07.30.2008
"HartBeat" is The Hartman Group's FREE online newsletter, providing insight, analysis, information and strategy to give business leaders the knowledge and vision to build sustainable brands.
THE MANY FACES OF ORGANIC 2008
The organic marketplace is changing! Explore and understand the consumer lifestyle and cultural shifts occurring in organic shopping and usage in The Many Faces of Organic 2008.
|
READMORE...
For more Hartman Group articles on OBESITY, click here...
06.06.2007 "Portion Control: Minimize Me, Please!"
08.16.2006 "The Challenges of Portion Control"
07.12.2006 "Understanding the Obesity Crisis"
04.26.2006 "The Rise of Single-Servie Packaging"
03.08.2006 "Satiety: 'Satisfying' the Hunger for a New Food Trend?"
03.10.2005 "The Balance Trap"
10.26.2004 "What If It's Not About the Food After All"
08.19.2004 "7 Myths of Obesity in America"
08.05.2004 "Snacking Our Way Through the Day: Food Culture in America"
06.17.2004 "Addressing the Problem of Obesity"
04.07.2004 "5 Faces of Obesity"
02.11.2004 "Don't Tell Me I'm Obese, I'm Just Big-Boned"
Click here for an archive of past HartBeat articles
Print »
E-mail »
Subscribe »The Big Problem with Obesity
(Hint: It Ain't the Food)
Obesity is a grave health problem in this country. It is an issue that has been hotly debated for the past several years. It has prompted action on many fronts, not the least of which has been legislative and food manufacturing and marketing. The latest update by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), released in a recent issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), finds that the “proportion of U.S. adults who self report they are obese increased nearly 2% between 2005 and 2007” and is sure to throw more fuel on an already incendiary topic.
According to Dr. William Dietz, director of CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, “The epidemic of adult obesity continues to rise in the U.S. indicating we need to step up our efforts at the national, state and local levels.” He goes on to say that, “We need to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables, engage in more physical activity and reduce the consumption of high calorie foods and sugar sweetened beverages in order to maintain a healthy weight.”
And this is news because…? Haven’t we heard this before, perhaps so much so that it now appears to be falling on deaf ears? This approach, like the much vaunted “new” Food Pyramid, didn’t work before, so what makes the CDC and others in line with this line of thinking, believe that it will work this time?
From the tone of the rhetoric this news release has spurred, we believe (once again) that most folks haven’t got a clue as to what is going on. As we’ve said in past editions of HartBeat and other writings, such as our white paper Understanding Obesity: Beyond Teaching, Tinkering & Blaming, that obesity may be largely a by-product of our society’s non-cultural perspective on eating.
Since the experience of food is largely determined by behavioral and cultural factors, shouldn’t our understanding of obesity’s causes also pay great attention to how we eat?
What If It Is Not the Food?
Most consumers will mention food as a primary cause of obesity, because, well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? The root problem, of course, is that we simply consume far, far too many calories for our own good. And, due to the modern age of food production, it is simply too easy and too convenient to get food in the modern West. Our urge to eat can be satisfied literally within an instant.
Yet, when it comes to personal weight assessment, consumers lack objectivity in identifying obesity. According to our report, Obesity in America: Understanding Weight Management from a Consumer Perspective, most overweight consumers do not seem overly interested in doing anything about it. Certainly, they are very concerned about the “problem of obesity.” But they are also very concerned about global warming, the price of gasoline and declining housing values.
Consumers acknowledge these are big problems, problems just too big for them to get their own arms around. They are seen as social problems, not their own problems. Consumers have redefined their own personal situations and have separated these from the larger socially defined problems, like obesity. From their points of view it is something someone else (like the government) should fix. So, in the context of the consumer’s everyday reality a social problem like obesity is not something they consciously think about. Of course, when asked, they will have opinions on the subject, much the same way they talk about stuff around the water cooler, “Obesity…oh, yes, that is such a problem in this country.”
Questions about how obesity, the health problem, affects individuals’ day-to-day lives, however, remain largely unanswered. It is also not true that people lack basic nutrition information or that they somehow cannot seem to grasp the relationship between calories taken in and calories burned. And policies aimed at educating the overweight and near overweight about how to “overcome their problem” are doomed to failure as long as they persistently ignore the fact that people have yet to agree they have a problem.
Ignoring this fact and taking a non-cultural approach to “solving” obesity, reasonably leads to the following observations:
- Scientists and government types may inadvertently be causing the obesity problem through their promotion of scientific perspectives on eating and weight loss
- Food marketers offering up portion control options as well as 100-count calorie packs may also be contributing to the problem
- Compelling and educating consumers to “make better choices” may, ironically, only make matters worse
- The ultimate solution may be to reframe how we approach, think and talk about eating
Short of banning snacking altogether in the workplace and public spaces, removing scientific-based nutrition from food packages or affixing a tax on convenience packaging or convenient meal options, do we really believe there is some magic formula that, once properly applied, is going to cause consumers to eat differently and lose weight in record numbers?
The Consumer: The Big Problem with Obesity
To understand consumer behavior with regard to obesity as it occurs in the everyday marketplace, we must first understand that consumer orientations to weight issues are actually part of a much larger category of behavior. What we said in 2006, is just as relevant today and bears repeating:
Our research on individual practice and sentiment tells us the ideal solutions to the obesity dilemma may have little at all to do with individual people and a heck of a lot more to do with the larger culture framework within which we live our lives. Quite simply, and we don’t mean to sound glib here, but ‘it is not the food, it’s the culture stupid.’
At the most basic, fundamental level, we suggest it is worth taking a step back and reflecting. In one way or another, we have all, as a society, been preoccupied with the problem of obesity for several decades now. We have devoted significant percentages of our vast resources—natural as well as intellectual—to the study of this problem. Moreover, many of us have devoted much of our own lives to solving this problem. Yet, we continue to fail—by all scientific accounts, we appear to be fatter than at any previous point in U.S. history.
And herein lies the most significant and important challenge of all, namely, how to change not individual behavior but the parameters within which such behavior resides—how to change the culture.
The challenge continues…
Click here to leave us feedback
Understanding Obesity: Beyond Teaching, Tinkering and Blaming,FREE white paper download for HartBeat subscribers!
Enter your e-mail below to proceed to the white paper download.
Obesity By the Numbers
56% of adult consumers say they have dieted at some time to lose weight.
12% of consumers find product labels useful in their weight management efforts.
44% of consumers find it difficult to avoid snacks at work that are put out to be shared.
60% of consumers say they are responsible for choosing the right foods to eat, NOT manufacturers.
29% of consumers assess their own quality of health as excellent or very good.
78% of consumers indicate that they have at one time or another tried to control the amount of food and beverages they consume for weight management purposes.
64% of consumers say they do not have any challenges with managing their food portions.
SOURCES:
Obesity in America: Understanding Weight Management from a Consumer Perspective. The Hartman Group, Inc., 2004.
Pulse Report: Portion Control from a Consumer Perspective. The Hartman Group, Inc., 2007.
Wellness Lifestyle Insights: Emerging Trends to Shape the Future Marketplace. The Hartman Group, Inc., 2007.
The Hartman Group is a part of The Hartman Group, Inc.
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.