Why Is America So Fat?

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July 14, 2004

Why Is America So Fat?

Indians Who Became Heaviest Americans Volunteer For Study
By Rebecca Leung Font size Print E-mail Share

(CBS)  Obesity is about to become this country’s leading cause

Like this Story? Share it: of preventable death. Lack of exercise and too much food are
not only making us fatter, they’re leading to increases in other
00 diseases, such as diabetes.

189 Nowhere is that more painfully apparent than in southern

VIDEO
60 Minutes: Fighting Fat
Vicki Mabrey visits the Pima and Tohono
O'odham Indians of southern Arizona. What she
learns from them may help answer a lot of
questions for those of us fighting fat in the rest
of America.
Arizona, where the fattest Americans live on two Indian
reservations. How and why they became obese, and what it
means for the rest of us, is the subject of an intense study.
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Until a couple of generations ago, the Pima and Tohono
O'odham Indians of southern Arizona didn't even have a word VIEWED
for diabetes. But now, this preventable disease, along with
obesity, is killing them. Correspondent Vicki Mabrey 1. Zodiac: What's Your New Sign?
reports. 2. More Good News on the
Congresswoman's Recovery
“When I'm on the reservation, I feel very comfortable because
3. Poll: Americans Split on What to Cut
there's people my size walking around,” says Terrol Dew
from Government
Johnson. “When I get off the reservation, I feel so fat. I feel so
unhealthy, you know?” 4. Arizona Shooting Suspect Jared
Loughner Posed in Pictures in Red G-
Off the reservation, Johnson can escape the disease that’s String with Glock, Say Police
plaguing his tribe. He’s an accomplished artist, a basket weaver 5. Ariz. Shooting Victim Makes Threats
whose work has been displayed by the Smithsonian. But back on at Meeting
the reservation, where obesity is an epidemic, he’s like everyone
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else.
DISCUSSED
“On the reservation, we have this joke where, when you go and
shop for clothes, you have your large, your extra-large,” says 1. Report: Women Should Be Allowed in
Johnson. “You know, we always say, ‘Well, we have our Combat
(351 recent comments)
O’odham size,’ the Indian size, which is like 3X, 4X.”

Johnson adds that it’s rare to see a thin person on the

The Pima and Tohono O'odham Indians of
reservation: “At events that we have, we see someone who's LATEST NEWS
skinny and tall and a lot of elders will say, ‘You know, that's how
we used to be. We used to be like that.’" 60 Minutes
The Tucson Shooting:
Scattered across a reservation about the size of Connecticut, the
Pima and Tohono O'odham Indians lived off the land for
Descent Into Madness
thousands of years. Scott Pelley Talks To Jared
Loughner's Friends,
A film from 1933 shows them farming the desert, growing their Classmates and Ex-Secret
pima cotton and oranges. What you won’t see are any fat

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/12/60II/main628877.shtml[1/16/2011 11:34:02 PM]

Why Is America So Fat? - 60 Minutes - CBS News

southern Arizona lived off the land for thousands Service

of years.  (60 Minutes/CBS)
INTERACTIVE
Diet And Nutrition
Are you eating right? See the
government's guidelines, calculate
your body mass index and quiz
yourself on healthy food choices.
people. But that was before the once-mighty Gila River, that
watered the desert, was dammed to provide water for Phoenix,
just 20 miles away. And it was before the men left to fight in Dem. Gov.: Tucson
World War II. When they returned, their farms were dried up, and Shootings a "Wake-Up
the people were left starving. The government stepped in with Call"
surplus food -- lots of white flour and lard.
In Wake of Arizona Tragedy,
Politicians Call for Toned-
“They had to learn how to say certain things like Wonder Bread,
Down Rhetoric
peanut butter,” says Johnson.

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The Nation We Live In
Who are Americans and what do
they do? A comprehensive look at
our economic, sociological and racial
breakdown.
Now, desert farming is all but gone, and in its place is fast food Tunisia Police Arrest
and “fry bread,” a deep-fried combination of flour and lard. It’s
Head of Presidential
also common to see 300-pound adults.
Guard
But it’s not just obesity. Diabetes is also ravaging the Following Ousting of President,
reservation, and the life expectancy for a man has dropped to Police Make Arrests, Attempt
57. to Restore Order

At 59, Robert Porter is a tribal elder. He was once a marathon runner, carrying on a centuries-old tribal tradition,
before diabetes infected his feet.
NEWS IN PICTURES
“People were strong, physically strong,” recalls Porter, of a time before diabetes became a common disease. “Our
young men used to run from village to village just for the fun of it. Our Pima-Maricopa people were runners. Strong
runners; silent runners.”

Now, he’s in a wheelchair, alternating between the reservation dialysis center, and the reservation hospital, where
doctor Wes Yamada is trying to save his legs.

