I want to shed some "lyte" on obesity today. Despite the economic downturn, it doesn't look like Americans are literally tightening their belts. We just keep getting fatter. Obesity did not decline anywhere in America last year.
I am sure you have heard the statistic that 2 out of every 3 Americans are overweight. This statistic uses your BMI or Body Mass Index. Some think that using BMI inflates (pun intended) the numbers. Even so, it is scary that fat is the new black.
I see it at work. I work at a health food store, and people are always coming in looking for a magic pill. There isn't one. There is a magic formula though: eat less and move more. But no one wants to hear that.
The thing is obesity is expensive. Obese people live just as long as thin people, but they have more health problems. And we are going to see a tsunami of obese retirees hit Medicare's ranks in the next ten years.
So which state is the fattest? Mississippi. The leanest? Colorado. Southern states dominate the upper rankings. I guess deep frying everything from okra to Twinkies does have consequences, big ones (pun again intended).
I don't have a clue how to get Americans to end their love affair with fast food washed down with sodas the size of bathtubs. How to make salads sexy. But I do know this, we are raising a generation of obese kids the likes the world has never seen. The long term implications of this will be (once again, pun intended) enormous.
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