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#WhyCookseries/MyHealth/1 #CSM1

This post is part of the Why Cook? Series: 6 Reasons to be a Lifestyle Cook, a discourse on the pillars of The Cooking Subversive Manifesto (CSM). Providing great reasons to cook are powerful motivators to make cooking a lifestyle choice especially when we understand how forces have conspired to make us choose otherwise.

America\\u2019s obesity rate is 42.4%.

The United States may lay dubious claim to being democracy\\u2019s chief champion of late, but when it comes to obesity, it is without a doubt the leader, and has been so for nearly 2 decades among countries tracked by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). \\xa0That\\u2019s not exactly something to be proud of.

We\\u2019re inured to this data point because we\\u2019ve sat with this fact for far too long and it\\u2019s only becoming worse.\\xa0 We\\u2019ve vilified the subjects\\u2014overweight people, because in the back of our minds, we\\u2019ve been taught to associate being fat with gluttony, poor self-control, laziness and other reprehensible traits we like to think we\\u2019re absolved of. Because we\\u2019ve appropriated blame to the wrong culprits, we\\u2019ve missed the real offenders, and they\\u2019ve been able to hide in plain sight.\\xa0 Before we point fingers, let\\u2019s first understand the magnitude of the problem.

Why the US Covid-19 death toll is so high

We\\u2019ve just reached the grim milestone of 800 thousand deaths in the United States, with no real end in sight.\\xa0 From the onset, the huge American death toll, disproportionately higher than in other developed countries, begged the question: why so high?

In a John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center tally of global deaths attributed to\\xa0 coronavirus, the US has 239.43 deaths/100,000 people.\\xa0 It is the 6th highest in the world, preceded by Brazil, Romania, Czechia, Hungary and Bulgaria; and the highest among wealthy nations.\\xa0 While we can debate on the ramifications of polarized attitudes towards masks and vaccines (we don\\u2019t have the monopoly on anti vaxxers and conspiracy theories), the data is clear on the primary causes of American deaths.\\xa0 According to a study published by The Lancet.

Consistent with reported COVID-19 outcome data from Europe, the United States, and China, higher caseloads and overall mortality were associated with comorbidities such as obesity, and advanced population age.

Let\\u2019s unpack the comorbities part.\\xa0 Comorbidy, the simultaneous presence of two or more diseases, entered our lexicon when covid-19 exploded.\\xa0 Comorbidity is a bulls-eye target for coronavirus;\\xa0\\xa0 the chances of getting very sick or death is much higher.\\xa0 But what diseases are strongly associated with covid deaths?

In this screenshot of Covid-19 deaths with contributing conditions released by the CDC for 2020 and 2021, I circled 9 diseases linked to obesity. \\xa0\\xa0That\\u2019s half of the top 18 (see note) diseases associated with covid-19 deaths that can be linked to obesity, which is directly associated with poor diet and unhealthy lifestyles.

Even without Covid-19, 3 of the top 7 leading causes of death in the US, heart disease, stroke and diabetes, are linked to obesity. A recent report by the New York Times suggests that covid 19 lives in fat cells. If proven conclusively, that will be the most direct link yet of Covid-19 to a poor diet.\\xa0\\xa0

Covid-19 exacerbated what we\\u2019ve known all along: Americans are unhealthy and unless we make lifestyle changes, we are literally going to pay for it with our lives.\\xa0

When I was a child, my mom told me her father had diabetes. She said that they would find ants gathered near the toilet, because his urine was so sweet. To an 8-year old, that was the sort of outrageous, fun and slightly gross family factoid to brag about to friends. \\xa0As an adult, the implications were serious. \\xa0Though my mom didn\\u2019t have diabetes, both her parents did; my father had it too, and two of my siblings are on medication for it.\\xa0 The CDC says I am highly predisposed to diabetes if it runs in the family (check) and if I\\u2019m Asian American (check).\\xa0 Add to the melee, heart disease is also a familial companion.

