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Diet & Weight Loss Articles: World Health Organization gets involved in the global obesity epidemic.

In the scientific community, obesity is approached from two opposite directions. One of them makes profits, the other one makes sense.

The pharmaceutical companies try to find out what's "wrong" with our bodies, hoping to discover the gene, or the hormone, or the enzyme that causes us to get fat. Once they have this vital information, they hope to create a new (and profitable) therapy that will be purchased by at least 60% of citizens in the Western world.

Just by looking at the numbers of overweight people in our society, it's easy to see that any scientific breakthrough will be the mother-lode for the company that comes out with it first.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is coming at the issue from a different (and more sensible) direction. And they have good reason to get involved in the fight.

This October, WHO came out with a report that identified the top 10 preventable risks to health, world-wide. Obesity was #10.

While many of the causes of disease on WHO's list are specific to developing counties, where nutrition and sanitation are poor, obesity is a problem for the relatively rich.

In an article on the BBC website, at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2371255.stm, we read that "obesity is becoming a global problem - estimated to affect more than one billion adults world-wide. Approximately 500,000 people in North America and Western Europe die from obesity-related diseases every year."

WHO is now working with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to create a report with recommendations that would help achieve ideal nutritional goals. And according to Stephen Clapp of the Food Chemical News, the U.S. government is cooperating with WHO to come up with guidelines that would help leading food companies to change the ingredients in the food they sell.

Derek Yach, the head of WHO's division of noncommunicagble disease prevention program told Mr. Clapp that the goal of this international effort is to bring food companies in as allies, rather than enemies in the global fight against obesity.

He stated that the public policy should be "to make healthy choices the easy choices."

Why does this matter to us? Let's go back to the approach that the pharmaceutical companies are taking. By looking for a gene (or protein or hormone) in obese individuals that causes them to get fat, they are telling the world that you, the overweight person, has something wrong with you that can potentially be fixed by gene therapy or the next miracle diet pill.

On an individual level, it may give us hope that we can get help in our fight against our excess weight.

But on a national and international level, it simply doesn't make sense. No scientist would even consider looking for the "bad gene" that causes cigarette smokers to get lung cancer - it's obviously an environmental problem, caused by the cigarettes, not the lungs.

The same thing is true of obesity. It's not the body that causes obesity, it's the food.

Scientists and public policy makers have known for at least 200 years that sugar and white flour, along with certain fats, are not healthy foods. But these products are in almost every item found in a supermarket in the Western world because they are easy to produce, they're inexpensive, and they taste good.

Now that WHO is pulling together a coalition that includes national policy makers and food industry executives, it may be possible that something will be done that really does "make healthy choices the easy choices."

And I say - It's about time!

This week's great low-cal recipe: the New York Goodwich, created by Marilyn Diamond.

This recipe is one of my all-time favorites. And the best part about it is that it is easy to take with you for lunch. We all have trouble finding something to take to work or school with us. We need things to take with us that will fill us up without filling us out. If we don't take a healthy lunch with us, we'll be tempted by the deli around the corner - which is both expensive and fattening.

Here's what Marilyn Diamond says about the New York Goodwich:

"Believe it or not, this conglomeration of vegetables results in an absolutely delectable "handwich" - something that can really become a great addiction! Seven hundred and fifty people devoured sixteen hundred of these at one of our seminars on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. It was a new experience, and they loved it!"

I loved it too. Here's the recipe:

1 cup broccoli
1/2 cup cauliflower (optional)
2 tablespoons carrot, finely grated
2 tablespoons red cabbage, finely grated
2 tablespoons yellow squash, finely grated
1/4 cup Barbecued Onions (see below) (optional)
1 whole-wheat tortilla, chapatti, or pita
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
3 thin slivers dill pickle
1/2 cup lettuce, finely shredded
1/2 cup alfalfa sprouts
2 slices avocado (optional)
Dash of sea salt, Spike, or salt-free seasoning (optional

Prepare the vegetables.

Cut broccoli into thin lengths, using only florets and upper portion of stalk. Break cauliflower into tiny florets. Place broccoli and cauliflower in vegetable steamer, covered, over boiling water for 5 minutes or until vegetables are tender when pierced with tip of sharp knife. Combine carrot, cabbage, and squash, and mix thoroughly. (note from editor - to make this faster, use the microwave to cook the broccoli and cauliflower.)

Barbecued Onions for Goodwich:

2 teaspoons safflower oil
1 small white onion, sliced
1/2 tablespoon Hain or Robbie's barbecue sauce

Prepare the Barbecued Onions.

