What's Wrong With Fat? (42 page)

23. Schwimmer, Burwinkle, and Varni, “Health-Related Quality of Life of Severely
Obese Children and Adolescents.”

24. For details on sampling and coding, see the methodological appendix.

25. The next two sections and the beginning of the third draw on Abigail C. Saguy and
Rene Almeling, “Fat in the Fire? Science, the News Media, and the ‘Obesity
Epidemic,’”
Sociological Forum
23, no. 1 (2008): 53–83.

26. Cathryn M. Delude, “Time to Take a Vacation from Television as School Ends,
Keep Kids Healthy by Limiting TV Time,”
Boston Globe
, June 10, 2003.

27. Mokdad et al., “The Spread of the Obesity Epidemic in the United States.”

28. Allison et al., “Annual Deaths Attributable to Obesity in the United States.”

29. These included a study of the (limited) effectiveness of leptin treatment for weight
loss; a research article that examined the effect of low cardiovascular fitness on
mortality; a report on the association of fiber consumption with insulin levels,
weight gain, and other CVD risk factors; a report on the effects of intermittent
exercise on weight loss, adherence, and fitness; a study of the effects of reducing
television, videotape, and video game use on adiposity, physical activity, and dietary intake; and a report on the contribution of overweight and obesity to chronic
health conditions. Steven B. Heymsfield et al., “Recombinant Leptin for Weight
Loss in Obese and Lean Adults: A Randomized, Controlled, Dose-Escalation Trial,”
JAMA
282, no. 16 (1999): 1568–75 ; Ming Wei et al., “Relationship between Low
Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Mortality in Normal-Weight, Overweight, and
Obese Men,”
JAMA
282, no. 16 (1999): 1547–53 ; David Ludwig et al., “Dietary
Fiber, Weight Gain, and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Young Adults,”
JAMA
282, no. 16 (1999): 1539–46 ; John M. Jakicic et al., “Effects of Intermittent
Exercise and Use of Home Exercise Equipment on Adherence, Weight Loss, and
Fitness in Overweight Women,”
JAMA
282, no. 16 (1999): 1554–60 ; Thomas
N. Robinson, “Reducing Children’s Television Viewing to Prevent Obesity:
A Randomized Controlled Trial,”
JAMA
282, no. 16 (1999): 1561–67 ; Aviva Must
et al., “The Disease Burden Associated with Overweight and Obesity,”
JAMA
282,
no. 16 (1999): 1523–29.

30. Mokdad et al., “The Spread of the Obesity Epidemic in the United States” ; Koplan
and Dietz, “Caloric Imbalance and Public Health.”

31. Eric Oliver, “The Politics of Pathology: How Obesity Became an Epidemic Disease,”
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
49, no. 4 (2006): 616–17.

32. John Fauber, “Obesity ‘Epidemic’ Sweeping Nation; Studies Show Sharp Increase
in Percentage of Dangerously Overweight Adults in U.S,”
Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel
, October 27, 1999.

33. This was statistically significant at p<0.000.

34. M. A. J. McKenna, “Georgians’ Weight Problem Is Growing Fast, Study Says,”
Atlanta Journal and Constitution
, October 27, 1999.

35. Katherine M. Flegal et al., “Prevalence and Trends in Obesity among US Adults,
1999–2000,”
JAMA
288, no. 14 (2002): 1723–27.

36. John Fauber and Mark Johnson, “Losing Weight; Heavy Burden; the Obesity
Epidemic,”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
, July 8, 2003.

37. Schwimmer, Burwinkle, and Varni, “Health-Related Quality of Life of Severely
Obese Children and Adolescents.”

38. The difference between these proportions is statistically significant at p<0.001.

39. John Fauber, “Obesity Hurts Kids’ Lifestyles Like Cancer, Study Finds,”
Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel
, April 9, 2003.

40. Nanci Hellmich, “It’s Tough Being an Obese Kid,”
USA Today
, April 9, 2003.

41. Jim Ritter, “Kids on Front Lines of Obesity War,”
Chicago Sun-Times
, July 1, 2003.

42. For more discussion of the role that press releases played in shaping news reporting
on these theme issues, see Saguy and Almeling, “Fat in the Fire?”

43. Schudson, Sociology of the News, 48.

44
.
Ulysses P. Torassa, “Americans Keep Packing on the Pounds,”
San Francisco
Examiner
, February 16, 1999.