You would think this less-than-glorious health history was enough incentive to get me cooking.\\xa0 It was not. \\xa0In Manila, we had household help who cooked for us, I frequently dined out, and frankly had no interest in it. I turned to cooking in my 30\\u2019s out of necessity: I downshifted from a corporate career in Manila and moved to the US as a music student. I simply couldn\\u2019t afford to keep eating out.\\xa0 But I also had not understood the pernicious actions of big corporations, particularly the food industry, nor their sustained influence on lifestyle and culture, which diminished cooking life skills in our eyes. \\xa0I didn\\u2019t know then what I know now.\\xa0 So despite a lifetime eschewing junk and processed foods, I became prediabetic. That\\u2019s a red flag for me to be vigilant about diet and lifestyle so I never cross over to diabetes. \\xa0I have no ailments, am not on any medication and I want to keep it that way. So though my cooking journey began with economic reasons (the fifth tenet of the manifesto, I Cook To Save Money), it\\u2019s now sustained by others, primarily, that I Cook to Reclaim My Health. \\xa0

To Solve a Problem, Understand What Caused It

There\\u2019s nothing like statistics on death and disease to put a damper on holiday celebrations.\\xa0 I admit, the timing may not be the best as we look forward to celebrating with feasts and abundance.\\xa0 A snapshot of America\\u2019s health today, however dire, is not without use. 2022 is around the corner, and what better way to counter a grim trend than to make new year\\u2019s resolutions that benefit you and your family?

But resolutions are only resolute if you can counter forces that undermine.\\xa0 So we need to understand how we got into this predicament in the first place.\\xa0

Why are we Fat?

There are really just 2 big reasons:

1.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 We eat too much. (overconsumption)

2.\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0 We eat unhealthy stuff.

Easy, peasy, right?

Well, not exactly. This is one of those Matryoshka-esque problems where an issue opens up to another and then another, and sometimes is intertwined with others. As an example:

Overconsumption can be traced to reduced cooking and preparation times which\\xa0 has its genesis in mass food production and consequent growth in prepackaged foods; but it\\u2019s also related to sugar addiction which fails to satiate hunger. And if you think sugar is just that white table stuff, think again, because sugar has over 60 names and comes in many forms most don\\u2019t even recognize. \\xa0The general public\\u2019s confusion on understanding exactly what is healthy and what\\u2019s not is a product of the machinations of greedy, unethical corporations, poor science, complicit government actions and a culture that makes us too busy to figure things out for ourselves. Confounded yet? Exactly! It\\u2019s a lot to unpack and why we haven\\u2019t been able to solve this decades-old problem.\\xa0 And because it\\u2019ll take me a few passes to paint the general picture, I\\u2019ll start with how we started to spend less time cooking.

When did we start spending less time in the kitchen?

In his book, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, author Michael Pollan traces the fascinating history of cooking from when man first learned to make fire to where we are today.\\xa0 As a starting point for my discussion, I will jump to post World War II in the United States where Pollan recounts:

\\u2026the food industry labored mightily to sell Americans\\u2014and American women in particular\\u2014on the processed-food wonders it had invented to feed the troops: canned meals, freeze-dried foods, dehydrated potatoes, powdered orange juice and coffee, instant and superconvenient everything.\\u201d

Post war America was a different world.\\xa0 Women, who were the traditional cooks, had entered the workforce; a proliferation of cars gave rise to suburbs where cooking became an isolated chore when once it was a communal activity; technological advances in the food industry were making packaged foods cheaper and more palatable every day and labor saving kitchen devices like the microwave oven were proving to be indispensable appliances.\\xa0

The combination of changing societal and technological norms of postwar America, increased wealth, the burgeoning idea the food industry peddled that women should be \\u201cliberated\\u201d from the kitchen and most especially the prevalence of ready-made food that could be picked up or delivered all conspired to convince Americans to spend less time in the kitchen.\\xa0 In 1965 it was 146 minutes a day.\\xa0 By 2019, it was 36 minutes.

*2019 data from US Bureau of Labor Statistics

In a 2003 study titled, Why Have Americans Become More Obese? , researchers Cutler and his colleagues linked increased caloric consumption, primarily from snacks, directly to the rise of obesity.\\xa0 Data collected (1977-78 vs 1994-96) showed that men and women consumed 268 and 143 more calories per day than they did 14 years before. The question was, what was making Americans eat more?\\xa0 They\\u2019re conclusion: Less cooking.

