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FEATURE:
Fighting Obesity
January 9, 2004 Episode no. 719
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BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: One of the most intractable health problems in the U.S. is the alarming increase in the number of people who are obese. There is no consensus on the causes, but the costs are clear -- especially in painful loss of self-esteem.
Lucky Severson has our story on the problem and what some churches are doing to help.
LUCKY SEVERSON: Joyce Dyson has been a Christian for 22 years. For much of that time, she fought a weight problem with prayers and diets -- topping out at a very conspicuous 287 pounds. But conspicuous is not how it felt to Joyce.
JOYCE DYSON: One of the interesting things about being obese is you tend to be an invisible person. You're there, but people really look past you or through you.
SEVERSON: Doctor Richard Atkinson says the prejudice and discrimination against fat people amounts to a moral outrage.
Dr. RICHARD ATKINSON (President and Co-founder, American Obesity Association): Obesity is the last bastion of socially acceptable bigotry. You cannot tell race, jobs, or dumb blonde jokes, or Polish jokes, whatever, but people tell fat jokes all the time.
SEVERSON: The popular movie SHALLOW HAL was based on a very cruel stereotype of obese people.
Helping people escape the stigma of being fat is only one of the reasons physical fitness has become a multibillion-dollar business and why some of the faithful are praying for help. But for trainers like Ricky Triplett, the goal is not only physical, it's spiritual as well.
RICKY TRIPLETT (Trainer, Greater Mount Calvary Church): We're a precious jewel to God and, and part of that is our temples, is our physical body.
SEVERSON: Triplett works for the Greater Mount Calvary Church in Washington, DC, one of an increasing number of churches throughout the U.S. that are becoming involved in the battle against the bulge.
The church's senior pastor, Bishop Alfred Owens, says the Lord and cold hard facts convinced him that the time has come for the church to care for more than just the spiritual well-being of its members.
Bishop ALFRED OWENS (Senior Pastor, Greater Mount Calvary Church): As pastor, my primary responsibility is the souls of men and women. But in addition to that, we must concentrate on the physical man, so that we can live long enough to do God's will.
SEVERSON: So what business does a church have telling folks to get in shape?
Mr. TRIPLETT: We're spirit, soul, and body. So they have a business to tell us how to take care of our temples because the body is the temple of the living God.
Ms. DYSON: And that's something I struggled with. Even though I'd been saved for 22 years, I didn't know how to apply that principle to my life.
SEVERSON: Joyce was at her wit's end. She tried Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, even having her jaws wired shut to lose weight.
Ms. DYSON: I prayed every day, every day, continuously about losing weight. I begged God for a plan, a way to remove this burden.
SEVERSON: Joyce Dyson's prayers were answered with modern science, an increasingly popular operation called gastric bypass surgery -- a procedure that reduces the size of a person's stomach.
Ms. DYSON: For the very first time in a long time, I felt hope. And for me, that was the path that God had chosen for me. I think it's one that you work out in your prayer closet. And for me, it was, it was the surgery.
SEVERSON: This year, more than 100,000 morbidly obese Americans will undergo weight-loss surgery. Doctors define morbidly obese as being at least 100 pounds overweight. For many, surgery is the only way to prevent serious weight-related diseases.
In a recent study, people who had lost a lot of weight after gastric surgery were asked what price they'd pay to stay thin. One hundred percent said they'd rather be deaf than fat again.
Dr. ATKINSON: It is so incredibly awful to be fat in America. The level of discrimination is just devastating to people. Many patients come in here and just break down in tears.
Ms. DYSON: "You didn't try hard enough." "You didn't exercise will power." I did all of that. And for me, it wasn't working. The doctor said that if I didn't do something about my weight, within a year I would be wheelchair-bound.
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SEVERSON: Joyce Dyson lost 115 pounds from her original 287, the first seven months after gastric bypass surgery.
Dr. Eric Finkelstein is a health economist who says we are all paying a high price for obesity -- $93 billion a year, when the medical bills for obesity-related diseases are tallied up.
Dr. ERIC FINKELSTEIN (Health Economist, RTI International): Obesity knows no bounds. It cuts across every age, race, gender, and geographic strata.
SEVERSON: And the trend, he says, is ominous.
Dr. FINKELSTEIN: Obesity among kids has actually skyrocketed and, and increased ever faster than obesity among adults. And the repercussions of obesity are essentially through chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cancers, heart disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea.
