We Have a Drinking Problem

You love it, or you don’t. You drink it, or you don’t. The “it” is Coca-Cola and on May 8 it will be 125 years old. The company has evolved from one product—Coca-Cola, to more than 400 brands in 2006. It sells more than 1.3 billion drinks a day in more than 200 countries around the world.

That’s a lot of coke . . . and a lot of calories.

Soda (in all fairness, not just Coke) is the single largest contributor of calories in the U.S. diet. A 12-oz can of sweetened soda contains about 150 calories and almost 10 teaspoons of sugar. Drink just one can a day and you’ll pile on an extra 15 pounds in a single year (the average American drinks about 2 cans of soda a day). Liquid calories now account for a whopping 21 percent of our daily calorie intake—more than 400 calories every day.

Sugar sweetened drinks (including fruit drinks) have been linked to a number of contributing factors to chronic illness, including metabolic syndrome and higher blood pressure. Ten percent of overweight adults consume 450 calories of sugar sweetened beverages a day (cutting those 450 calories per day could lead to a weight loss of close to 50 pounds in one year.)

But, back to Coca-Cola. Way back when, 125 years ago, we didn’t have an obesity epidemic. Today, 34 percent of our population over the age of 20 is obese, and another 34 percent is overweight but not obese. One in three American children and teens is overweight or obese (a threefold increase over the past 30 years). And, believe it or not, this is Coca-Cola’s target market.

In the current issue of Advertising Age, Coke’s chief marketing officer notes that “teen recruitment” will be especially important to grow the business. CEO Muhtar Kent says, “we are laser-focused on targeting the right consumers, and creating new strategies that are winning over a massive new generation of teens to drive growth of Trademark Coca-Cola.”

Given our efforts to curb childhood obesity and the obesity epidemic in general, do you see a disconnect here? How exactly should we celebrate this 125^th anniversary?

Happy Birthday, Everyone

Without going into why this topic comes to mind . . .

You and every other person now living, who ever has lived or ever will live, have been given a gift. No two are the same. None are perfect. Some get broken, some you abuse, some you worship, some you ignore, some you adore.

We’re talking about your body—the system of skin and tissue that holds together your bones, muscles, blood vessels, veins, organs—you get the idea. It’s the one thing each of us truly has in common. And more than 65 percent of us don’t take care of it. In fact, the most of us seem to be doing our best to destroy it.

We feed it too much, or we feed it the wrong things. We don’t ask enough of it. We don’t let it do what it was designed to do. We clog it up with chemicals, additives and just plain junk. We pay more attention to what we do and don’t put in our kitchen sinks and garbage disposals than what we put into our own bodies.

Statistics provided by the National Institutes of Health show that 67 percent of Americans age 20 and older are overweight, 34 percent are obese, and projections indicate 40 percent of the population will be obese by 2018—in just 7 years.

Now, consider that life expectancy during the 20^th century increased more than 27 years, from 49.2 to 76.5 years, largely due to the reduction in mortality among children. But that was then, and this is now, and for the first time in 200 years, today’s children are looking at shorter lifespans than their parents. Why? Childhood obesity and associated chronic illnesses. The leading causes of death have shifted from infectious diseases to chronic diseases. This is our own doing.

We have developed a discouraging set of self-destructive habits. The U.S. food industry aggressively markets high-fat, high-sugar, super-sized foods. We tend to literally, eat it up. It’s fair to say it’s not all our own faults, but the question is whether our collective weight gain and sedentary behaviors are more a matter of individual responsibility, or whether a society that makes it so easy to get fat should look closely at itself and its values. At stake is the health of millions of Americans, the lives of adults and children, and more than $147 billion in annual obesity- related health care costs. And, where the blame lies is not as much the issue as what we intend to do about it.

Obviously, we can’t control every factor that influences our health and wellness. And yes, healthy people do get sick. But, there’s a lot we can control. Maybe now’s the time to think about and do those things we know make a difference—and keep those birthdays coming.

Time to Polish Up Your “Health Halo”

Here’s the science . . . it’s well-known that the way we perceive a particular trait of any person is influenced by how we perceive other characteristics of that same person. A person with a positive attribute we admire actually radiates a halo, meaning we believe other traits of that person are also positive.

Now, research shows the halo effect also applies to foods and even influences what and how much we eat. The study conducted at Cornell University’s School of Applied Economics and Management found that people tend to consume more calories at fast-food restaurants claiming “healthy” meals (or at least healthier offerings) than they do at a fast-food restaurant not making those claims. When you think a food is more nutritious, you let your guard down. Counting calories takes a backseat to healthful eating—and boy do we eat. If it’s healthy, we tend to feel at liberty to indulge.

Now, how does this apply to healthy labels? Consider the organic label. Hear the word “organic” and you probably immediately think “healthy.” Think healthy, and according to the study, you might feel entitled to more. Not necessarily so.

Organic foods don’t necessarily taste better. They aren’t lower in calories. They aren’t especially more nutritious. They do tend to be more expensive, and they do tend to make us think we’re getting something more.

And, sometimes we are—more than we need—because we think it’s OK to take consumption to a higher level. Judging a “food by its cover” isn’t license to eat more of it. Calories are still calories. So, maybe that halo effect really does need polishing. Maybe we need to shine it up to see what it’s really reflecting.

Thinking About a Baby?

Warning: This Blog post isn’t fun, amusing or humorous in any way, but rather very disturbing—on several levels. It should also be thought-provoking, and it should be a call to action.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average woman is 5 feet 4 inches tall. She weighs 165 pounds. According to BMI standards, the average woman is overweight and only 10 pounds away from falling into the obese category. Here’s why this is important, and why we’re only talking about women here . . .

A study published this month in the journal Human Reproduction cites research that finds “women who are obese during early pregnancy have a significantly increased risk of their baby dying before, during or up to one year after birth.” By “significantly increased risk” the study means an obese woman has nearly double the risk of the baby dying in the womb or up to one year after birth than women of recommended weight. (If you don’t know your BMI, you can check it here on our website.)

Obviously, you don’t want to try to lose weight during pregnancy, but reaching and maintaining a healthy weight before becoming pregnant is a necessary step to giving a baby the best possible start in life. This in itself should be important enough to make those behavioral lifestyle choices that lead to better nutritional health, wellness and recommended weight—for a lifetime. Don't you think so?