WASHINGTON -- The reasons that too many Americans are too fat
have more to do with what's in their heads than with what's on
their plates.
That's the collective wisdom from the experts in dietary
behavior who gathered at the U.S. Agriculture Department on
Wednesday for a symposium on ``Why We Choose the Foods We Eat.''
The irony is that a populace obsessed with fat and calories and
vitamins and other elements of food has been so unsuccessful in
merely consuming a healthy diet, several researchers agreed.
Indeed, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported
last week that Americans are eating more than ever, exercising
little, and getting fatter each year. More than half the population
is overweight and nearly 18 percent are obese -- weighing more than
30 percent above healthy body weight.
The problem is more about the eaters than what's being eaten.
``You've got to figure out what motivates people so you can try
to help them modify their diets,'' said Agriculture Secretary Dan
Glickman.
``The main challenge to improved nutrition is not in improving
foods but in improving the way individuals and society think about
food, pleasure and health,'' concluded Paul Rozin, a psychology
professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Since food is relatively cheap across America, most people eat
whatever they want to eat -- largely food that tastes good to them,
said Adam Drewnowski, director of Nutritional Sciences at the
University of Washington.
Rather than just concentrating on what people should eat to be
healthy, he said, ``we need to understand what factors drive
consumer food choices in modern society.''
The American culture is full of contradictions about eating,
said Rozin. For example, Americans are extremely well informed
about the risk factors of foods. But Americans are not well trained
in understanding risks, he added.
``People tend to classify food as 'good' or 'bad.' If it's
'bad', they think you shouldn't eat any of it,'' he said. Taking
fat and salt as examples, he said, ``it's not true that if a lot is
bad for you, a little is bad for you, too.''
Like rats and cockroaches, humans can eat almost anything, Rozin
said. So what people choose to eat is usually a mental rather than
physiological process.
A ``Used Food Cafe'' that featured great food with just a bite
taken out would flop -- not because of sanitation but because of
sensibilities, he said. Likewise, Americans don't eat turkey on
Thanksgiving because of the nutrition of poultry but because of
tradition.
The thin-is-in culture has put such pressures about eating on
the college women he teaches, said Rozin, that many are too
embarrassed to buy a chocolate bar at a store. ``We are spoiling
our relationship with food,'' he lamented.
Americans could learn from the French in developing a healthy
food culture, Rozin said. The French have less cardiovascular
disease than do Americans, even though the French diet is higher in
saturated fats and the French people have a higher blood
cholesterol level.
``The French focus more on food as an eating experience as
opposed to a set of chemicals that affect the body,'' said Rozin.
``They eat less than we do, eat longer meals and have a relaxed
attitude toward eating.''
Common sense about healthy eating could go a long way in the war
against unhealthy fat, some psychologists said.
Children learn how much they are supposed to eat from how much
is put on their plate, said Leann Birch, head of Penn State's
Department of Human Development and Family Studies. ``Portions
larger than recommended servings may promote overeating in
children.''
People eat food that tastes good, said Drewnowski. ``These foods
are often sweet and rich in fat.''
But taste can be altered, he said, recommending that ``we
fortify food with extra taste'' as is routinely done with vitamins
and other nutrients.
A baby's taste is working at birth, research has shown. By the
age of four months, infants show a preference for salty tastes.
Even in young children, environmental and psychological factors
often override an inate ability to regulate calorie intake.
Banning unhealthy snacks can backfire, though, and push children
to eat more of the forbidden food when their parents aren't around,
warned Birch.