“So what we can do here at this facility is try to make sure that they’re as functional as possible,” says Yamada.
“Because once they have below-the-knee or above-the-knee amputation, they become wheelchair bound, or think
they have to be in a wheelchair. Their rate of visceral deterioration is accelerated. And they just sort of give up on
life.”

The hospital is where you’ll see the ravages of the disease. Before diabetes kills, it robs eyesight, shuts down
kidneys, leads to heart disease and stroke, and deadens limbs. Porter has lost his mobility because of diabetes.
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“Just the other day I was saying to my wife, ‘It’s either gonna beat me or I’m gonna beat it.’ And my heart tells me I Ricky Gervais
will die,” says Porter. “But while I’m on this earth, I want to do something to help others afflicted with the disease.”

So he’s doing what thousands of other Pima Indians have done: volunteered to be a part of a massive government
research project run by the National Institutes of Health. In the process, the Pima are becoming America’s test
case for obesity and diabetes. Dr. Clifton Bogardus leads a team of scientists trying to find out why these Indians
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have become the fattest people in the fattest country on earth.
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“We suspect that genetics has a lot to do with it,” says Bogardus. “Something that they inherited from their browse archives, & get the story
forefathers and passed down that presumably in the past may be a gene or set of genes that was in some way behind the story.
advantageous to them.”
Download the App

This is advantageous because of a so-called thrifty gene – a tiny bit of DNA that scientists believe once helped all
of us during times of famine by storing fat. But our famine days are long gone, and that gene, along with the
modern American diet, is working against us. And for these American Indians of the Southwest, it’s causing obesity Sunday Morning App
and diabetes at a rate never seen before.
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“Over the age of 35, it’s now more common to have diabetes than not to have diabetes. Probably more like 70
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[percent],” says Bogardus, adding that in the general population, it’s much lower – approximately 6-8 percent.
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And it’s rising. What scientists are learning from studying the Pimas’ diet, metabolism and genes, is that a genetic
mutation first makes them overeat and become obese. Then, they think another mutant gene kicks in, triggering the
diabetes.

In the Phoenix NIH lab, they’re searching through billions of genes, and they’re closing in on two culprits:
chromosomes 1 and 11.

“On chromosome 1, we’ve identified a region that contains a diabetes susceptibility gene in the Pimas and this has
been confirmed in many other populations around the world,” says Bogardus. “And on chromosome 11, we have a
region that harbors an obesity susceptibility gene.”

But finding chromosomes doesn’t mean finding a cure. And after decades of testing, and more than $100 million
tax dollars, there is only advice: Eat less and exercise more.

Bogardus and his team have discovered that even a small weight loss – as little as 7 percent of body weight – can
drastically reduce the odds of getting diabetes.

The Pimas have taken the advice to heart, building a new workout facility at the reservation hospital. But their
children have become the latest concern. Adult onset diabetes, once known as a disease of the elderly, is now

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/12/60II/main628877.shtml[1/16/2011 11:34:02 PM]

Why Is America So Fat? - 60 Minutes - CBS News

spreading to children as young as 4.

At St. Peter Indian Mission School, many of the 200 students are overweight and at risk. Their principal, Sister Sponsored Links
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“We have a running program. When the kids get off the bus, they throw their book bags against the fence. And they Bed & Bath Coupons Beyond & More!
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Johnson was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 28. It was then that he and his business partner, Tristan
Reader, decided to put their faith in food, too – into the foods that grow in the desert.

Past generations used to live on natural foods like cactus fruits, and native foods such as squash, melons, and the
tepary bean.

“You must have been skeptical that you could grow a bean that grew here hundreds of years ago and it’s going to
save someone’s life now,” Mabrey asks Reader.

“Part of me might have been skeptical. But I also knew that it had served the people here for generation upon
generation,” says Reader. “And it’s only recently that diabetes has come. So we began to ask what’s changed?”

It had been so long since these foods were grown that some, particularly tepary beans, were nearly extinct. But
they found some at a seed bank in Tucson, which gives away the seeds for free just to get the Indians to try them.

But can it really be that simple? Could desert plants really prevent obesity and diabetes? Scientists aren’t sure. But
Reader and others are ready to try anything -- to be healthy again.

“And when you can look and say to someone, ‘This is part of who you are. This is part of your culture. This is part
of your heritage, this will keep your strong and this will keep you well,’” says Reader. “And you put that choice out
there, the hope is people will make those choices.”

With some luck and a little rain, Johnson and Reader had a good harvest. They gave away desert food to anyone
who could carry it. But this small farm won’t produce enough for the tens of thousands of American Indians who are
obese and diabetic. This is a place where, for decades now, the most prolific growth in the desert has been the
cemeteries.

“There’s been many moments when you’re sitting at a funeral knowing that your relative, your aunt, your
grandfather died of diabetes,” says Johnson. “That moment is when we all think, ‘We have to do something or we’re
next.’”

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