Binge America

A simple home-made Pizza Margherita, even if you use store-bought dough, tomato sauce, mozzarella and happen to grow basil leaves in your window sill, will likely take more time to make then having pizza delivered.\\xa0\\xa0 You\\u2019ll have to roll out the dough, perhaps half-bake if it\\u2019s a thick crust, slather sauce, arrange toppings and then bake again to finish. While you were at it, you probably popped a piece of mozzarella into your mouth with a leaf or two of basil and perhaps sampled the tomato sauce with it.\\xa0 Your home-made pizza took more time, but not only was it more fun, you tasted along the way, which reduced the chance of wolfing it down when it came out of the oven. \\xa0But more than that, a craving for pizza, not the healthiest of foods to begin with, becomes more difficult to satisfy if you had to make it from scratch.\\xa0 But pizza delivered is just a phone call away. \\xa0And that is why delayed gratification was the link Cutler and associates made when they concluded that:

Less Cooking Time=Less Delay in Gratification=Eating More

Yet how many Americans actually make their own pizzas? Pre-made food, because it\\u2019s accessible, is not only easier to eat, but makes you likely to eat more. The time and effort involved in cooking, delayed gratification and eating slowly all help to curb our appetite.\\xa0 When Netflix releases a whole season of your favorite show, you\\u2019re not just watching one episode.\\xa0\\xa0 It\\u2019s why the term \\u201cbinge-worthy\\u201d exists.\\xa0

Lest you think we\\u2019re immune to the allures of instant gratification, let me assure you that we\\u2019re not. \\xa0Jeff and I are as guilty as everyone else of Netflix binging and snacking while we\\u2019re at it. \\xa0We live in a modern world subject to time-sucking temptations and frankly, our self-control is not as iron-clad as we would like.\\xa0 So instead of fighting human nature, we\\u2019ve just become a little smarter working with it. \\xa0Besides reducing our screentime by cooking (including preparation and clean up) we make sure snacks at home are healthy for when the munchies hit. \\xa0\\xa0

So yes, Americans are eating more. But we\\u2019re also eating too much of the wrong stuff.\\xa0 It\\u2019s not like we don\\u2019t know who the usual suspects are; we do.\\xa0 We know processed junk foods are some of the worst offenders, yet they are almost 60% of calories \\xa0consumed in the United States.\\xa0 But eating is not a rational behavior; and corporate America is counting on that.

The Companies We Hate To Love

Forget covid for a sec: prior to the pandemic, it\\u2019s long been known that being overweight and obesity can lead to heart disease, the leading cause of death for both men and women in the US. That\\u2019s 1 out of 4 deaths, according to the CDC.\\xa0\\xa0

Perhaps even more than overconsumption, the rise in obesity is attributed to poor diets\\u2014specifically the increase in sugar, sodium and other toxic additives in ultra processed foods.\\xa0 Unhealthy ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup, partially hydrogenated oil (trans fats) and flavor enhancers are used by the food industry because they are cheap and make nutrient-deficient lab concoctions edible.\\xa0 \\u201cBut they make us sick\\u201d, you might say.\\xa0 Well, in America it\\u2019s all about free choice and capitalism.\\xa0 You\\u2019re not forced to drink a can of Coke (high- fructose corn syrup) or eat Kellogg\\u2019s Froot Loops (partially hydrogenated oils) for breakfast, but it\\u2019ll be hard to resist because all your life you\\u2019ve been told it\\u2019s the right thing to do.\\xa0

My second job out of college was a brief stint as Account Executive for the Coca Cola division of the McCann-Erickson advertising agency in Manila. \\xa0The Philippines was one of the few markets where Coca Cola was way ahead of Pepsi, so dominant a player that we broke out of the soda category and considered the whole beverage industry as our competitive field.\\xa0 We ran radio ads to compete with coffee, juice and milk with our Coke in the Morning campaign; we printed Coke Tuba posters targeted to the Southern Philippines where locals consumed Coke with Tuba, an alcoholic libation of fermented coconut sap. \\xa0Coke ads were hip, featured cool music, had great looking, laughing models, and the sales pitch was always oblique. Coke ads evoked warm and fuzzy feelings.\\xa0 I was a kid and still recall when the mega-hit commercial of the 1970\\u2019s spawned the memorable tune, I\\u2019d Like To Teach the World to Sing:

I\'d like to teach the world to singIn perfect harmonyI\'d like to hold it in my armsAnd keep it company

So sweet. Just like Coca Cola, addicting the world to its empty sugary charms. \\xa0\\xa0I wasn\\u2019t a Coke or Pepsi drinker and I already knew about the deleterious effects of sodas, but still, I was hooked.\\xa0 I loved my job with the Coke group also because its branding strategy, front and center of Filipino lifestyle and culture \\xa0meant aligning with the music pop stars of the country and part of my work was to travel with artists and help organize Coca Cola concerts.\\xa0 That was a dream job for someone in their 20\\u2019s.

I also had an unusual personal history with Coca Cola: my mother was one of their first models in a video advertisement; and as a student activist, I marched against Coke, the premier face of imperialism.

