The Global Media and the Global Obesity Epidemic

The Global Media and the Global Obesity Epidemic

Michael S. Abrams

26 February 2009

MALS

Skidmore College

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

The Nutrition Transition

The Global Obesity Epidemic

The Role of the Global Media

Conclusion

References

INTRODUCTION

In March, 1972, I had the privilege of visiting the former U.S.S.R. as part of a group of students and faculty from Jericho High School--two months before Nixon's famous trip.

We toured three cities--Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev--and, in at least one setting, were allowed to interact freely with our Russian peers. It was an eye-opening experience, one that would have been unimaginable for many years for all of us on this side of the "Iron Curtain."

What stands out in memory most almost forty years later, however, was not the bitter cold we felt standing in Red Square, or the tours of the behemoth Hermitage Museum. What stands out is how little food was available there that was familiar to us. In particular, Coca Cola--that icon of Western civilization--was nowhere to found. For two weeks, I would endure without access to my favorite beverage, only to be reunited when we stopped to change planes at the airport in Amsterdam on our way back to the US.

Today, of course, such a situation would be unthinkable. Coca Cola is available in more than 200 of the world's nations. (For comparison, the United Nations boasts only 192 member states.) Other mainstays of the American fast food culture such as McDonalds, Pepsi, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken have attained similar degrees of ubiquity. In my own neighborhood in Sao Paulo, I find myself within walking distance of a McDonald's, a Subway's, a Pizza Hut, a T.G.I. Friday's, and a Burger King. (Though, often, walking is not even a prerequisite. Almost anywhere in Brazil, one can place an order on the McDonald's "McEntrega" website and it will be delivered to your home within minutes.) All of the supermarkets and grocery stores stock a variety of familiar soft drink brands, including numerous versions of Coca Cola and Pepsi.

It is axiomatic that the American fast food culture would not have achieved its dominance in the US without access to, and adroit use of, the mass media--preeminently, television. It is only now possible for it to achieve a comparable global dominance in tandem with the globalization of the mass media--again, especially, television. To whatever degree human health is impacted, it is no longer a question of impacting the 5% of the world's population that the US population represents, but rather the whole of the human family.

But so-called "fast foods" represent only the tip of the iceberg. It was not many years ago that supermarkets--and the diets based in processed foods that they make possible--were an emblematic feature of the industrialized world. Such is no longer the case, as supermarkets and processed foods have made major inroads on every continent on the planet. We might inquire as to what degree the messages of the global media help to make our Western food lifestyle--based in fast foods and processed foods--seem natural and inevitable throughout the world and, especially, throughout the developing world.

But this is not to say that the effects are always the same. In Brazil, where even middle-class domiciles invariably include a maid's quarters, the preponderance of the meals that are prepared at home are still made from raw ingredients--even if these are typically purchased at supermarkets. When our doctor travels to the US for conferences, he is amazed that he can gain 10 lbs. or more from only a few days of the American diet.

The world now finds itself in the midst of a global obesity epidemic, replicating in developing nations a situation that had heretofore been confined to the developed world. There can be little doubt that the globalization of the Western food culture is the driving force. But precisely what role does globalization in general--and, in particular, the globalization of the mass media--play in this phenomenon? It is to be hoped that this paper can make a small contribution in helping to open these questions.

Michael S. Abrams

Sao Paulo, Brazil

The Nutrition Transition

The last 200 years have seen a radical transformation of diet in industrialized countries. First, the Industrial Revolution transformed every stage of the process by which human sustenance is provided; i.e., food's "production, processing, storage, and distribution."

Economic development together with recent technological innovations and

modern marketing techniques have modified dietary preferences, and, consequently, led to major changes in the composition of diet. There was a shift towards high-fat, refined carbohydrate and low-fibre diet. (Uusitalo, Pietinen, & and Puska, 2002, p. 2)

The industrialized world was the first to experience this transition. In England, for example, the per capita consumption of fats and refined carbohydrates increased five- to ten-fold over 1800-2000; also, there was a significant decline in the consumption of grains. It is only in recent decades that "the longer term adverse health effects of a diet rich in fat, especially saturated fat, but deficient in complex carbohydrate food" have become clear. (Uusitalo, Pietinen, & and Puska, 2002, p. 2)

"The shift that took place within 100-200 years in the West occurs within a few short decades in the developing world." Globalization is the critical factor in this acceleration--including, "exposure to the global mass media." Concomitant factors include the "trend