April 17, 2012 by Paul Amoruso

Obesity: (At Least) Twice as Bad as You Thought

by Paul Amoruso

Estimation is a means of simplification. It is a practical way to quickly determine the order of magnitude of a particular item, and is useful when taking an exact measure would be too complex, time-consuming or costly.

Of course, the problem with estimates is that they are by definition WRONG. And the “accuracy” of an estimate is judged by how far the estimate is from the actual, correct answer. Unfortunately, we tend to be really bad at estimating in certain circumstances, as illustrated by problems with estimates related to obesity in the U.S.

March 18, 2012 by Paul Amoruso

Bad Diet Advice from 620 B.C (That Just Won’t Die)

by Paul Amoruso

Most of us were taught Aesop’s fables as children. And when someone today asks about the proper pace for “healthy” weight loss, they’ll inevitably hear a response that echoes the famous line from Aesop’s The Hare and the Tortoise – “Slow and steady wins the race.” Everyone then nods their head in agreement, of course, as who would argue with that old chestnut.

I’m guessing that there was not much obesity in the period from 620 to 560 B.C. when Aesop lived, at least not among the Greek slaves of that time (of which Aesop was one). I’m also willing to bet that Aesop was not medically trained even by the standards of his time, nor did he intend his fables to apply to medical or nutritional issues. Perhaps most importantly, earliest interpretations of Aesop’s fable indicate that the story was meant to be a commentary on qualities such as arrogance and overconfidence (the hare gets out ahead and takes a nap), the use of brain over brawn, and persistence – but not on the virtue of one’s relative pace in anything, which was purely a storytelling device.

So 2,572 years after Aesop’s death, why does his adage persist as conventional wisdom when it comes to weight loss?

March 12, 2012 by Paul Amoruso

The Dietary “Yes Men”

by Paul Amoruso

When it comes to providing a positive service experience, the dictum “the customer is always right” usually makes sense. But especially for expertise-driven service businesses, it is critical to differentiate between managing the service experience (e.g., responsiveness, fixing problems, staff friendliness) and the content of the service itself. For example, a physician shouldn’t agree to an unnecessary operation simply because their patient desires it — though the physician and their staff should always be pleasant and efficient. A driving instructor shouldn’t allow their student to drive recklessly simply because the student wants to — though the instructor should always be supportive and give instructions politely. A good service experience and saying “NO” are not incompatible. Indeed, you need and fully expect experts that you hire to tell you “NO” when required in their judgment, whether or not you want to hear it.

So why is the word “NO” so completely absent in commercial weight loss programs?

March 6, 2012 by Paul Amoruso

Are We Smarter Than Frogs?

by Paul Amoruso

Frogs, famously (and apocryphally), will sit in an uncovered pot of water that is slowly brought to a boil, waiting there oblivious to their predicament until they die, instead of simply jumping out, which they could do at any time. This story has been used instructively in many contexts across many years to highlight the difficulty that we can have in recognizing the dangerous implications of slow change – from the menace of the Soviet Union to Global Warming.

It is tempting to use the same analogy to describe the gradual rise of obesity in America – in this case, the “pot” in which we float is our industrial food system that has over time created a nutritional environment that is systematically fattening us to death. The CDC has given us the perfect visual representation of how obesity levels have indeed been raised to the “boiling point” (I’ve shown the data progression below in 5 year increments from 1985 through 2010).

February 20, 2012 by Paul Amoruso

The Great Regression

by Paul Amoruso

Are we “entitled” to eat whatever we want?

Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), a condition first formally recognized as a clinical diagnosis in the early 1970’s, is characterized by self-centered and self-promoting behavior, overconfidence and inflated self-esteem without basis in reality, and a deep personal sense of deserving (e.g., fame, fortune, good grades, good looks, professional advancement) without merit or valid rationale, or out of an unfounded sense of being “special”.

