Obesity Is A National Problem

The new poster child for Canada's participaction program to reduce obesity.

Play is the best weapon in the fight against childhood obesity

To bad he didn't include anything in the new budget to help reduce his and other adult Canadians obesity problems.

Subsidies needed to combat growing obesity problem

Of Canadians aged 18 or older, 36.1 per cent are overweight and 23.1 per cent are obese, according to Statistic Canada’s 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey.

With rising obesity rates in mind, University of Alberta economics professor Dr Sean B Cash spoke of how fat taxes and thin subsidies could be used to encourage Canadians to make healthy choices at last weekend’s Philosophers’ Café, held at the Stanley A Milner Library.

Cash brought up the concept of energy densities, which is the amount of energy in a unit of food, such as calories per gram. Cash and some of his students, using Edmonton grocery stores, replicated a study on energy densities previously done in Seattle.

“As the energy-density goes up, the cost per unit of energy goes down,” Cash said.

Cash explained that this trend results in energy dense foods, like chips, cookies and plain white sugar, being a cheaper way to meet someone’s energy needs than healthier alternatives like fruits and vegetables.

The PM's paunch may not be a question of nature and nurture or even the fault of his food choices, maybe it's the result of chemical poisons in the Canadian environment.

Phthalates, a class of chemicals used in some plastic food packaging and soaps, have been implicated in higher belly fat in men.

Phthalates are used to make plastic flexible, and are found in plastic tubes, some children's toys, cosmetics, shampoos, soaps, lotions, lubricants, paint, pesticides, and other plastics.

The chemicals have been implicated in reproductive problems in men such as low sperm counts and low testosterone levels, and subtle changes in the reproductive organs of baby boys.

In a new study to be published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, Dr. Richard Stahlhut of the University of Rochester Medical Center and his team looked at the connection between phthalates and testosterone.

The researchers wanted to test the idea that phthalates may be linked to obesity, since low testosterone levels appear to cause abdominal obesity and
pre-diabetes in men.

Does our macho PM suffer from a low testosterone count? Only Mrs. PM can say for sure.

Of course it didn't seem to affect the testosterone levels of that other politician with a paunch; Bill Clinton.


H/T to janfromthebruce

See: Fat Boy Needs Election

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