This next section of Chew On This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson was called "Big." It was about the spread of "America's disease,"or obesity, across the globe and the ever-growing remedy of gastric bypass surgery. I've always known that it is hard for a larger person to lose weight and keep that weight off, but I never really knew the reason behind it. This book said that the more fat your body takes in, the more fat cells your body creates. The problem is that when you lose weight, these fat cells do not disappear, they just shrink like deflated balloons. And like a balloon, these cells are easy to inflate. So, it is easier for a person to gain the weight back that they had previously lost.
The book goes in depth about a teen boy Sam who goes in to have gastric bypass surgery done. He's a 16 year old high school student at Buffalo Grove in Illinois who weighs almost 300 pounds. At the school's lunch break, the students are allowed to leave campus to eat, which involves most buying food from one of the many fast food places around the school. Most wouldn't think much about it, but it definitely played a large role in his being overweight. He would eat fast food usually 4 or 5 times a week and always looked forward to it. Of course, the companies would put up their restaurants right by the school to make a lot of money. It worked but has large effects on these students.
My favorite part of this section was something the author said. After Sam was leaving the WISH center where he would soon get his surgery, he and his mom saw the McDonald's corporate headquarters in Illinois, which happened to be right across the street. The author said, "It seemed fitting that the headquarters of these two companies should be so close to each other. One sold the inexpensive fast food that could make you obese, while the other sold a painful and expensive remedy." Pretty ironic, isn't it?
No comments:
Post a Comment