making them any thinner."

Published Oct 1, 2006 12:00 AM