Gadalla 1

Kathleen Gadalla

Professor Block

Writing 100

11 April 2015

Climate and Obesity

Norms in societies play a major role in how people make their lifestyle choices. Every country, state, or even city has their own set of societal norms that people eventually succumb to. The norms in the United States today have a large impact on the high obesity rate (Bellisari 11). There are obvious factors that come into play when analyzing obesity, such as food choices and lack of exercise, but there is one factor that is commonly overlooked by scientists: climate. Climate is intertwined with obesity because of the social norms that relate to climate. For example, on hot days Americans would grab some ice cream to cool down and on cold days hot chocolate would usually be the go-to drink (Smith 2002). Why have these habits been engrained in the minds of Americans? It goes back to generations of American culture and popular food Items that are still prevalent today. Some of the contributing factors that cement these norms are advertisements, media, and quite frankly the actions of everyone around you. On the other hand, countries with very low obesity rates, such as Japan, have healthier lifestyles and norms.

Obesity in the United States is indeed an issue with approximately 35 percent of women and 31 percent of men ranging from the ages of twenty and over are obese, compared with about twenty fiver percent of the total population (National Health and Nutrition Endpoint survey III). It’s hard to picture that societal norms even play a role in food choices, but the American culture of unhealthy food choices have impacted society, unfortunately in a negative way: “There is an epidemic of obesity in the United States. The proportion of the population that is obese is incredible. If this were tuberculosis, it would be called an epidemic” (Smith 97). The culture of “the bigger, the better” has finally caught up with the American people due to the ideas of acceptable body size and views about appropriate levels of consumption, both of which have changed significantly during the last century in America in response to industrialization and modernization (Bellisari 63). The negative affects of the unhealthy American diet are simply getting worse as the years go on. According to surveys conducted in 1977-1978 and 1994-1996, caloric intake in the United States in men and women have increased: daily caloric intake for men increased from 2.239 to 2.455 kcal (kilocalories). In women, the daily caloric intake increased from 1,534 kcal to 1,646 kcal (Smith 97). Fast food in the Western society plays a prominent role in the culture of food for Americans. To put the fast food business in perspective, Americans spent about $112 billion on fast food in the year 2000, while the National Defense Budget in 2000 was $270 billion (Smith 104). Advertisements during different seasons, such as winter or summer, play a prominent role in how people make their food choices. For example, one fast food chain that is known for their catchy commercials is the famous Carl’s Jr. One winter commercial they had played before was an appealing phrase: “Cold? Get your buns warm with Carl’s Jr. new freshly made hamburger buns.” I am not illustrating that different countries with lower obesity rates have less advertisements for unhealthy foods, but rather I will convey that the norms in the United States in particular lean towards an unhealthy society because of the many things throughout our society that contribute to an unhealthy lifestyle, leading to us having one of the highest obesity rates in the world (Bellisari 31).

Norms of a society alter the perspectives of each individual no matter where they are from or where they are raised. The teaching forces in every society lead people to act a certain way in the long run. These teaching forces often lead a society to build their culture based on genetics and human intuitions. People tend to underestimate the impact of societal norms and may even sound absurd that societal norms are a leading factor of obesity in the United States (Hofstede 19). The norms that I will be focusing on in this paper are the culture and norms of food choice and also activity choice. Eating frequency is influenced by a number of environmental changes, not the least of which is the growth of the fast-food industry and the accessibility of it’s products, the proliferation of a greater variety of foods with higher caloric content, and the increase in the types of and marketing of snack foods (Smith 98). As we all know, cultures all around the world have different types of foods, using different kinds of cooking methods. Popular food choices are not the same in America as they are in Japan. America in particular has a ling history of dieting and the concern about fat, leading to our obesity crisis today (Smith 98). People’s hobbies in Japan and America are different as well. The Japanese diet consists mostly of typical low-fat diet with much rice and soy products, fish, and vegetables (Sumi 1). One thing that Japan and America have in common is more or less their climate. Japan and the United States of America both have temperate climates with four cycles: summer, winter, spring, and fall (Furiya 2006). We will inspect how the norms in Japan and America during different climatic environments (summer, winter, spring), affects individuals food and activity choices, ultimately leading to the cause of America being one of the nations having the highest obesity rate, while obesity rate in Japan is not an issue in their society today.

