The Obesity Epidemic

Obesity is in all the news. Everyday I get news releases on what some state or country is proposing to do to protect our school children or the general working population.

This quote from Dr Gerald Hass at Harvard Medical School ...That is a hard argument to make in the face of a depressed, obese child whose health is failing, who has no safe place to exercise, and is under siege by adults selling him salt, fat, sugar and a shorter, sadder life. As adults, we have an obligation to do better. This was in response to people saying individual and families should be responsible for the health and obesity problem of children rather than government regulations.

1. I don't know of any children under 16 who drive the car to a fast food place, pull out their wallet and buy fat fast food.

2. Yes the government subsidized lunch program should be overhauled. This program continues to use high-fat, high-starch, agricultural surplus food.

3. Have you ever eaten lunch at an elementary school? French fries, bread, canned sweetened fruit, mac and cheese, pizza - this is a healthy diet?

4. Middle schools and high schools absolve themselves of the problem by installing vending machines with colas and chips. In defense of this - the schools claim they need the extra revenue because of lack of funding.

5. Children, like their parents are not getting enough sleep. Not enough sleep - big contribution to obesity.

6. How does a parent needing to get to work, walk their child to school? Not going to happen.  Letting a small child walk to and from school on their own is not an option in most neighborhoods.  There are too many predators just waiting.

7. Sports programs at schools concentrate on kids who are very good at sports not the over-weight uncoordinated children who need the sports.

8. Latch key kids cannot play outside - they go into the house and lock the door and turn on the TV or a computer/video game.

9. Do you know of any child or adult that wants to be fat, that wants to be ridiculed because they don't fit the "perfect" picture?

There are no easy answers to the obesity problem.  Fat children usually have fat parents.  And if the parents are still in shape it is because the children are left in a TV environment while the parents go to a gym to work out.

Can we really blaim the advertising industry, the fast food chains, the manufacturers of high fat foods?  If no one buys those products, they will cease to exist.

What will come next - laws and fines to force people to maintain a healthy weight?

We passed a law that everyone had to wear a seat belt. Yet look around you - millions of people do not wear that seat belt or force their children to buckle up.  We have laws against drugs but children and adults continue to use drugs.  We have laws that restrict children from buying cigarettes but I see teenagers smoking every day.

We all clamor for a pill - a new drug - that will allow us to pig-out but stay thin and healthy.  Something that will allow us to sit in front of a TV and yet look like we spend hours working out.

This is a personal problem that affects every community.  Health care costs go up and therefore premiums go up for everyone.  The IRS now will allow doctor prescribed weight-loss programs as a deductible medical expense.

The current baby boomer population now nearing retirement and Medicare can look forward to not having a working population to support them.  If obesity is going to take 10-30 years off the life of our children - where are the workers going to come from. Come to think of it, if you have an obesity problem, you won't be around long to take too much Medicare.

Modern medicine has made it possible to live very well into the 80's and 90's and our population is growing by leaps and bounds.  We have no plague or other disease to wipe out a third of the worlds population. So perhaps we are just going to kill ourselves off by eating ourselves to death.

How absolutely pathetic that in the same day we have people dying of starvation and people dying of obesity.

 Here in San Antonio, Tx (the highest adult obesity rate in the nation) in the poorest school district, they are taking action.  People are getting involved.  Freedom Elementary School participates in a walking program.  The children are challenged to walk a marathon which is 26.2 miles over a period of 2 months. These same children are being taught nutrition.

This program has been so successful that the parents are joining their children and everyone is losing weight and gaining health.

So I challenge you - an adult with a whole lot more control of your time than children have - in 2 months - can you walk a marathon? That works out to 15 minutes a day.

I am starting today.  Please join me. Commit to this rather than a hospital stay for stroke.  Make a comment telling me that yes you will walk a marathon.

Join the 2 month marathon club today.

You may reprint this article in your newsletter or blog as long as this tag line is in place. Copyright 2006 Answers For Your Health published by Sharon Owen. You want answers to your health questions in plain english not doctor speak.