Did ya hear? The First Lady is waging a campaign against childhood obesity. Generally, I think this is a good thing, but I'm also starting to get a bit skeptical because 'childhood obesity' has been in the news a lot lately and when anything is in the news a lot I get to thinking. Now, don't expect me to make any profound revelations. I don't expect that myself, so you shouldn't either. My thought goes like this: if the news-media starts to talk about something that I believe, I start to question myself. Maybe I inherently don't trust them, or maybe if they start talking about something I want to find a contrarian position. Either way, maybe we're making a big deal of this whole obesity/overweight thing?
First, let me say people should be happy with how they look and how they feel. If they are OK with how they feel and look, then they shouldn't give two thoughts to anyone who says otherwise. So is there reason we should actually be concerned about our weight? No. At least not because of the weight in itself. However, maybe there is concern about weight because of the health risks that are associated with it.
Did you hear this one? A new study finds that a lower IQ predicts heart disease. What?!
At least that's what the title of the article says. Here's what they say:
A low I.Q. score was a stronger predictor of heart disease than most traditional risk factors, second only to smoking. The study tracked 1,145 men and women in Scotland over 20 years, documenting I.Q., weight, education and income as well as traditional heart risk factors like obesity, high blood pressure and smoking.
I think you should probably click on the link above and read it. I think that this title is decent fodder for the mean spirited, but that's not why I'm commenting on it. I'm commenting on it because I think there is something really interesting here.
I'm not great at science. That ship sailed years ago; hence, why I'm in law school. My liberal arts education did teach me a few things: one of which is that correlation does not prove causation (thanks, Hume!). This study does show that there is some correlation between a low IQ and heart disease, but this does not prove that there is a causal link between a low IQ and heart disease. As we all know, IQ tests are fairly controversial in the same way that SATs (and maybe LSATs!) are. "I.Q." stands for intelligence quotient. Therefore, It'd be natural to think that this then means that if I'm a stupid person I will be more at risk that a smarter person to heart disease. However, there have ben numerous studies that show that IQ is influenced my a number variables, including shared family environments, socio-economic status, stimulating environments, etc.
The scientists ask why IQ would be a predictor of heart disease? They came up with several theories, but they're just theories. I like this one:
“I.Q. is a marker of lifetime insults, physiological insults,’’ said David Batty, a Wellcome Trust fellow and scientist at the Medical Research Council in Glasgow, the U.K. government’s national health research agency. ”We know kids with poor diets, kids who have repeated infections, have a lower I.Q., so it could be an I.Q. is capturing something about lifelong misery.”
That's just sad. Next time you run across someone that doesn't seem all that bright, maybe you should consider whether they were made fun of on the playground as a child, or ignored by a parent, or any number of things that may have scarred that person. This is not a happy a thought.
So this brings me to my conclusion: what do you think all this media attention about obesity is doing to people who are obese? Maybe it isn’t ‘working’ (i.e. motivating them to not be obese or…something…like that). Maybe it is fueling a cycle of insults...or worse. And perhaps it isn’t doing anything at all to them.
Whatever the media is doing, I’m starting to wonder if it is doing any good at all. As much as I applaud the good intentions of our First Lady, perhaps her campaign “against obesity” ought to be formulated and channeled into a more positive direction. In all fairness, she calls her campaign the “Let’s Move” campaign, which is pretty good, and the media has turned it into the “war on obesity.” However, her husband is (arguably) the most powerful man in the country (and is already embroiled in two wars).
I suggest that instead of subsidizing foods that are refashioned into unidentified food-like objects, which are incredibly unhealthy for us, we should place a sin tax on those foods and subsidize healthy foods and activities (whatever those are). I have heard that the unhealthy food is what can be afforded by those who are in the lower economic class. That may be true. But if it is, then my solution should work by making healthy food more affordable than the unhealthy, right?
Now that, good people of America, would be a war against obesity.