In Japan, with a very similar climate as the United States, the obesity rate is far lower than the obesity rate in the US. Today, unfortunately, a total of sixty five percent of Americans have a BMI of 25, making them overweight, but in Japan only twenty percent of Japanese people have a BMI of over 25 (Smith 85). Why is there such a big gap the obesity levels in the two countries? Their climate is fairly similar, with four seasons, hot summers and cold winters, but there is one factor that produces a huge divide: cultural norms. Summer months in Japan reflect a lot of how summer months in the U.S are. The summer months in Japan are usually from June to August. Japan gets their warm and moist weather from the Pacific Ocean, which also produces humidity and high temperatures throughout Japan. The average temperature on a typical summer day in Japan is about eighty-six degrees Fahrenheit (Furiya 58). There are a variety of food options served in the summer because of the plethora of seafood that is available in summer months. Seafood is eaten by the Japanese quite often, sometimes almost everyday in many households, which is far different that the United States culture (Furiya 25).

Seafood is the common source of meat in Japan, rather than red meat here in America (Smith 74). There is much scientific evidence correlating that eating too much meat – particularly red and processed meat – is associated with a wide variety of serious health problems (Environmental Health Group 1). On the other hand, there are various nutritious benefits of the consumption of seafood such as the reduction in risk of succumbing to many chronic diseases of ageing as well as in weight control and childhood cognitive development (Lund 43). In the summer months of Japan there is a wide variety of seafood to pick from; the seafood in Japan range from shellfish to crawfish. Eating seafood is indeed a cultural norm in Japan, while most of the Japanese diet consists of seafood (Furiya 65). The seafood in Japan is not cooked or prepared like the seafood found in the United States, but rather most of the seafood consumed is raw, correlating with a lot less caloric consumption. Sushi restaurants in Japan do not cook their seafood in butter or oil or even bake their seafood. Other than the very low obesity rates in Japan, epidemiologic studies revealed that Japanese men and women that consume a traditional Japanese diet have a low mortality in hormone-dependent cancer (Sumi 1). Studies show that in certain popular seafood items that are particularly popular in Japan have certain components, ligans and isoflavanoids, convert into biologically active hormone-like structures that are cancer-protective agents (Sumi 3).

Summer in the United States has a very similar climate to summer in Japan. The typical summer temperature of the United States of America is about eighty-five degrees Fahrenheit and with very high humidity in some regions (National Climatic Data Center 2). The Pacific Ocean contributes to much of the United States climate with the pacific ocean surrounding much of the United States. Summer weather in the United States contributes a large part to the fast food industry. According to a study that was done in 2004, the fast food industry sees a huge hike in summer months (particularly McDonalds) (Smith 127). Scientists hypothesize because fast food is quick and easy and during summer months it is more of a hassle to cook in your kitchen and quite frankly it is so hot that no one wants to cook in their own homes. Other than the weather coming into play with the fast food increase over summer months in the United States, summer is usually when people are not at home to cook, usually need to pick up something quick and fast food is the nest choice when seeking something quick and affordable (Smith 122). The largest fast food company in America is undeniable McDonalds. (Smith 122). McDonalds is not only a fast food chain to Americans, but also a cultural icon. Scientists prove that McDonalds is indeed very prevalent in America by conducting a study with American schoolchildren. The study found that 96 percent of American schoolchildren could identify with Ronald McDonald. To put things more in perspective, Santa Claus was the only other fictional character with a higher recognition rating. (Smith 120). Over summer, over forty-three million individuals are served on a daily basis in over twenty-eight thousand McDonald’s resrtureants—with children being the main consumers. Unfortunately, children are the focus of a significant part of McDonald’s advertising budget leading to McDonald’s advertising being so successful that 87 percent of all children ages six to nine in the United States come into its stores once each month. This is one example of McDonald’s marketing strategy that apparently works very well for them:

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The Advertising strategies that target young children lead children in a culture of high fat and salt intake, leading to terrible diseases such as obesity and hypertension (Smith 108).

