Do Phthalates Cause Obesity?

I've just stumbled upon an April 2009 New York Times blog post, strangely filed in the City Room blog, reporting that research has linked phthalates and obesity.

Americans may just be desperate to find a solution to obesity that doesn't involve eating less and exercising more. But phthalates are known to be endocrine -- or horomone -- disrupters. And we get pretty close contact with them, because they're in personal care products as well as plastics.

A Mt. Sinai study focused on young girls in Harlem found that the heaviest girls had the highest concentrations of the chemical in their urine.

Another study cited in the post found that mice given endocrine disruptors were more likely to be obese.

It's more bad news in a long list of findings that endocrine disruptors are bad and should be phased out. Which, in itself, is evidence that the mechanisms for regulating chemicals in the United States are dysfunctional.

But my path to this oddly obscure blog post was through sustainable food writer Tom Laskawy, who offered a pre-emptive attack on Michelle Obama's campaign against childhood obesity, which is set to launch tomorrow.

Laskawy argues that addressing calorie intake and processed food won't be enough to make headway on the issue; to do so, he says, Mrs. Obama will have to go head-to-head with the food industry.

Maybe, but I think we can all agree that calorie-counting and fresh foods are a good place to start.

Photo credit: wrestlingentropy