45. Mike Hudson, “America Is Fat, Getting Fatter; Nearly 1 in 5 Obese; Results Can Be
Fatal,”
Times-Picayune
, October 27, 1999.

46. Michel Foucault,
History of Sexuality, vol.
1
, An Introduction
(New York: Vintage Books, 1980) ; Charles Edgley and Dennis Brissett, “Health Nazis and the Cult of
the Perfect Body: Some Polemic Observations,”
Symbolic Interaction
13, no. 2
(1990): 269.

47. Marian Uhlman, “Journal Weighs In on Obesity; Suggests Fewer Calories, More
Activity,”
Philadelphia Inquirer,
April 8, 2003.

48. Wei et al., “Relationship between Low Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Mortality.”

49. Marie McCullough, “Time for New Approaches to Weight Loss,”
Philadelphia
Inquirer
, October 27, 1999.

50. Nelkin, Selling Science.

51. McCullough, “Time for New Approaches to Weight Loss.”

52. Flegal et al., “Excess Deaths Associated with Underweight, Overweight, and
Obesity,” 942. Ali H. Mokdad et al., “Actual Causes of Death in the United States,
2000,”
JAMA
291, no. 10 (2004): 1238–45.

53. Sheila Jasanoff, “The Idiom of Co-production,” in
States of Knowledge: Th
e
Co-production of Science and Social Order
, ed. S Jasanoff (New York: Routledge,
2004), 1–12.

54. Mokdad et al., “Actual Causes of Death in the United States,” 1242 ; Mary Leonard,
“US Launches a Fight against Obesity,”
Boston Globe
, March 10, 2004.

55. Tommy G. Thompson, “Testimony on Preventing Chronic Disease through Healthy
Lifestlyle” (hearing before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
United States Senate, One Hundred Eight Congress, Second Session, Special
Hearing, Washington, D.C., July 15, 2004,
http://www.hhs.gov/asl/testify/
t040715.html.

56. Ali H. Mokdad et al., “Correction: Actual Causes of Death in the United States,
2000,”
JAMA
293 (2005): 293–94.

57. Becky Perry, “Study Provides Excuse to Be Lazy,”
University Wire
, April 21,
2005.

58. John Luik, “400,000 Big Fat Lies: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control Climbed
Down from an Obesity Mortality Study Its Own Experts Challenged Prior to
Publication,”
National Post’s Financial Post & FP Investing
, June 21, 2005.

59. Katherine M. Flegal, Barry I. Graubard, and David F. Williamson, “Methods of
Calculating Deaths Attributable to Obesity,”
American Journal of Epidemiology
160,
no. 4 (2004): 331–38.

60. Flegal et al., “Excess Deaths Associated with Underweight, Overweight, and
Obesity.”

61. Mokdad et al., “Actual Causes of Death in the United States,” (emphasis added).

62. Flegal et al., “Excess Deaths Associated with Underweight, Overweight, and
Obesity,” 1866.

63. Mokdad et al., “Actual Causes of Death in the United States.” Technically, one
cannot really compare these different “actual causes” of death, since they are not
independent of each other. That is, a single death could be counted as due to more
than one “actual cause.” Thus, if a person with a BMI over 30 died in a car crash,
that death would be included in both the estimates of number of deaths due to
automobile crashes and estimates of number of deaths due to obesity.

64. Centers for Diseas Control, “Frequently Asked Questions about Calculating
Obesity-Related Risk,” CDC,
http://www.cdc.gov/PDF/Frequently_Asked_
Questions_About_Calculating_Obesity-Related_Risk.pdf.

65. Ibid.

66. Ibid.

67. For a discussion of the coding protocol, see the methodological appendix.

68. Leonard, “US Launches a Fight against Obesity.”

69. Yet, news reporting on these two studies was equally likely to refer to overweight/
obesity as an epidemic: a third of total news reports in each case, revealing the
extent to which the notion of obesity as an epidemic has become deeply
ingrained.

70. Dorsey Griffith, “U.S. Diet, Inactivity Rival Tobacco as Top Preventable Cause of
Death,”
Sacramento Bee
, March 10, 2004.

