Super Foods And the Morbidly Obese

Look at this title ...

People who eat ‘junk food’ aren’t junkies. The idea that the food industry has turned us into fat, helpless beings desperate for our next fast-food fix is based on a degraded view of human beings.by Rob Lyons

This title comes from an article claiming that there is no such thing as food addiction. http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/reviewofbooks_article/8927/ It argues against the thesis of a book by David Kessler who says that modern food, and the wider food environment, leads to a state of ‘conditioned hypereating’.

Kessler's answer is that our food has been re-engineered to maximise palatability. Almost all the processed and convenience food we eat has been fine-tuned to turn our sensory responses all the way up to ‘11’. We get hooked on our food. At every level, our food is made more pleasurable to eat. Salt, sugar, fat and starch levels are tweaked to achieve the perfect balance; colours, smells and flavours are synthesised to heighten the experience of every mouthful; food is broken down, shredded, moistened and reassembled to ensure that it is as easy as possible to gulp down. The way Kessler describes it, our diets are baby food in Technicolor. That burger, that cookie (Kessler himself is a sucker for cookies, he confesses), those fries and that drink are culinary crack, and we are addicts. The result is that we can’t stop shovelling the stuff down our necks.

I'm inclined to agree with Kessler and appaled at Lyon's lazy review.

Lyons main argument against Kessler's position is that if we believe people lack autonomy when it comes to food, then we have a degraded view of human nature. According to Lyons, Kessler should be more positive about human nature because its good to be nice.

Here, Lyons confuses a moral point with an empirical point. Lyons doesn't try to show that people have more autonomy or he doesn't try to show that a less degrading picture of humanity is justified. He just feels we should have more pleasant thoughts about humanity in regards to freedom of choice and food. Evidence be damned.

In contrast, Lyons preffered culprit in the fat blame game is our culture's shizophrenic view of food. We shouldn't desire and value thinness, if we want to gorge on sweets. By blaming culture, we don't have to blame anyone except the Man. One can imainge Lyon thinking that no one would be fat if one could be given a hug and told that they should love themselves. But, this, in turn, is schizophrenic as everyone knows the best hugs are given by the obese.

True, our society has a schizophrenic view of food. But, schizophreneia doesn't make people fat, calories do. And, if there is no analysis at the level of caloric intake, then there is no firm scientific basis on which to launch a cultural change (if one is even necessary).

Lyons is probably a sociologist or took a sociology course somewhere and Kessler is a scientist. So, if Lyons has to write a book review about a scientific topic it is probably easier to just put forth a sociological thesis then engage with the actual scientific material. After all, that could involve a trip to the library.

Schools in sucker.