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Fighting Obesity with Technology
By Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., M.P.H.
This morning, the Reuters wire service is carrying a story about the promise of fighting obesity with Korean pine nuts. The underlying theory here is that the pine nut may have the potential to suppress appetite, dramatically affecting the "calories in" half of the calories in/calories out obesity equation.
We are going to have to take a "wait and see" attitude about pine nuts as diet aids. But the wire story brought to mind the fact that in almost all the recent discussions and handwringing over obesity and its serious medical effects, turning to technology as a solution is rarely mentioned.
Instead we are bombarded with suggestions that we have "government" step in to order the banning of certain food ads, the listing of caloric contents on restaurant menus, the taxing of various foods to discourage purchase, and more.
Americans would benefit more from some "crutches" to help them fight off obesity or avoid it in the first place. One logical "crutch" would be new food technologies that allow us to have our cake and eat it too.
For example, we'd benefit from more tasty, nourishing foods that have a reduced calorie content. Our current spectrum of sugar substitutes offer some assistance here. But given that fat contains a walloping nine calories per gram (sugar has four), the introduction and use of new fat substitutes would represent real progress in our war against obesity. The misinformation campaign against the safe and versatile fat substitute olestra was shameful and destructive. Hopefully, olestra will make a new debut soon -- and be increasingly used in foods beyond savory snacks. (The manufacturer, Procter & Gamble would need to seek approval for new food applications for olestra. Currently, the only other category for which olestra is approved is microwave popcorn, although no company has used it yet in such products.) Z Trim, a fiber-based food extender, is now available to reduce the fat content of foods -- but we clearly need more fat substitutes. If "government" is leading the war against obesity, why are there not incentives for more breakthroughs in food technology to reduce the calorie content of foods ranging from cakes and cookies to cheeses, butter, and meat?
Pharmaceuticals represent yet another option to fight obesity. But this option is also rarely mentioned. The prescription drug Xenical (which blocks the absorption of some of the dietary fat ingested) may be going over the counter soon under the name Alli. And it's about time. Meanwhile, the French company Sanofi Aventis has a new diet pill called Accomplia, also known as Rimonabant, which has been approved in the United Kingdom. Accomplia blocks receptors in the brain that stimulate appetite -- causing people to eat less. Why is this drug not approved here in the U.S.?
Memo to the generals planning and implementing the war on obesity: take action to have a variety of tools from technology in your arsenal. They are likely to work much more effectively than taxes, bans, and other punitive measures.
Elizabeth M. Whelan, Sc.D., MPH, is founder and president of the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH.org, HealthFactsAndFears.com).
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