Let Them Eat Cake?
Several years ago I accompanied my husband to his co-worker’s child’s birthday party. I don’t recall where this party was located, how old the child was, or what the child even looked like. However, years later I can still vividly remember the birthday cake: a glorious, fluffy, double-layered vanilla cake, filled with raspberry compote and slathered lavishly with thick, sugary whipped cream. After one piece turned into another, and yet another, I found myself spending most of the party standing alone near this object of perfection, rather than speaking to other people. I probably didn’t eat much the rest of the day after ingesting so much sugar on an empty stomach, but when we drove away from the party, I smiled back with jitters at my young daughter promising, “Someday you can be certain that I will have that cake at your wedding.” I have not wavered since.
When author and illustrator Allie Brosh wrote about the hilarious lengths she went to in obtaining the object of her obsession, a birthday cake which was explicitly off limits, the experience felt eerily similar to my own. In her blog post, titled The God of Cake, Brosh illustrates the ridiculous hurdles one will jump over to satisfy an insatiable sweet tooth. I fully relate to her black and white stick figure heroine exclaiming, “I had tasted cake and there was no going back.”
While Brosh’s story may seem extreme, it may not be as abnormal as one would think. When I read Fat Nation: A History of Obesity in America, by Jonathan Engel, I was presented with evidence on how such highly palatable food in the room could have power over us, and how I am not alone in getting caught in its sugary grip. Even though I don’t favor the author’s choice of using the word “FAT” in large letters on its cover, this book reads like an interesting timeline you would see on the white board of a teacher’s classroom. While I had already been familiar with many factors contributing to a rise in American obesity, Engel combines researched data and numerous studies into a cohesive and orderly layout. The book provides an excellent resource to anyone wanting to understand how our nation got to where we are at now with our health (particularly as it relates to our weight) and how hard it is to turn the scale the other weigh…er, I mean the other way.
Alas, the villain we are battling is not simply our appetite, but our our appetite in our current environment which sets us up for failure. Engel says, “People eat in response to available food choices, containers, plates, portion sizes, social cues, environmental cues, stress, smells, tactile stimuli, and time of day. They rarely eat in response to their own hunger, much less in compliance with objective nutrition information.” Additionally, he states,
“Our lives have changed dramatically in a very short period of time. In the space of just a few generations, we have integrated into our lives cars, smartphones, television, the information economy, long distance relationships, take out food, information based work, central heating, and solitary living. Such changes have brought enormous benefits to billions, including broad distribution of literacy, modern medical care, social mobility, gender equality, and physical safety. However, such changes have also placed havoc with our eating habits. Primitive forces that have traditionally governed how we prepared and consumed food have rapidly been broken down. The symbol of the hearth for the millennial generation is not the dinner table but the coffee table.”
Furthermore, along with our changing lives, when we do eat, we often end up eating too much processed food and healthier whole food choices, and we will continue to do so as long as food is placed in front of us.
Engel spends considerable time explaining how much effort and energy it takes to resist extremely tempting food that is readily available in our houses, places of work, and communities. He urges us to consider that our willpower is constantly being depleted because we are expending so much energy on resisting all of this palatable food. He goes on to say that, “For many people, eating is a response to practically every facet of their environment except the actual quantity of food in their stomachs.” If one doesn’t want to succumb to the similar fate as the majority of Americans, then one must do their best to consciously make an attempt to live differently. This solution will require us to examine and re-evaluate every area of our life.
Engel doesn’t just identify a series of events in the past century that have led to this societal issue but gives practical ideas on how to better things going forward. He states, “We will need to think much more strategically about such life choices as our employment, housing, family structure, habits of daily living, locomotion, commuting, and recreational activities.” It seems from his list, no area of life should be off limits.
While Fat Nation gave many realistic suggestions for living differently, I was most impressed and convicted to actually look at the bigger picture of how I want to live a healthy life. Once I spent time viewing it holistically, from there I was able to delve deeper into the minutia of my daily habits. So rather than just create an updated checklist with boxes to be checked off, after reading Fat Nation I now consider ripping up the old paper and finding a fresh new sheet.
