Sanjay Gupta a victim of obesity myths?

One group that opposes the nomination of Sanjay Gupta as the next surgeon general is the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), an organization that promotes the interests of the restaurant and food industries. Anyone who suggests eating less can expect criticism from an industry that wants us to eat more. Gupta took on the topic of obesity in 2006 with his “Fit Nation” campaign.

In the CCF we encounter two of my favorite and related subjects. One is the difficult balance between corporate and public interests in a free-market economy. The other is how the “personal responsibility for health” mantra works against our best interests. If you are personally responsible for your own healthy lifestyle, then the food industry is totally innocent of contributing to heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. The slogan of the CCF is “Promoting personal responsibility and protecting consumer choice.” They’re a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

As for corporate vs. public interests, here are some quotations from a CCF article, Gupta’s Government Gig?

Gupta has naïvely given in to too many obesity myths. On a “Fit Nation” speaking tour, for example, he repeated false claims–which we’ve thoroughly debunked–that obesity is the largest health threat in America, and that it shortens life expectancy. In one interview, Gupta humbly admitted he doesn’t “have the answer” on childhood obesity, but at the same time lamented that “we have vending machines in schools.”

It’s no surprise, then, that he misguidedly supports harsh bureaucratic measures like zoning laws limiting fast food restaurants, or San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom’s idea to tax sweetened drinks. Both of these have been thoroughly discredited.
Gupta also makes a habit of dishing out silly diet advice to advance mythological theories about living longer. Who knew that, despite the complete lack of evidence, abstaining from fast food could add four years to your life? … At one point Gupta went out on a historical limb and called obesity “the cold war of our generation.”

The CCF argues that eating too much or eating the wrong thing is not the cause of obesity. The problem is not getting enough exercise. It’s as if they decided to remove the “Calories In” variable from the equation: “Calories In – Calories Expended = Calories Stored As Fat.” Here’s one example of their argument, and there are many more on their website.

Freedom of choice is healthism in disguise

The foods we choose to eat may be a matter of personal responsibility, but the emphasis on freedom of choice ignores the billion-dollar marketing environment in which we make those choices. And it’s not just advertising. We’re not free to choose if we are unaware of the enormous financial power the food industry wields behind the scenes, where it influences Congress, the FDA, universities, and nutritionists. By threatening and instigating lawsuits, the food industry intimidates anyone who might speak out. When Oprah Winfrey made a public comment about beef, she was hit with a $10.3 million class-action suit from Texas cattlemen. She won the case, but her legal fees were said to exceed a million dollars.

The CCF’s slogan, “Promoting personal responsibility,” is an example of healthism. Healthism promotes personal responsibility for health as a way to avoid the social, environmental, and economic factors that affect our health. It assumes everyone can adopt “healthy lifestyles” without acknowledging the difficulty of changing behavior. It also has an unfortunate tendency to blame the victim when disease develops. Healthism, prevention as the solution to the healthcare crisis, coercing healthy behavior through legislation, our current cultural obsession with obesity – these are complex topics for future posts.

At first glance, it seems obvious that healthy lifestyles are in our interest. And they are. But when one segment of the economy prospers at the expense of national health, we should identify and openly discuss the tactics employed behind the scenes. Only then will we be free to choose.

Related posts:
Obesity: Moving beyond willpower vs. the food-industrial complex
The So-Called Obesity “Epidemic”