Flashback – Blame the Sugar

[In February of 2012 I provided another example of how Americans are encouraged by the media to shift the blame rather than take responsibility. Each time we do, we give politicians and regulators a new target for bans and restrictions. This in turn relieves us of the responsibility of making choices along with the risks that some of those choices might turn out to be wrong, but it also deprives otherwise responsible people from making any choices at all. At the time I wondered if sugar would be next on the list.]

In past blogs I have warned that if we don't begin to change our behavior, especially by acting responsibly, bad consequences will continue. This lax attitude can force the government to step in, threatening our freedom. The idea of a threat to freedom may seem like an abstract concept, perhaps a little difficult to pin down. Now we have another concrete example.

Published Wednesday in Nature, a study by three scientists from UC San Francisco finds that sugar is as bad for us as alcohol and tobacco and should be likewise regulated.  This article from the LA Times gives the details. The study's authors make recommendations to the Federal Government including: taxation, distribution controls, age limits, and a limit or ban on television commercials for processed foods containing any form of added sugar. This is what I mean by loss of freedom.   Besides the alcohol and tobacco restrictions, there have been local bans on transfats. Today it's sugar. What next?

This article is interesting because I find the wording, "sugar...is responsible" near the beginning and "sugar itself is to blame" further on. It's the sugar's fault and we are the victims! How long are we going to let inanimate objects take the rap for us? If we don't step up and take responsibility for our behavioral failures and begin to make some changes, well-intentioned people will call for government action and our freedoms will slowly erode. Meanwhile, we will be standing around wondering how it happened!

Who's Fat?

Problem solving techniques are pretty generic.  There are books and seminars, papers and processes, skills, games and strategies; but the steps are similar and always start out with “define the problem” or some variation of this advice.  If you don’t know what the problem is or refuse to admit it, there is, short of blind luck, very little chance of solving it.

Here is just one of many examples easily found in an Internet search:

That’s why it’s disheartening to find this headline on NBC news:  “What, Me Fat? Most Americans Don't Think So, Poll Finds.”  That’s right, despite the news that more than 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese, a Gallup poll shows that many of those people are in denial.  "More than half of adults (55 percent) said they don't think they are overweight and aren't making an effort to shed pounds.”  (The proportion is higher for men who are more apt to be overweight.)

This denial is reminiscent of the stages of death and dying, which apply to most any change or abrupt receipt of bad news.  The mirror tells the bad news; the scale tells the bad news; perhaps even the doctor tells the bad news; yet the recipient of that news denies the problem.  What problem?  I don’t need to lose weight!

It makes no sense to reconstruct the list of diseases linked with obesity.  The sad fact is that there are so many that obesity itself is now considered a chronic condition.  Reminders of this fact jump off the page.  “As prevalence of chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes continue to increase in the U.S. population, we have some unnerving news: in the near future, there may be a shortage of doctors able to treat these patients.” (Emphasis added)

So what can we do about it?  Continuing to deny the problem will not solve the problem.  Waiting for someone else to solve it has the distinct disadvantage of the diminishing resources, the predicted shortage of doctors.  The only resort is to take control, accept the personal responsibility.  There will be no solution until people have defined the problem.  Until then, we don't have an obesity epidemic.  We have a denial epidemic.

A Brief Review (continued)

Results of opinion polls for at least the past 25 years show consistent agreement with the statement:  America is heading in the wrong direction.  Efforts by both parties in the government have made no difference, so perhaps a new way of looking at these problems, a new model, is called for.  On Monday I reviewed the premise that faulty individual behaviors (our actions and decisions) accumulate to societal trends that lead to outcomes that are currently classified as crises.  We can't continue to attack the symptoms rather than not the problems.

As an example let’s look at the dimension of Discipline.  Last week in the news was an article about obesity rates in the US.  The short summary is that the country as a whole is getting fatter.  In fact, the highest obesity rate by state 15 years ago (Mississippi) was lower than the lowest rate today (Colorado). Despite billions of dollars spent on books and programs promising some magic answer, despite government programs and messages from doctors in the media, the trend continues.  It’s a behavior issue, not a policy issue.  Everyone knows the answer:  eat less and exercise more.  It’s not complex – just hard to do.  It takes discipline.  The consequence, besides the personal health ramifications, is the societal issue of increased demand on medical and drug resources for predominantly preventable illnesses.  (In general, increased demand pushes costs up.)

But this is not the only evidence of a lack of discipline in America.  Consider the number of people who spent more than they earned and the societal impact of the resulting bankruptcies and foreclosures.  Consider those who cannot stay away from smoking or excessive alcohol use.  It’s true that moving in the right direction takes effort and patience, but we tend to shun effort and patience in favor of secrets or easy answers.  Remember, we are not treading water; we are sinking.  The government keeps trying to legislate solutions, not unlike prohibition in the last century and about as successfully.

What's worse, our children are copying our behavior and we do not require better from them.  This may seem an odd example, but I just read that 40 states no longer require that handwriting be taught in school:  reading, keyboarding and arithmetic?  When I see this, alarms go off, not because I am a big fan of handwriting, but because I see one more skill that requires effort and patience dropped.  Though cursive writing may no longer be as useful, education is more than training in practical skills.  It should also develop less tangible, but important traits like patience, concentration, and discipline.  (I think I could have lived very happily without high school Latin – especially when I was in high school – or memorizing a poem, but I understand the benefit.)  When lawmakers eliminate writing to allow more time for reading, do they consider that the discipline required for the first might contribute to the second?

Take some time to think of your own examples of how we are letting our children down by not developing the necessary traits that lead to behavior strong in discipline and about what consequences these failures may have both today and in the future.  Look for your own examples.  I know they're out there.  I see them nearly every day.