Obesity in America
The Facts
As they say in court, the facts don’t lie. And those facts tell us that America is definitely a nation with poor eating habits. Over 60% of all Americans are either overweight or obese. Almost 20% of our children are overweight, up from only 5% in 1980.
Mississippi has the highest level of obesity with 29.5% of its residents being obese, not just overweight. Alabama and West Virginia are a close second and third.
West Virginia also has the unfortunate distinction of leading the nation in Type 2 Diabetes rates at 10.4%. Why is this important news? Keep in mind that being overweight leads to many other serious health related issues, diabetes being just one of them.
Mississippi has the highest number of people with high blood pressure. Nearly 1 in 4 has hypertension.
Every single state in our nation is failing in its goal to reduce the obesity rate to 15% or less by 2010. While that is sad, it is certainly not surprising.
Why Is This Happening?
There are two main causes for our nations growing obesity epidemic. Fast food is one, and a lack of exercise is number two. Sure, there are others such as hereditary causes, but these are the two main root causes of obesity.
Fast food is literally killing us and we are just letting it happen. Consider this; most people eat fast food an average of 4 times per week. Many more eat it several more times than that. I’m sure you know a lot of people yourself who eat out all the time.
Fast food contains levels of fats, carbohydrates and calories that your body just can’t take. And portion sizes are completely out of control these days. Everywhere you go you see signs for monster 48oz and 64oz big gulps, or hugo sized sodas. A Big Mac meal deal at McDonalds has over 1380 calories, 55 grams of fat and 187 carbs. And that’s just for one meal! Don’t think I’m just picking on McDonalds, I’m not. This is just one example of what every fast food restaurant is like. You can easily check out the facts for yourself by going online and doing a search for the nutrition information.
The other major contributor is a total lack of exercise. We have become a nation full of people who are unwilling to put down the remote and lace up the tennis shoes. You can see the evidence of this by simply looking out your front door. You rarely see people even going for a walk around the neighborhood anymore.
To make matters worse, most of our nation’s schools have taken out PE classes over the years, or made them voluntary. Physical education class used to be a staple in school 20 years ago. Now it’s not. And we wonder why our children are getting fat? Instead of being outside after school playing catch, or riding bikes, our children are sitting on the couch playing video games and munching on chips and soda.
What Can We Do?
There are so many things we can do as a nation to put a stop to this senseless epidemic.
Our schools can do a better job of educating our children on nutrition. They can remove the candy and soda machines from their school. School lunches need higher nutrition standards. And gym class needs to be re-instated and made mandatory.
Our government can also do more. While some of you may not agree, we need a tax on junk food and soda. Take that money and use it on education and obesity related health issues. As it stands now, we are all currently paying the price for these problems regardless of whether they affect us personally or not.
With all of this said though, the main place where education needs to come from is in our homes. We should never expect our schools and our government to do what we should be doing ourselves. We need to take responsibility for our own health and take action to improve it. Educate yourselves about food and exercise. Begin to eat healthier and spend time together exercising. Put down the remote. If we will simply just get started and take action now, the obesity crisis we are now facing would be wiped out quick!
