The skinny on bulging waistlines
Food has always been a star ingredient in Jordan LeBel’s career. A professor at Concordia’s John Molson School of Business, he’s worked as an executive chef and a restaurant inspector; he’s co-edited cookbooks and was nicknamed “Dr. Chocolate” for his well-known expertise on the world’s favourite sweet.
He’s taught food marketing and restaurant management courses and co-founded the Concordia Food Studies Research Group. He’s also specialized in consumer psychology – why people choose certain edibles over others and how pleasure can drive eating behaviours. “I investigate comfort foods, which can provide a window into what factors trigger or influence consumption,” he says.
That expertise led Laurette Dubé, a marketing professor at McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management and a former nutritionist, to recruit LeBel as part of her research group, the McGill World Platform for Health and Economic Convergence. Launched in 2005, the team initially functioned as an annual forum for scientists, health advocates and politicians to weigh in on the battle against obesity.
“Obesity is a problem that won’t be solved by one single group or discipline,” says LeBel, who recently completed a visiting professorship at Cornell University. “We need a silo-busting mentality to counter this epidemic.”
Obesity is a growing problem in both developed and developing countries. Statistics Canada reports that 23.1% of Canadian adults are overweight and 29.7% of Americans aged 18 or older are obese. “In China alone, one quarter of boys aged seven to 12 are obese, which is a 2,500% increase in less than 25 years,” LeBel says. “As a country’s gross domestic product grows, so does the consumption of fatty foods.”
To help prevent ballooning waistlines and related health problems, Dubé, LeBel and colleagues were awarded $1.4 million in funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec.
The grants are seed money for two developmental projects, the first being an online platform that will unite researchers from around the world. “It will be a virtual network of experts interested in the issues of obesity,” explains LeBel.
The team’s second project will examine how the Internet can be leveraged to fight hard-wired reactions to fatty foods. “Our goal is to come up with a web-based tool to help guide people towards healthier choices,” LeBel says. “We’re investigating what words, what triggers, what science can help manage impulses.”
Curbing the urge for fatty foods, LeBel says, is a major weapon in the war against obesity. “Research shows that 80% of food decisions are spontaneous and made in grocery stores,” he adds.
“People make what are called ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ choices,” he continues. “Cold choices are based on restraint and logic. Hot choices are based on impulse and pleasure and can influence appetite, smoking and sex habits.”
To help consumers curtail hot impulses and make educated choices, LeBel cites front-of-pack labels used in the U.K. The country uses colour coding for processed foods: green (good), yellow (moderate) and red (bad). “These are teachable moments or windows,” says LeBel, stressing that consumption habits are hard to break. “Sometimes cues and rewards are needed to guide people towards healthier options.”
LeBel says there’s a growing acknowledgement from students, business leaders and the general public that corporations have a social responsibility to produce healthier products and encourage better consumption habits. “Some people argue that marketers are part of what causes obesity; we argue that we can be part of the solution.”
A 2010 recipient of the Award for Teaching Excellence, LeBel says his eConcordia class – The World of Chocolate: Explore, Experience, Enjoy – is an example of a medium that helps foster appreciation and sensible consumption. “If people are taught about the value of a product and how to savour it, they’re more likely to make better choices and manage what gives them pleasure. Prohibition and constant restraint never work, while a smarter approach to pleasure just might.”
Related links:
• Concordia’s John Molson School of Business
• McGill World Platform for Health and Economic Convergence
• Concordia Food Studies Research Group
• NOW story on eConcordia seminar, "The World of Chocolate: Explore, Experience, Enjoy”
• Obesity statistics from the World Health Organization
• Statistics Canada figures on obesity