The East Sea heavily influences Japan’s climate in the winter. The East Sea is surrounded by Korea, Japan, and Russia, which provides much of the winter weather in Japan (Kim 14). The common winter temperature in Japan is approximately fifty- six degrees Fahrenheit (Furiya 37). When the weather is cooler, miso soup is the popular food choice option for Japanese people (Furiya 62). Miso soup is soup made with miso dissolved in dashi (Japanese cooking stock). The soup itself usually contains two-three solid ingredients such as seaweed, vegetables or tofu. There are many health benefits to miso soup, other than its very low caloric intake. Scientists have claimed that miso soup contains various conventional antioxidants such as zinc and manganese. Miso soup also contains phytonutrient antioxidants such as ferulic, coumaric, syringic, vanillic, and kojic acid (The World’s Healthiest Foods 1). Traditional Miso soup in Japan comes in a small round bowl and is usually a clear color, showing the cooking stock. The typical caloric intake for a bowl of miso soup is 85 calories (Smith 48). Miso soup is commonly consumed as an appetizer before the main course meals. (Furiya 51).

Soup is also one of the highest consumed foods in the winter by Americans as well (Bellisari, 61). Soup is a go-to food to stay warm here in the United States. But, we have a different kind of soup, with very different characteristics: Campbell’s noodle soup. The American diet has a culture of fast and easy cooking because of our busy lifestyles. With the American high-paced environment, the more convenient it is, the more appealing it is to Americans (Bellisari 15). Campbell’s is a food company that is worth multi-millions. They make food ranging from mac and cheese (another very popular American food item) to soup, which is their most popular food item sold in the market today (NASQAQ 1). Campbell’s soup is packaged usually in cans and contains an abnormally high volume of salt that does not correspond with the recommended daily intake of salt (Bellisari 48). To make the soup, you simply just need to heat the soup because all of the soup contents are already cooked within the can. The caloric intake of one can of Campbell’s noddle soup is 115 calories with 52% carbs and 20% fat (nutrition data 1). According to data presented from the Campbell’s soup industry, there is a substantial increase in how much they sell in the winter months in America. Americans were dissatisfied with the frozen dinners because they felt as if they were not getting enough of the nutrients they needed, so Campbell’s created items that were not frozen in order for Americans to feel comfortable eating it. The food items then became canned and Americans felt as if they could get all the nutrients needed from Campbell’s canned soups (Hofstra 10). In an article by the Huffington post titled “Campbell Soup Profit Jumps 71 Percent in the United States Because of Miserable Winter”, they describe how in the winter months in the US, American’s “go-to” food option in the winter is soup because it is hot, easy to make, and most importantly fast! (Reuters 1). In the winter months, “net profit attributable to the company rose to $325 million, or $1.03 per share in the second quarter, from $190 million, or 60 cents per share, a year earlier” (Reuters 1).

Campbell’s strength in marketing has been a huge factor is their boost in profits: “M’m! M’m! Good!” has been named in the top 5 advertising jingles in the last 100 years (Hofstra 3).

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In different seasons, different popular foods come into play in every country where they have formulated their societal norms. Unfortunately, in America we have formulated a typical diet that consists of high fat, high salt, and low nutrient content foods. It has indeed become a sever health risk as children are growing up in an environment that not only promotes these kinds of eating habits, but advertises these eating habits as normal. But, comparing the Western society’s food habits with a country that is far healthier, Japan, we see that America’s food habits are far from normal, and in reality is changing the lives of many Americans for the worst.

Improving the United States’ crisis on obesity is definitely not an easy task. Changing societal norms in any place is not an attainable goal, but through much change in societies food preferences it could work (Kreuter 2). To change the food preferences of a society is certainly a group effort that one cannot do by themselves. Changing the health of a society for the better is called providing health promotion (Green 1). Health promotion could be conducted in a number of ways. By providing council meetings or things of that sort in a community and providing health tips, healthy food options, statistics on how bad some popular food items are for you and your children, and much more nutritional facts (Green 4). In my health promotion plan, we will focus on what is now what makes the world go round—social media. There will obviously be steps in making the community change their “go-to” foods in certain weather changes. The power of social media should not be taken lightly. People of all ages use some sort of social media on a daily basis; whether it be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or even reading the daily news on your tablet, smartphone, or computer! Providing health promotion through social media is a long process that will be hard to implement, but could go a long way in creating a healthier America.

