On Fitness

In more than 30 years of working in the food industry, Hank Cardello didn't think much about the health consequences of the products he promoted, whether Betty Crocker cake mixes, a proposed new malt liquor, or Diet Coke. He thinks about them plenty now, though. After a cancer scare in 1995, Cardello switched gears and started to look more critically at how his industry might help combat obesity. He's now CEO of 27 Degrees North, a consulting firm that helps companies marry profit and social responsibility. In Stuffed: An Insider's Look at Who's (Really) Making America Fat (Ecco), just released in paperback, Cardello lays out his views on why consumers are not entirely to blame for their own girth, why well-meaning government regulations often fail, and how the food industry might put its marketing oomph behind better alternatives to some of the high-calorie packaged foods that Americans snarf down. Here are edited excerpts from our conversation: 

You say the obesity problem is not simply a matter of personal responsibility and that the food industry bears some blame because "too much high-calorie food [is] marketed too effectively to too many who can't resist."
The food industry's historical posture was always this: We provide healthy options, and you're big boys and girls, so be responsible and choose them. Then there's CSPI [the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group], which has never run a company and seemed to have the message that the industry should just take its cough medicine and behave. They really speak different languages. It's like right vs. left. When the "left" says the food industry should change because it's the right thing to do, it isn't getting inside the industry's head. My philosophy is: Let's turn the industry's marketing prowess to the good. We can show them how to make more money and to do the right thing at the same time.

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I have an exercise-loving friend who says all you really need to get fit is a couple of kettlebells, the things you may have seen in your gym that look like cannonballs with handles. He may be on to something. A small study published by the American Council on Exercise (scroll down for the link to a PDF) found a particular kettlebell workout burned as many calories per minute as running at a six-minute-mile pace. And, because you're lifting something heavy, you're getting both a strength and aerobic workout. 

That doesn't mean that a beginner is going to immediately achieve the same kind of intensity. The 10 volunteers tested by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse were healthy 29-to-46-year-olds who were already experienced in kettlebell training. And the workout was tough: Following a warm-up, they did 15 seconds of one-armed snatches with their dominant hand, rested for 15 seconds, and did 15 seconds of one-armed snatches with their nondominant hand. A snatch involves lifting the kettlebell by the handle, swinging it back through your legs, then using that momentum and your own strength to swing it back and up above your head. (It's easier seen than described; search for "kettlebell snatch" on YouTube and you'll have plenty of examples.) They repeated that work/rest sequence for 20 minutes, then cooled down. Each used a 26.4-, 35.2-, or 44-pound kettlebell, depending on such factors as gender, body weight, and experience level. 

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