Editorial: America takes the cake in consumerism …literally

Visitors to UCLA’s North Campus Eatery on Tuesday had the
chance to purchase a medium soda ““ a 32-ounce medium
soda.

The deal lasted a limited time ““ apparently, the eatery
ran out of its standard medium-sized cups and replaced them with
larger ones. Without any additional coinage, students could enjoy
an extra few ounces of sugary, bubbly water.

So, for a little more than a buck, and in just a few
minutes’ time, they could take in one-fifth the calories and
34 percent of the carbohydrates of a typical daily diet
““ and probably not even realize it.

It could happen only in America ““ land of the free, home
of the Big Mac, the Big Gulp, the super-sized fries, the king-sized
candy bar, 40-ounce beers and cappuccinos served in mugs the size
of bathroom sinks. 

The consequences of easily accessible, large quantities of food
are serious. The “fast food nation” is eating itself to
death. Obesity will soon pass tobacco use as the number one cause
of death in the United States, according to the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention.

Americans are fat and getting fatter.

According to CNN, Americans ““ even when they managed to
stay at home to eat ““ were consuming significantly
larger food portions in the mid-1990s than they were just 20 years
before. Between 1977 and 1996, average salty snack food portions
increased by 93 calories, soda portions by 49 and french fry
portions by 133.

And all indications suggest appetites have gotten even larger
since 1996.

According to supersizeme.com, Americans eat 1 million animals
per hour and spend $110 billion on fast food annually
““ compared to $3 billion in 1972. (Incidentally, the
movie on which the aforementioned Web site is based was shown
Tuesday night in Ackerman by the Campus Events commission
““ in a packed auditorium.)

But it doesn’t take media reports or movie Web sites to
demonstrate a trend of monstrous appetites. Just look around UCLA
and Westwood, where some favorite pastimes include stuffing oneself
with three-for-a-dollar cookies, $2.25 buck-fitty sandwiches, $1
pints, $2 margaritas and, if that’s not enough, a Puzzles
pizza minutes before bedtime. (Note the cheapness and availability
of all this stuff. Eating has never been so easy.)

The obesity epidemic is not only an anomaly of history, it is
also an anomaly of geography. In a Daily Bruin article Tuesday,
Karen Duvall, assistant clinical professor in the Department of
Family Medicine, noted the trend toward bigger portions is less
substantial in Europe.

That’s not a coincidence. Now more than ever, Americans
love to consume ““ anything. The home of the 6-inch
bagel, foot-long Dodger dog, all-you-can-eat Sizzler and
never-ending pasta bowl is also the home of must-have designer
clothes and cosmetics, three- and four-car families, countless
video game systems, iPods and a perceived constitutional right to
inexpensive gasoline. Like cheap and fatty food, all of these
consumer items have their consequences on society ““ and
they are all perceived as necessities.

An adage says the luxuries of today become the necessities of
tomorrow.

Given the frightening impact of American consumer-culture today,
where does that leave people a generation from now?

Sipping 44-ounce medium Cokes?