No wonder I can't sleep...
Scary:
Crash Test comparison of the Mini Cooper vs. the Ford F-150
"Are the best performers the biggest and heaviest vehicles on the road? Not at all. Among the safest cars are the midsize imports, like the Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord. Or consider the extraordinary performance of some subcompacts, like the Volkswagen Jetta. Drivers of the tiny Jetta die at a rate of just forty-seven per million, which is in the same range as drivers of the five-thousand-pound Chevrolet Suburban and almost half that of popular S.U.V. models like the Ford Explorer or the GMC Jimmy. In a head-on crash, an Explorer or a Suburban would crush a Jetta or a Camry. But, clearly, the drivers of Camrys and Jettas are finding a way to avoid head-on crashes with Explorers and Suburbans. The benefits of being nimble--of being in an automobile that's capable of staying out of trouble--are in many cases greater than the benefits of being big." (From the New Yorker according to the above article.)
Scarier?
The Way We Eat Now by Craig Lambert of Harvard Magazine
GREAT Article... sums up the current state of us fat Americans: corn syrup guzzling, hydrogenated oil drinking, restaurant frequenting, bloated, clogged gluttons. The trouble is, if we can eat a greasy, high-energy meal, we will eat a greasy, high-energy meal. In America, calories are everywhere and in abundance. They're in our faces - how many gigantic glowing fast food signs do you drive by everyday? This article talks about a lot of good stuff: the fast food culture, childhood obesity, the television effect, evolution... I was really really happy to see them busting the US government on the USDA "food pyramid":
Ironically, U.S. government agencies' attempts to deal with obesity during the last three decades-encouraging people to eat less fat and more carbohydrates, for example-actually may have exacerbated the problem. Take the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Guide Pyramid, first promulgated in 1992. The pyramid's diagram of dietary recommendations is a familiar sight on cereal boxes-hardly a coincidence, since the guidelines suggest six to 11 servings daily from the "bread, cereal, rice, and pasta" group. The USDA recommends eating more of these starches than any other category of food. Unfortunately, such starches are nearly all high-glycemic carbohydrates, which drive obesity, hyperinsulinemia, and Type II diabetes. "At best, the USDA pyramid offers wishy-washy, scientifically unfounded advice on an absolutely vital topic-what to eat," writes Willett in Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy. "At worst, the misinformation contributes to overweight, poor health, and unnecessary early deaths."
Note that the pyramid comes from the Department of Agriculture, not from an agency charged with promoting health, like the National Institutes of Health or the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The USDA essentially promotes and regulates commerce, and its pyramid (currently under revision; expect a new version in 2005) was the focus of intensive lobbying and political struggle by agribusinesses in the meat, sugar, dairy, and cereal industries, among others.
It also mentioned that obesity is inversely proportional to education level. While this article is awesome and everyone should read it, somehow I don't think that most of the nation subscribes to Havard Magazine. So for now, the billboards and flashy commercials and curly fries win. Diet in America is so messed up at the moment, I wouldn't even know where to begin changing it. I wonder how much this bad press is helping? Are articles like this and movies like Supersize Me getting in the faces of its target audience? Or is diet just like any philosophy: beautiful in the hands of its believers. We can publish as many papers as we like, but is it actually changing how overweight people think about food? I'm skeptical. Health, like philosophy, is a personal choice. Also like philosophy, old habits are hard to break. I'm always amazed that to some people, McDonalds tastes good. Is it a matter of upbringing? Can people raised on tv, video games, Cocoa Pebbles, and McDonalds Happy Meals ever turn around?
Right, I'm going to stop thinking about this for the time being and worry about myself. I get really sad by the the number of people I see every day who don't take care of their bodies. Where's the respect?