Obesity

Is Obesity a Disease?

October 4, 2013
Healthcare, Public Health

by Katelyn DeRuyter, UMN Law Student, MJLST Note and Comment Editor

The fact that many Americans are obese is hardly news. Obesity in America has been a source of news reports, social commentaries and literature for well over a decade. In her book review of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals” by Michael Pollan, published in Issue 8.1 of the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology, Morgan Holcomb discusses how obesity rates in America were part of Pollan’s motivation to write “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” More recently, American obesity has been described as an epidemic, and the health risks associated with obesity are gradually becoming common knowledge. Obesity is even compared, by some, to smoking and alcoholism. A recent LawSci blog post, “Is Food the New Tobacco: Science, Advertising, and the War against Obesity?” looks at Roseann Termini’s article, “Food Advertising and Childhood Obesity: A Call for Action for Proactive Solutions,” and draws parallels between the role of advertising in the rise of cigarette addiction and the current obesity epidemic.

A question that is overlooked in this dialogue is whether obesity is, in fact, a disease. Whether obesity is considered a disease has real consequences including altering social stigmas, increasing funds allocated for research and expanding treatment accessibility. The debate over whether obesity should be considered a disease is not new. However, new life has been breathed into the debate following the American Medical Association’s (AMA) official recognition of obesity as a disease. The New York Times quoted Dr. Harris, a member of the AMA’s board, as stating that “[r]ecognizing obesity as a disease will help change the way the medical community tackles this complex issue that affects approximately one in three Americans.” A recent Forbes article, “Declaring Obesity a Disease: the Good, the Bad, the Ugly,” provides a closer look at how the AMA reached its decision.

In reaching the conclusion that obesity is a disease, the AMA overruled its own council’s recommendation. The AMA’s Council on Science and Public Health (Counsel on Science) had been tasked with studying this issue over the past year. The Council on Science’s recommendation against categorizing obesity as a disease rested, in part, on the concern that body mass index (BMI) is a simplistic and inaccurate tool; BMI is the tool generally used to define obesity. The Council on Science was also concerned that recognizing obesity as a disease might increase reliance on drugs and procedures and decrease the emphasis on lifestyle changes.

From a legal perspective, this classification raises interesting questions regarding future interpretation of Congressional intent when “disease” is used without a specific definition. While only time will be able to tell the actual effects of this classification, this is certainly a “must watch” area for health law attorneys.

Is Food the New Tobacco: Science, Advertising, and the War against Obesity?

April 18, 2013
FDA, Food and Agriculture, Public Health

by George David Kidd, UMN Law Student, MJLST Staff

Globally, obesity and its underlying ailments have overtaken tobacco as the top preventable cause of death. But, while eating right and exercising might go a long way towards solving the problem, the solution might not be that simple. What drives consumer buying behavior, through more modern forms of how we interact with the world, might substantiate food science and advertising as powerful mechanisms to attack the obesity epidemic.

In Food Advertising and Childhood Obesity: A Call for Action for Proactive Solutions, published in Issue 12.2 of the Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology, life and health sciences author Roseann Termini and others add advertising to the already-large list of “other” factors affecting childhood obesity rates. Indeed, children are not as informed as adults about health and may be more likely influenced by certain channels of advertising, such as television. To address this concern, one of her proposed solutions is to ban, regulate, or even shift tax structure in order to control advertising that specifically targets children. While this might be an effective mechanism to reduce demand, it may only be a partial solution. For one, because children are not, generally, the direct purchaser of food, but rather depend upon parents, to what extent does advertising actually affect the buying decisions of parents?

An article recently mentioned in The New York Times, The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food, might help answer this question. Mr. Moss similarly explores the “obesity epidemic,” but from a corporate standpoint, positing that consumers are primarily driven to buy what “tastes good.” While Mr. Moss’s article also agrees that advertising is part of the problem, he paints a more complete picture of what might be the underlying cause of parental acquiescence in a child’s poor dietary choices. The perfect combination of salt, fat, and sugar might be, in part, to blame as addicting foods that influence buying behavior. In this way, food is likened to tobacco, except, unfortunately, while people can choose whether to begin smoking, all people must eat.
While the analogy between food and tobacco may be imperfect, the point is there. If the majority of the food available to the everyday consumer is manufactured as addicting, to what degree is there a choice to eat healthy? If, in order to survive in the marketplace, a corporation has to manufacture “addicting” foods to compete, how can we make these addicting foods into disease-preventing rather than disease-aiding choices? Food science and advertising may contain the answer.

Obesity

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