In my recent reading of “The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement” (2009) by Jean Twenge, PhD and Keith Campbell, PhD, I was struck by the fact that the growth in clinical narcissism diagnoses across the last 40 years directly parallels the growth in obesity diagnoses across the same period. It turns out that clinical narcissism is now as prevalent as obesity in our society, and like obesity, is present across all demographic groups – so it appears we’ve yet another problem of “epidemic proportions” on our hands (see Blog Post: “Is Obesity Really an Epidemic?”).

February 9, 2012 by Paul Amoruso

When Cheating is Okay

by Paul Amoruso

Guess who just won her Weight Watchers workplace contest?

Answer: A WeightNot member.

She called us to get on the WeightNot program because she had entered a weight loss contest at her office, for which she and her colleagues were all doing Weight Watchers – apparently a group activity sponsored by her employer. She was incredibly frustrated by her slow rate of weight loss, and being both competitive and actually interested in losing weight, she found her barely half pound a week pace to be ridiculous. That is where WeightNot came in.

February 6, 2012 by Paul Amoruso

Is Obesity really an Epidemic?

by Paul Amoruso

Let’s look at the definition of the word “epidemic” —

“Spreading rapidly and extensively by infection and affecting many individuals in an area or population at the same time, as of a disease or illness. (Source: The American Heritage Medical Dictionary, by Houghton Mifflin Company)

I’m going fly in the face of our current media and government rhetoric by saying NO, OBESITY IS NOT AN EPIDEMIC. There is no virus, infection, or transmission mechanism that would characterize a true epidemic. It would certainly be true to say that obesity has reached epidemic proportions. Unlike epidemics, however, the solution is not a breakthrough medical “cure” or eradication of a virus.

So, why is the term ‘epidemic’ used so frequently with regard to obesity?

February 2, 2012 by Paul Amoruso

Are You Training to be an Astronaut?

by Paul Amoruso

If you’re not training for the space program, why are you eating packaged meals?

If you’re old enough to remember Tang, a powdered orange flavored drink mix introduced in 1957 and soon thereafter advertised as “the drink of astronauts,” you’ll remember a time when eating packaged “food-like products” was a complete novelty. This was of course something you’d only do if you had absolutely no access to REAL food – e.g. in outer space

Let’s be clear, this product was not especially healthy – but if John Glenn drank it on a Mercury mission, then people could overlook that fact and give it a try. Of course due to its high sugar content and the associated aura of space flight and science, kids like me loved it.

Looking back, this moment marked the start of the “Manufactured Food Marketed as Scientific Ingredient Mixture” era, where the specific benefits of a particular nutrient or the simple practicality of a product (e.g., lasts for years without spoiling) was used as a “cover” to justify its artificial nature, and to obscure its lack of nutritional value.

January 30, 2012 by Paul Amoruso

Treating the Symptoms, Not the Problem

by Paul Amoruso

Are Prescriptions and Surgery the right options to battle obesity?

When you go to your doctor’s office, prescriptions and surgery are the two alternatives for weight loss and weight related illnesses that most traditional physicians are equipped to offer. Both options are discrete and concrete treatments for the symptoms of obesity, but they do not impact the real, underlying causes of excess weight or obesity – namely, the industrial food system and modern eating habits.

January 26, 2012 by Paul Amoruso

Artificial Cheesecake Anyone?

by Paul Amoruso

Do you think that fake brownies and artificial cheesecake are actually healthy?

Imitation desserts are some of the most featured products in advertising by the nation’s leaders in commercial weight loss programs, including Medifast and Nutrisystem. Don’t believe me? Take a look:

So, even more important, do you think THEY believe that these fake desserts are really healthy for you?

WeightNot Blog

WeightNot Blog

Bad Diet Advice from 620 B.C (That Just Won’t Die)

The Dietary “Yes Men”

Are We Smarter Than Frogs?

The Great Regression

When Cheating is Okay

Is Obesity really an Epidemic?

Are You Training to be an Astronaut?

Treating the Symptoms, Not the Problem

Artificial Cheesecake Anyone?