NEXUS The Canadian Student Journal of Anthropology · 2004 · 326 citations · 2 references
Public HealthNutritionPublic Health NutritionFood PolicyHuman NutritionObesity PreventionObesity EpidemiologyObesity Prevention PolicyPolicy Approaches To Obesity PreventionSocioeconomic Determinants Of DietSocioeconomic Determinants Of ObesityWeight ManagementEconomic IncentivesEnvironmental Approaches To Obesity PreventionEnvironmental Determinants Of ObesityFood Environment ChangeObesity EpidemicObesogenic EnvironmentPrevention Of Weight GainSchool Food Environment
is that the increasingprevalence ofobesity follows inexorably from the pairing ofhuman biology with the created by presentday eating and exercise patterns. Much ofthe book is devoted todescribing this environment and the force-likenedto that ofatsunami-withwhich it shapes public health.In Part 1(Chapters I to 3), the authors make the casethat changing the toxic environment is the most effectiveapproach for halting the spread ofthe global obesity epidemic.They argue that our hunter-gatherpast has given us a metabolismtuned to storing calories in times ofplenty while modernagriculture provides many with perpetual caloric plenty. In theirview, changing the food environment will be both easier andmore successful than changing human biology.Part 2 (Chapters 4 to 9) presents and discusses details ofthe American food and exercise environment. Chapter topicsinclude barriers to exercise (4), the influence ofmarketingdirected to children (5), junk food in schools (6 and 7),expanding p011ion sizes (8), and economic incentives for overconsumption (9). Evidence from many countries, especiallyCanada and the UK, is compared and contrasted with USexamples.
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