Notes on "The Park Avenue Diet Show: Butter and Apples"; September 19, 2010

Do you know what to order when you go to a restaurant? Our glamorous First Lady, Michelle Obama, thinks that you don’t. She recently addressed a meeting of the National Restaurant Association and asked them to change their menus in ways that improved nutrition and lower the risk of obesity.

Among the suggestions were smaller portions, substituting whole wheat pasta for white, less butter, and more carrots. Here’s one emblematic idea: serving apple slices as the side dish with hamburgers instead of French fries. Diners would have to be especially careful not to cover the fruit with ketchup and cheese.

Although Mrs. Obama has the best intentions, these recommendations are an unrealistic solution to an extremely serious problem. Do parents not know that macaroni and cheese is fattening? Do you know that salt raises blood pressure and causes fluid retention in cardiac patients almost immediately? Why are we pretending that it is the responsibility of a waiter, chef, or restaurant owner to take responsibility for your personal health?

Since health is not the number one priority for most people (and must be) we now have surrogates like the government interceding on your behalf with potentially disastrous social and financial consequences. It’s much easier for you to be your own nutritional “traffic cop”. Certainly you can police the caloric environment of any restaurant or fast food franchise and figure out what’s best for you in the long run. If you need a government official to tell you or force you to eat less macaroni and cheese, you obviously missed a few classes of high school science.

Another article focused on kids being bullied and humiliated about their weight and inability to compete athletically.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100910/sc_livescience/overweightkidsbodyimagetakespoundingfrombullies

This is definitely a real phenomenon but is nothing new. Kids have been mocked and teased since the dawn of time, and sometimes adults are no better. The way to avoid this is not through counseling and psychotherapy or anti-depressant medication. Why not solve the problem realistically and definitively by weight loss?

What do you think about when you see extremely overweight people on television? When they are featured in your favorite comedies or dramas, do they serve as role models the way some people might admire Derek Jeter or Halle Berry? Some psychologists think that “fat acceptance” is a compensatory reaction to a potentially serious health problem. The self-esteem of the overweight is more important (incorrectly) than their additional risk for 40 different illnesses in 9 organ systems.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/09/16/shows-focusing-overweight-characters-obesity-problem/

As a physician, I am more concerned with the health and wellness of the actors than their physical suitability for the roles. But if we are so paranoically concerned about showing people smoking cigarettes on television, how can we allow walking advertisements for an unhealthy lifestyle? 20% of American adults smoke cigarettes; 67% of American adults are overweight or obese. You do the math.

Do you think it would be helpful during the upcoming television show “Mike and Molly” for them to be eating apple slices with their cheeseburgers? If so, please direct your comments to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.