Obesity Meets Psychology

1. Which approach do you think is more concrete? Explain why.

Reflecting on my childhood phases in food science and America's obesity epidemic, I clearly remember the high amount of marketing that affects the average American diet. In the days when my family had cable and watched commercials, McDonald's would announce the return of its McRibs while Subway's and Quizno's battle over toasted versus un-toasted subs. One of my favorite studies, not mentioned in the lecture, involves a group of fifty-four volunteered individuals who ate from a self-refilling bowl of creamy tomato soup and a regular bowl of soup. By combining the factors of behavioralism and developmental psychology, the individuals eating from the self-refilling bowls ate more. The surprise however, was that they denied eating more than the people who ate from the regular bowls. How full they became took no matter. Although I feel the psychological influence convincing, I believe that through the American marketing system the socialcultural influence perceives most concrete.

While biology and psychology provide background and foundation, the socialcultural influence cements the growing American obesity epidemic. Compared to other cultures, the American diet focuses on speed and availability. Temptations in the everyday life exist from the food giants: PepsiCo, Dole, General Mills, Nestle, and Kraft. These companies aspire money and America's millionaire and billionaire food industries. For example, the infamous Kraft American Cheese is a "dairy product" with too many artificial processed ingredients to be considered actual chess by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Melanie Warner's Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over America notes that for several years, these giants bribed the USFDA to overlook processing techniques to get more unnatural foods on grocery store shelves. Now, karma makes its full loop as the American population obesity epidemic worsens. In fact, Michael Moss's recent NYT Bestseller Salt Sugar Fats: How Fast Food Giants Hooked Us reveals these companies are trying to recreate the processed foods menu through increased nutrients and fewer fats, salts and sugars. By finding a way to market healthier foods at more affordable costs, weight and following health issues will likely decrease. If companies like the food giants find better ways to reduce the salt, sugar, fat, and processed ingredients, the sociocultural influence will improve, allowing psychological and biological factors to fall in place.

2. Based on you introduction to the various modern approaches to psychology, which approach not discussed might provide another rationale for obesity? Explain you answer.

While evolution, psychology and social cultural influences provide strong cases to the American obesity epidemic, the end result comes down to a battle of the mind. I believe the cognitive perspective provides another rationale for obesity. People eat when they are not hungry; they eat to clear the plates. However, society has far evolved to a point where humans, depending on their country of residence, cannot get away with large meals and minimal activities. Despite chow ups/downs for sporting event, the large consumption of carbs the night before a meet or game does not always help one's performance. Rather, nutritionists propose to eat well balanced meals and not to cargo-load the calories. Exercise, however, takes time away from long hours in work and school. Whether it through walking to and from a destination, simply moving about can speed metabolic rates. The basis to moving comes from the mind. In the end, exercise comes down to whether or not a person can convince him or herself to maintain a stable healthy weight by balancing diet with exercise.


Citations

If You Don’t Recognize an Ingredient, Your Body Won’t Either | REALfarmacy.com | Healthy News and Information. (n.d.). REALfarmacy.com | Healthy News and Information. Retrieved September 8, 2013, from http://www.realfarmacy.com/if-you-dont-recognize-an-ingredient-your-body-wont-either/#!prettyPhoto/0/

Moss, M. (2013). Salt, sugar, fat: how the food giants hooked us. New York: Random House.

Wansink, B., Painter, J. E., & North, J. (2005). Bottomless Bowls: Why Visual Cues Of Portion Size May Influence Intake**. Obesity, 13(1), 93-100.

Warner, M. (2013). Pandora's lunchbox: how processed food took over the American meal. February 26, 2013: Scribner.