44 pages • 1 hour read
Jason FungThe Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4: “The Social Phenomenon of Obesity”
Part 4, Chapter 11 Summary and Analysis: “Big Food, More Food and the New Science of Diabesity”
Chapter 11 focuses on the role of large corporations in fueling the obesity epidemic. In the closing decades of the 20th century, big food companies began promoting snacks as a new category of food. Keen to increase their earnings, they embarked on advertisement campaigns and paid the AHA to place its Heart Check symbol on their products. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the AHA received more than $2 million this purpose in 2002, placing its seal of approval on nutritionally dubious foods, such as Cocoa Puffs and Frosted Mini Wheats (127). Corporations also influenced healthcare professionals, who began endorsing artificial meal replacements, as well as weight loss drugs and surgical procedures. Fung strongly disapproves of these practices: “Shills for Big Food had been allowed to infiltrate the hallowed halls of medicine. Push fructose? No problem. Push obesity drugs? No problem. Push artificial meal replacement shakes? No problem.” (128). He is also critical of researchers who accept money from food companies to conduct studies, which increases the likelihood of results that favor the food companies by almost 700% (128).
Fung debunks several popular food myths, asserting that 1) Caloric reduction does not lead to weight-loss, 2) Dietary supplements and snacking have more to do with corporate profits than health, 3) Breakfast is not the most important meal of the day, and 4) Eating fruits and vegetables can help weight loss.
Snacking is problematic because it increases the frequency of eating highly processed, poor-quality foods. Eating breakfast is in fact unnecessary, as the body produces cortisol and adrenalin upon waking, releasing glucose into the blood for energy. Eating a large breakfast, moreover, does not reduce food intake during the day. Eating fruits and vegetables can aid in weight loss, but only if these foods replace unhealthy foods. They key is to replace, not to add.
Poorly regulated insulin levels cause obesity and type 2 diabetes: Obese people are insulin resistant, as are people with type 2 diabetes. The similarities between the diseases gave rise the term diabesity, the root cause of which is persistently high insulin levels. Both diseases require lowering insulin levels, yet treatments do just the opposite. Dietary changes introduced in the 1970s to reduce heart disease created the diabesity epidemic. Reversing it requires eating fewer carbohydrates, eating less frequently, skipping breakfast, and reducing food intake. Fung observes that obesity and diabetes are among the strongest risk factors for heart disease: Eating more carbs to reduce heart disease, then, was like “trying to put out a fire with gasoline” (135).
Part 4, Chapter 12 Summary and Analysis: “Poverty and Obesity”
Chapter 12 examines links between obesity and poverty. Obesity rates vary by region in the US, with the poorest areas also being the fattest. Further, regions with the lowest obesity rates in 2010 have higher obesity rates than any region in 1990 (136). In other words, obesity rates rose dramatically in the US around the turn of the 21st century. Some experts suggest that obesity rates rose as people began rewarding themselves with food. The link between obesity and poverty, however, complicates this hypothesis. Wealthy people can afford to buy more rewarding food while poor people cannot. The physical exertion theory also falls short, as poor people tend to do manual labor and wealth people tend to have desk jobs.
Fung proposes that poor people are obese because they eat too many refined carbohydrates. Proteins are relatively expensive, and fats, such as vegetable oils, are affordable, but not edible in large quantities. This leaves carbohydrates as the only affordable food source for many Americans. Processed carbohydrates are the least expensive: A loaf of bread and box of pasta, for instance, might cost $2, compared to steak and cheese, which cost three times the price. Unrefined carbohydrates, such as fruits and vegetables, are also more expensive than processed foods. Refined carbohydrates are cheap because of agricultural subsidies originally enacted in the 1970s. For example, corn and wheat receive generous support from the federal government. Food additives like high fructose corn syrup, soy oils, and corn starch also receive large subsidies (141). Excluded from this federal munificence are unrefined carbohydrates, such as apples, broccoli, and berries. Government policies, then, fuel the obesity epidemic.
Part 4, Chapter 13 Summary and Analysis: “Childhood Obesity”
Chapter 13 examines the spike in obesity in school-aged children. Statistics show that childhood obesity skyrocketed between 1977 and 2000, as did obesity-related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. Obesity in children between the ages of six and eleven more than doubled in this period while obesity rates in children aged 12 to 19 more than tripled (146). Obesity even impacts infants aged zero to six months.
In contrast to other specialists, who point to environmental factors to explain childhood obesity, Fung argues insulin is to blame. Fetuses are exposed to high levels of insulin while in the womb. Indeed, studies show that maternal weight is closely associated with neonatal weight gain (148). Mothers and fetuses share a blood supply, and hormonal imbalances, such as high insulin levels, are directly transmitted to the fetus via the placenta. Fetal macrosomia (fetuses that are large for their age) is a growing problem in the US. This condition correlates to maternal obesity, maternal weight gain, and maternal gestational diabetes. High insulin levels link all three conditions. Insulin resistance results after birth, producing obesity in infants. As Fung notes, the consequences extend far into the future: “Fat babies become fat children. Fat children become fat adults. And fat adults have fat babies in turn, passing obesity on to the next generation” (148).
Health authorities have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to solve childhood obesity, with no success. Obesity prevention programs emphasized eating less, eating low-fat foods, and exercising. The failure of these programs should have prompted specialists to rethink their methods, yet most health authorities maintained the status quo. A notable exception is the Australian Romp and Chomp study of 2004-2008, which followed 12,000 children in daycare centers. Children in one group were encouraged to decrease their consumption of sugary drinks and processed snacks, and to increase their consumption of fruits, vegetables, and milk. They were also encouraged to stop snacking. By contrast, children in the control group maintained their usual programs. The recommendations for the first group combatted insulin secretion and resistance. This group experienced significant weight reduction compared to the control group. Indeed, the prevalence of obesity declined by 2 to 3% (152). A similar program in England showed even more weight loss. These studies strongly suggest that reducing insulin is critical to losing weight.
Overall childhood obesity rates dropped between 2003 and 2012. Although some researchers attribute this development to the “Eat Less, Move More” paradigm, Fung argues it resulted from a trickledown effect as adults decreased their intake of sugar.