Social media plays a prominent role in societal norms (Kreuter , 73). One target in our campaign to change societies preferences about food options in all seasons is to have a target population (health promotion, 67). You cannot target the whole United States, which is just an unrealistic option. Instead, targeting a specific age group, in this case it will be people ranging from 25-40 years of age. By knowing which group you are targeting, you could reflect your efforts around that particular group (Kreuter 68). Social media goes a long way in trying to make a change because essentially social media runs our world (especially youth) (Green 73). By making several campaigns for each city or county, we could essentially create a huge movement towards living a healthy lifestyle. These sites would have several statistics about several unhealthy food options that people eat on a daily basis. For example, advertising about how McDonald’s is the number one fast food industry in the world would be an important fact for people to know.

The first step in getting a community to be more health conscious is to make them more aware of the actual issue (Kreuter 6). We need to make people aware that there is indeed an obesity issue in the United States. We could do this in various ways such as: start blogs, make pamphlets, have community meetings, have conferences at school, and start getting a lot more involved in your community to advertise all the negative impacts of unhealthy food options (Kreuter 10). Our first step will be advertising on all social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and a famous social media site for mothers called Café Mom. The point of all these various social networking sites is that we are reaching out to people of all ages. More than half of social media users of these sites are between the ages of 25 and 44 years of age (Tech Blog 3). According to a site solely dedicated for social media demographics, they stated many fascinating facts about the different age groups belonging to each different social media site. The average age for people using Facebook is 40.5 years of age, with 65% of Facebook users being 35 or older. (Tech blog 1). Also, 55% of Twitter users are 35 or older (Tech blog 2). Meanwhile, on social media sites like Snapchat and Instagram, which are trending today, the average age of users are 23, with the ages ranging anywhere from 15 years old to 55 years of age (Tech Blog 5). Now that we know who we are targeting (people from ages 25 to 44), we can now begin our next step: starting the campaign.

Now that we know who we are targeting, we will now show people the frightening statistics that come from obesity such as: being obese makes you at high risk for cardiovascular disease, which is the leading cause of death in the United States (Brooks 3). My campaign will be titled: HEALTHIER AMERICA ALL YEAR AROUND. Every social media site that the campaign will pursue will be titled HEALTHIER AMERICA ALL YEAR AROUND. When people recognize the same title on various social media sites, they will begin to look into it more and the campaign will be more prevalent in the lives of many social media users who see the campaign title on a daily basis (Kreuter 37). Making people aware of the issue that we have in the United States is a huge step towards providing a healthier America. The common person does indeed know the difference between junk food and healthy food, but they do not know what a life of fast food and junk food could essentially do to you in the long run: they do not understand all of the negative health affects that come along with their bad food choices (Kreuter 15). Ultimately, people do not even notice that societal norms have formed them to make bad food choices because it is indeed a norm, which goes unnoticeable a lot of the time. By making people more aware that there is an obesity issue here in the United States, compared to the rest of the world, it is the first step in changing people’s preferences about what foods to eat rather than the unhealthy popular food options that are prevalent and keep getting more popular in America (Green 18).

We are reminded on a daily basis how prominent a role political forces are in our society (Krueter 59). Political forces are the driving forces behind every successful campaign (Krueter 59). With that being said, promoting participation through political figures would be of great help to make this campaign successful. When implementing this campaign, we must think of community members as not merely “recipients of the program, but rather as active participants in shaping and implementing the program” (Krueter 60). Reaching out to other organization with the same mission as Healthier America All Year Around will not only create a strong bond between the two organizations, but make both campaigns so much stronger and reach out to so many more people. With this campaign in particular, we will collaborate with the famous and well-known campaign called “Shape Up America!” This campaign was founded in 1994 and its mission is to raise awareness of obesity as a severe health problem and to provide information about how to fight obesity using healthy weight management skills (Shape up 1). Now that we have the essentials in our campaign, target population and participation, it is now time to set up all of our information in our fight against obesity.