SEVERSON: There are hundreds of theories about why Americans are overweight. One is prosperity -- eating more and exercising less. The average caloric intake has increased from 1,700 to 2,000 calories per day in the last 15 years.
Dr. FINKELSTEIN: Is it because of the fast food industry? Is it because of advertising? Is it because food prices have gone down?
Dr. ATKINSON: Clearly genetics plays a role, but this explosion of obesity in the last 20 years shows that genetics can't be the explanation for all of it, because genes haven't changed. So there's something in the environment.
SEVERSON: As alarming as statistics are for white Americans, they are even worse among African Americans. Studies conclude that almost one in three is obese or 40 pounds overweight.
Bishop OWENS: The knife and fork are killing more people than a gun or a regular knife.
SEVERSON: Joyce Dyson says eating has always played an important role in African-American church functions.
Ms. DYSON: Unfortunately, in the church, you see a lot of the functions are around food. It's almost encouraged. And there's a lot of obese people in the church.
SEVERSON: Bishop Owens says church socials offering rich Southern fried food are still a problem, but he's working on it.
Bishop OWENS: Gluttony was one of the seven deadly sins. You know, people get offended when you talk about their appetite, and you'd say "push away," you know, from the table. But if we can control the knife and fork and what we consume, we will live a long time.
Mr. TRIPLETT: I've seen people come off medication. I've seen guys with bad backs who're now walking straight. Knee issues are now being straightened out, and it's not only because of the fitness program. It's because of a commitment to turn your health back over to God.
Ms. DYSON: Gastric bypass surgery was a last resort, but it was the resort that gave me hope. And it changed my life.
SEVERSON: Fortunately, Joyce Dyson's insurance company paid for her gastric bypass surgery. But for those not quite ready or in need of surgery, there is precious little coverage because the government and insurance companies do not consider obesity a disease. Dr. Atkinson says the denial is ethically indefensible.
Dr. ATKINSON: This is an absolute travesty that the most common disease in America -- clearly associated with at least 300,000 deaths per year ... much of the diabetes, hypertension, heart disease -- and it's not covered by insurance. Obesity treatment is expensive because for success it does require repeated follow-up.
SEVERSON: Richard Profitt says there are a lot of "big" people in his family, and he got so big, he weighed 365 pounds. He tried diets, and got bigger. Doctors say 90 percent of diets fail. But when Profitt went to see doctors for advice, they had little to offer.
RICHARD PROFITT: Most doctors were just kind of like -- they shrugged it off and didn't know what to think about it, but this doctor didn't want to let it go.
SEVERSON: Now he's lost 85 pounds through disciplined eating, exercise, and constant follow-up from Dr. Atkinson's clinic, but he still faces an uphill battle.
Mr. PROFITT: I haven't even told my beloved wife what I'm paying to have this done. But I think that, in the long run, she would realize that it was worth it. My relationship with Christ has just become fuller since my weight loss. I love the freedom of being able to just move before my God in total abandonment.
SEVERSON: The Centers for Disease Control predicts that at the current rate, by the year 2010, 40 percent of Americans will be obese. Joyce Dyson doesn't intend to be one of them. I'm Lucky Severson for RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY in Washington.
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Related Links:
Washington Post: "Minding Body and Soul: Churches try programs to promote better nutrition and health" by Bill Broadway, January 9, 2004
The Washington Post: "In Northeast, Moved by a Fitness Revelation; Church Finds a New Calling in Fighting Obesity and Tending to Its Flock's Physical Needs" by Steven Gray, July 9, 2002
WBUR: Childhood Obesity, December 19, 2003
WAMU: Obesity, December 18, 2003
The Boston Globe: "The Deadliest Sin" by Jim Holt, November 23, 2003
The Boston Globe Magazine: "Finding Fault for the Fat" by Daniel Akst, December 7, 2003
Cleveland Jewish News: "The opening of the American mouth" by Stephanie Garber, August 8, 2003
Purdue University: "Firm believers more likely to be flabby, Purdue study finds," March 1998
American Obesity Association
Overeaters Anonymous
Duke University: Center for the Study of Religion, Spirituality and Health
Marion Star: "Search Your Heart: Church leaders learn about new outreach program for heart health" by Brenda Donegan, October 25, 2003
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