Supersize Issue and Obesity Outlook

      While reading the article “Downsizing Supersize” by James Surowiecki I found myself agreeing that the supersizes of the amount of food that we can purchase is getting out of control. There are soft-drink cups, or buckets as I like to call them, which literally will not fit in a standard cup holder in my cars. More recently I have only asked for water if I dine in or if I’m picking up food I won’t get anything to drink until I get home. Most of the article focused on New York potentially banning extra-large soft-drinks but I think there is also a problem with the amount of solid food that fast food joints can shovel out for such low prices. I’m all about getting more bang for my buck but it would be nice if instead of two double cheeseburgers for $2 I could get a chicken salad for the same price but still be satisfied. I used to be the kid that would down 4 double cheeseburgers before a baseball game and not think twice about it. Now I think three of four times about it and continually remind myself that even though I can get a lot of food for cheap doesn’t mean I need it. It doesn’t surprise me that during the M&M study at the apartment building people would take more candy with a larger scoop. I bet it didn’t even occur to them that they were taking a lot because the scoop set the serving size which on that scale doesn’t seem like much but the food industry has been increasing the scoop for over 40 years!

       Dhruv Khular brings up an extremely blunt approach to decreasing obesity in Georgia. It somewhat reminded me of the crystal meth and other assortment of anti-drug commercials. There are stark contrasts between drug abuse and obesity but the medium through which these problems are addressed can promote the same awareness. I’m not sure I agree with government intervention at the moment but using a very open mind I can see how it might be needed. Just like how the government has regulated the distribution of narcotics which are hazardous to our health with side effects occurring almost immediately, there could be a need in the future to regulate unhealthy food distribution even though the side effects are more difficult to see until they happen.