After selecting the name of my campaign to start a healthier America, we will now begin imputing statistics for the world to see on every social media site in this campaign. Since this campaign is including climate with nutrition, we will base the site of weather patterns. For example, since the campaign is starting this month, April, we will focus on summer weather. The title of the first blog/post/picture will be “What do YOU eat on a hot summer day?” Below that title we will have healthy food options such as homemade sugar-free lemonade, cold fruit platter, and frozen fruit to keep you cool! Next to each food item, we will list their caloric intake, which in this case would be 35 calories, 85 calories (depending on the fruit), and 75 calories (Green 28). After the recommended food options, we will then have a list on the site of foods to avoid on a hot summer day. These food choices would look like: ice cream, popsicles, milkshakes, and sugary drinks such as Kool-Aid. On the many social media sites that we have, we will also create a fun-fact page where people could see how much of the United States is obese compared to other nations (for example Japan). They will also be able to see the many traumatic effects of obesity such as cardiovascular disease. After getting people more aware about the obesity issue in the United States, taking a hands-on approach with the issue is the best thing to do with such a widespread issue (Kreuter 25).

Actually creating groups from the community to endorse health promotion to get the community as involved as possible is a good way to spread the word about the program. Having these groups practice healthy lifestyles and show how much weight they have lost or how much healthier they feel will show the rest of the community the power of having self-control and eating healthy (Green 28). On every social media site, there will be a link to “success stories” of people who practiced healthy eating lifestyles throughout the year to show people how important it is to make healthy food choices all year around. These stories on our page will motivate people to eat healthier and live a happier life through eating healthy. Have these groups create social media accounts that add various ethnic groups from their community to their group on social media so word could get around about this health promotion group. The end goal of this group is to make it as large as possible, getting as many people from your community to participate in this health promotion campaign so everyone could know the importance of a healthy lifestyle and actually make changes to food preferences within your community. If every community has a group like this, eventually every community in the United States will be more health conscious and make healthier decisions ( Kreuter 61). This process will not be an overnight process. This project will take several months or even years to change the norms of food preferences in the United States, just as the campaign “Shape Up America!” is still underway and it was made in 1994. One concept to never forget through campaigns through social media is that “there’s a place for everyone in today’s social media landscape. These sites have users that span the entire age spectrum, and there really are no limits to what you can achieve online, regardless of age or gender” (Tech Blog 7). It took several years to create these unhealthy norms, it will take several years to create new and healthier norms (Kreuter 64).

There are indeed many health promotional groups already created and many health projects that were underway. One of the biggest health movements that came into affect was in 2004 with the movie “Super Size Me” (Baker, 4). In this documentary, a man only ate McDonald’s every day for months and he recorded the affects of his diet by going to the doctor on a bi-weekly basis (Baker, 10). This movie alone decreased McDonalds sales by 8% in the United States in the year that the movie came out (Baker, 10). This initiative actually changed societies perspective on McDonalds, the biggest food industry in the world. Imagine what else could be done with the help of many groups in your community. One man who wanted to bring a positive change in the world filmed this movie; if many people with the same goal come together in every community we could do amazing things. I have hope in a healthier America and so should you!

Works cited

Bellisari, Anna W. The Obesity Epidemic in North America: Connecting Biology and Culture. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2013. Print.

Green, Lawrence W., and Marshall W. Kreuter. "Health promotion planning: An

eeducational and ecological approach." (1999).

Hofstede, Geert. "Culture and organizations." International Studies of Management & Organization (1980): 15-41.

Kim, Kyung‐Ryul, et al. "A sudden bottom‐water formation during the severe winter 2000–2001: The case of the East/Japan Sea." Geophysical Research Letters 29.8 (2002): 75-1.

Kreuter, Marshall W. Community health promotion ideas that work. Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2003.

Lund, Elizabeth K. "Health benefits of seafood; Is it just the fatty acids?." Food chemistry 140.3 (2013): 413-420.

Smith, Euclid O. When culture and biology collide: Why we are stressed, depressed, and self-obsessed. Rutgers University Press, 2002.

Sumi, Hiroyuki, et al. "A novel fibrinolytic enzyme (nattokinase) in the vegetable cheese Natto; a typical and popular soybean food in the Japanese diet." Experientia 43.10 (1987): 1110-1111.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=114

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/14/campbell-soup-profit-winter-weather_n_4787866.html

http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/08/21/report-social-network-demographics-in-2012/

http://www.shapeup.org