As any dieter knows, willpower is weak in the face of food that's convenient and delicious. A crisis of willpower on a national scale now threatens American health, says Kelly Brownell, Ph.D., and he's proposed a radical measure in response.
Brownell, an expert on eating disorders at Yale University, notes that nutritionists have been offering the same dietary advice for decades: eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, lots of grains and starches, and keep fat and sugar to a minimum. They've driven their point home with educational campaigns and improved food labeling. And yet Americans keep getting fatter: Obesity has increased 25 percent in the past 10 years alone.
Brownell thinks that a "toxic food environment" is to blame: high-fat, high-calorie, high-sugar foods that are easy to get, cheap to buy, and taste delicious. "When you put these things together you get a recipe for disaster," says Brownell, pointing to the rise not only in obesity, but in diet-related illnesses such as cancer, hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease.