71. Leonard, “US Launches a Fight against Obesity.”

72. Griffith, “U.S. Diet, Inactivity Rival Tobacco as Top Preventable Cause of Death.”

73.
PR Newswire
, “American Diabetes Association responds to JAMA study citing
obesity close to becoming leading preventable cause of death,” March 11, 2004.

74. Leonard, “US Launches a Fight against Obesity.”

75. Lindsey Tanner, “Experts Say New Government Obesity Numbers Still Show
Being 50 Pounds Overweight Is Risky,”
Associated Press
, May 1, 2005.

76. Sally Squires, “Optimal Weight Threshold Lowered: Millions More to Be Termed
Overweight,”
Washington Post
, June 4, 1998 ; Reuben Andres et al., “Impact of Age
on Weight Goals,”
Annals of Internal Medicine
103, no. 6 (1985): 1030.

77. Gina Kolata, “Study Tying Longer Life to Extra Pounds Draws Fire,”
New York
Times
, May 27, 2005.

78. Jeremy Laurance, “Overweight? Study Shows You’ll Live Longer,”
Th
e Independent
,
April 21, 2005.

79. Perry, “Study Provides Excuse to Be Lazy.”

80. Marilynn Marchione, “Diet: CDC Stresses Obesity’s Woes Amid Growing Criticism
of Recent Study,”
Associated Press
, June 2, 2005.

81. Ramon A. Durazo-Arvizu et al., “Mortality and Optimal Body Mass Index in a
Sample of the U.S. Population,”
American Journal of Epidemiology
147, no. 8 (1998):
739–49.

82. A very small sample of these studies includes: Soham Al Snih et al., “The Effect of
Obesity on Disability Vs Mortality in Older Americans,”
Archives of Internal
Medicine
167, no. 8 (2007): 774–80 ; Maria M. Corrada et al., “Association of Body
Mass Index and Weight Change with All-Cause Mortality in the Elderly,”
American
Journal of Epidemiology
163, no. 10 (2006): 938–49 ; Stephen W. Farrell et al., “The
Relation of Body Mass Index, Cardiorespiratory Fitness, and All-Cause Mortality
in Women,”
Obesity Research
10, no. 6 (2001): 417–23 ; N. Haapanen-Niemi et al.,
“Body Mass Index, Physical Inactivity and Low Level of Physical Fitness as
Determinants of All-Cause and Cardiovascular Disease Mortality—16 Y Follow-up
of Middle-Aged and Elderly Men and Women,”
International Journal of Obesity
24,
no. 11 (2000): 1465–74 ; Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor, “Weight Science:
Evaluating the Evidence for a Paradigm Shift,”
Nutrition Journal
10, no. 9 (2011).
For an accessible review of some of the older literature on this, see Gaesser,
Big Fat
Lies
.

83. Corrada et al., “Association of Body Mass Index and Weight Change with All-Cause
Mortality in the Elderly.”

84. Nelkin, Selling Science.

85. Fotini K. Kavvoura, George Liberopoulos, and John P. A. Ioannidi, “Selection in
Reported Epidemiological Risks: An Empirical Assessment,”
PLOS Medicine
4, no.
3 (2007): 456–65 ; Jonah Leher, “The Truth Wears Off,”
New Yorker
, December 13,
2010.

86. Marilynn Marchione, “Diet: CDC Chief Stresses That Extra Pounds Are Harmful,”
Associated Press
, June 3, 2005.

87. Harvard School of Public Health, “Obesity Controversy: Flawed Obesity Study
Minimizes Health Risks of Excess Weight,” Harvard School of Public Health,
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/nutrition-news/obesity-study/;
“Despite Conflicting Studies about Obesity, Most Americans Think the Problem
Remains Serious,” Hardvard School of Public Health, http://www.hsph.harvard
.edu/news/press-releases/archives/2005-releases/press07142005.html.

88. Raymond S. Nikerson, “Confirmation Bias: A Ubiquitous Phenomenon in Many
Guises,”
Review of General Psychology
2, no. 2 (1998): 175–220.

89. Wayt Gibbs, “Obesity: An Overblown Epidemic?”
Scientific American
, June 2005,
72–77.

90. S. Jay Olshansky et al., “A Potential Decline in Life Expectancy in the United
States in the 21st Century,”
New England Journal of Medicine
352, no. 11 (2005):
1138–45. Gibbs, “Obesity: An Overblown Epidemic?”