In a small skillet, heat oil. Add onion, and saute until it begins to soften. Add barbecue sauce, and continue sauteing, stirring frequently, until onion is thoroughly wilted. Makes enough for 3 or 4 Goodwiches. Leftover Barbecued Onions are delicious in any vegetable soup.

Assemble the Goodwich.

In hot dry skillet, heat tortilla or chapatti, turning from one side to the other until soft but not crisp. Place on large sheet of plastic wrap. If using pita, heat in oven for a few minutes to soften it, and cut a sliver from top so pocket opens easily. Combine all other ingredients, mix well, and stuff into pocket.

Spread tortilla with mayonnaise. (editor's note - I've always left out the mayonnaise, and it still turns out great.) Add a line of broccoli down center. Crumble cauliflower and place a line of it on broccoli. Add a line of pickle, a line of grated vegetables, a line of Barbecued Onions. Top with lettuce, sprouts, and avocado. Sprinkle with Spike, if desired. Roll tortilla tightly, crepe-style, around vegetables. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap until ready to serve. This Goodwich will keep for 2-3 days in the refrigerator (if you hide it from your friends and family!) Cut it in half and push plastic wrap partially down, but leave one end closed to catch the drippy sauces. YUM! Serves 1.

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I've never made just one, because I like to have them in the 'fridge to grab in the morning for work. Although the recipe looks like a lot of work, once you try it you'll see that it really isn't. And you'll definitely be hooked after you try one.

You can find this recipe, and many others just as good, in the book Fit for Life, by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond.

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This week's words of support:

Well, we've just survived Thanksgiving, and Christmas is just a few weeks away. That means we're surrounded with candy, cookies, cakes and other goodies that are guaranteed to end up on our waistline. This is the time of year when we all need as much support as we can get.

I'm happy to say that I'm 35 pounds lighter than I was at this time last year. In fact, right about this time last year I was baking my famous cinnamon rolls to give away as gifts - and the family loved them! I hope they've also forgiven me by now.

At least I can say that I didn't give them the cookbook which has the best dinner roll and sweet roll recipes that you'll ever find.

And no, I'm not going to give you the title of that cookbook - I'm feeling guilty enough already.

But it just goes to show you why trying to lose weight is such a solitary fight for most of us. We're surrounded by well-meaning friends and family who are trying to be nice when they bring their favorite fattening goodies to the office party and the family pot-lucks. They really aren't trying to make you fat, but it certainly doesn't help you get thinner, either.

That's the whole reason why I've started my website at http://www.stress-free-weight-loss.com. I want you all to remember that being overweight is not a personal problem. It's a societal problem of epidemic proportions, and the direct cause is the kinds of foods that are abundantly available on our supermarket shelves, and in our own kitchens.

In just the same way that cigarettes are the cause of lung cancer - sugar, white flour and some kinds of fat are the cause of obesity and other health problems.

And the skinny folks who eat the "normal" American diet without getting fat, (by eating less of it), are not necessarily eating healthy. Less of something that's bad for you may make you look better, but it still doesn't give your body the nutrients it needs to function at it's best.

That's why I'm so encouraged by the new approach by the World Health Organization. Maybe they really can talk the big food corporations into making their mass-produced products healthier.

But for right now, it's up to us to band together and make the "normal" American diet less normal. This year you will be offered candy, cake and cookies everywhere you turn. But as more and more of us start looking at the environment as the cause of obesity, instead of trying to find out what is wrong with us, personally, we'll change the marketplace.

Corporations caught on that people wanted safer, chemical free food, and have moved into the organic arena which was once considered an insignificant market for health nuts. When people started to ask "what's nutty about health?" the corporations listened. They'll do the same thing when thousands, and then millions of us stop buying products made with sugar, white flour and the wrong kinds of fat.

But this year, the candy and cakes and cookies will be there, everywhere you look. So do as I do, and remind yourself that the people bringing those goodies really do mean well. They're trying to be nice, just as I was last year when I made those cinnamon rolls.

It will be easier to say "no thanks" if you remember that I, and all the other readers of this newsletter, are saying it with you,

(Just a hint, though - don't tell them you're on a diet. They will feel honor-bound to tell you that you don't need to diet, because you look great just the way you are. So tell them that your doctor has you on a "special diet" because your cholesterol is way out of whack, or that your doctor is concerned about your heart. Then they will support you, instead of trying to talk you out of your resolve.)

Have a happy, and healthy, holiday season.

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You may also be interested in my eBook, Weight Loss: How to Keep Your Commitment, which discusses why we are naturally drawn to sugar and fat, and how you can use simple mental exercises to rise above your cravings. Learn more about it at:
http://www.stress-free-weight-loss.com/howtothinkthin.htm

Until next week, yours in good health,
Jonni Good

© 2002 Jonni Good. All rights reserved