US occupying forces during the great wars brought Coca Cola with them introducing the world to the \\u201cpause that refreshes\\u201d. Regimes came and went, but more durable was a non-violent Coca Colonialism that tied profitability to notions of liberty and the American dream. The Philippines\\u2019 relationship with Coke, like mine, was complex and conflicted. An article in the New Yorker published in 1959 is filled with wry , often humorous anecdotal evidence on the world\\u2019s infatuation with Coke. \\xa0In a former US colony like the Philippines, liberated from the Japanese by the Americans in World War 2, the sentiment ran strong, as evidenced by an account of Filipino General Carlos Romulo in his memoir \\u201cI Saw The Fall of the Philippines\\u201d:

This day that was to mark the turning point in the Battle of the Philippines began for me with an incident that seemed of the greatest importance. In fact, so vital did it seem at the time that that night, upon my return to the tunnel on Corregidor after one of the most terrible days a man could ever experience, I wrote a detailed account of that day on my typewriter with a ribbon that could hardly make itself legible, and with trembling hands I added the important notation: \\u201cI had a Coca-Cola.\\u201d \\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0\\xa0

Pearl of the Orient: A Coca Cola infomercial on the Philippines

The World Wars are decades past and discussions on Coca Colonialism are long buried.\\xa0 But these antecedent events are important to comprehend where we are today. \\xa0If you still think I\\u2019m overstating Coca Cola\\u2019s sway on our culture, look no further than at the brand\\u2019s most iconic figure and ambassador of goodwill and cheer, Santa Claus. The jolly, rotund man in red is a visage largely shaped by Coca Cola which you can read about on the company\\u2019s page, \\xa0\\u201cFive Things You Never Knew About Santa Claus and Coca-Cola.\\u201d \\xa0

We hate to love companies that are bad actors if their brands are associated with positive ideals deeply ingrained in who we think we are or want to be.\\xa0 Like an abusive boyfriend, they know how to sweet talk their way back. \\xa0Our ambivalence is why they are still around and why we still consume their products despite the harm they\\u2019ve caused us.\\xa0

Big Business, our Sugar Daddy

Big Business is omnipresent.\\xa0 They\\u2019ve been targeting you since you were a babe with a multi-media onslaught that includes ads on television, internet and social media.\\xa0 They infiltrated your videogames through advergames.\\xa0 At school, you bought soda from their vending machines and the tomato-based pizza served at your school\\u2019s cafeteria was your vegetable option. You even got free Big Business- branded school supplies.

Obesity among youth has more than tripled since the 70\\u2019s and affects 1 in 5 of school-aged youth. If you were a kid who celebrated your birthday party at MacDonald\\u2019s, then Big Business may have lassoed your little heart and you feel a tiny tug whenever you spot the golden arches as you drive by.\\xa0 Food ads on television comprise half of all ad time in children\\u2019s shows, according to the American Psychological Association.

We must not underestimate how well Big Business understands and manipulates our collective psyche. \\xa0We know it\\u2019s powerful, because despite our best intentions, we continue to poison ourselves when we consume unhealthy foods. What rational being does that?\\xa0 Unless it\\u2019s because we\\u2019ve been deliberately misled and have not seen the whole picture yet.\\xa0 Which is why this story isn\\u2019t over.

We reduce caloric consumption when we cook by delaying gratification.\\xa0 And if we\\u2019re eating a home cooked meal, perhaps we\\u2019re not consuming unhealthy ultra processed food as much. \\xa0That\\u2019s already a win. \\xa0But healthy cooking is as much determined by what and how we cook. Remember I mentioned a confluence of forces that helped confuse America and the world on what healthy eating means? When we take a detour from the Cooking Subversive Manifesto tenets to introduce a few more bad actors, we\\u2019ll see how what we eat is even more nefarious than how much we eat in the battle of the bulge and other diseases. In the new year, we\\u2019ll take a glimpse at America\\u2019s food and farming in the post, \\u201cI\\u2019ll Have The Poison on the Side, Please.\\u201d : Chemicals in our Food. \\xa0

Additional References:

High US covid death toll causes: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2771841

Food waste: https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-2017-report.pdf

Growth of the Suburbs: https://americanhistory.si.edu/america-on-the-move/city-and-suburb

Santa Clause: https://www.coca-colacompany.com/company/history/five-things-you-never-knew-about-santa-claus-and-coca-cola

Impact of Food Advertising on Childhood Obesity: https://www.apa.org/topics/obesity/food-advertising-children