One Way To Reduce Healthcare Costs From Obesity

Matthews Bandyk should read the primary article and come back and apologize for his misrepresentation of this valuable study.

What the study actually shows is that grazing (within limits, of course) and higher incomes are directly proportional. The people who earn more income graze more often and in longer durations. Eating 3 meals a day plus snacks (yes, grazing) results in a lower BMI and better health.

Read what Bandyk wrote: "When your time is more precious (because you have higher earning potential with that time), you cut out the time-wasting activities like grazing, and your meals start to more closely resemble the healthier three square meals."

Now Mr. Bandyk please read the preceding sentences from your

article: "When time becomes more valuable (as proxied by the hourly wage), people substitute grazing for eating, essentially switching to multi-tasking an activity that may be one of the more readily multi-tasked."

What the study actually says is that if you are making more per hour/a higher salary, you know your time is valuable to you and your employer thus you resort to grazing or multi-tasking while you work. The study actually includes work and leisure time but the result is the same.

People who make more money can afford to graze, have snacks at work, and continue to work at their job and produce a living. The study makes no statements on the quality of the foods that are consumed yet Mr Bandyk takes the typical conservative narrow minded view that if you graze or eat snacks between meals, it will be an unhealthy event. This is simply not directly related.

I have long argued that we all need to eat not three but 5 or 6 small meals every day. You must feed your body a small 300-400 (for a man) calorie meal 5-6 times a day but you still can't exceed the calories expended by your body in basal functions, thermogenics, and activity level. Your body burns calories only through these three ways. Feeding your body more often creates more calorie burned during the day...thus raises your metabolism.

The food industry does promote unhealthy foods for snacks like chips and cookies but often people with higher incomes can afford fruits like apples or oranges or vegetables like carrots to have at their desk or work station. It is the less fortunate and less educated that must rely on cheap calorie dense snacks like a Snickers bar.

I respectfully request that you immediately pull this article and take your wrongly reasoned analysis of this study off this website. Evidently, you must have been eating a snicker's bar when you should have been reading this study.

Larry Matthews of NC 8:50AM September 01, 2009