Fatter Americans

In my upcoming book, The Secrets of Happy Families, I review statistics from the US Government that tell me that 2/3 of all Americans are obese. That’s pretty bad. Now, I come across an analysis of statistical trends that makes the current data look like good news! [Article and link below]

When seven out of eight people are overweight that’s a problem that goes beyond needing to make seats on airplanes larger. Obesity is dangerous. We’ve all heard about heart attacks, stroke, yada yada yada. American’s keep hoping that there will be a doctor who will step in and solve the problem and clean up the mess they’ve made of their bodies. Therapists have contributed to the problem by telling people that they are eating because of emotional pain. Yeah, maybe, but if 86% of us are emotional eaters (and the other 15% are anorexics!—just kidding) then, as a society, we’re in pretty bad mental shape.

No, I have another hypothesis. There’s too much food around! I can’t drive from one store to another without finding a Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Coldstone Creamery or some other temptation to pull me in. Why are these foods so satisfying—because they’re loaded with calories. [OK, maybe Jared did lose weight with Subways, but the 12-inch meatball subs with cheese have 1120 calories. If you’re on a diet, that’s about 2/3 of all you should eat for a whole day!] The richer the food, the better we feel, temporarily. But feeling good by eating a big meal is akin to the rush you get from doing drugs. The good feeling only lasts a few moments, and then you crash and feel worse than ever. Moreover, you wake up the next day fatter than the day before. And talk about emotional distress. Maybe we’re all eating to heal the pain of being overweight!

Portion control, wise food choices, and staying away from casual fast-food to fill in between meals can help start the process of weight loss. Physical activity is a must for keeping your bodily and mental health. Don’t wait to get yourself healthy—maybe we can reverse this trend and get in shape by 2030. The we’ll make the statisticians eat their words!

www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/116358.php

86 Per Cent Of American Adults May Be Obese By 2030
28 Jul 2008

Roughly 86 percent of Americans age 18 and older may be overweight or obese by 2030 and related health care costs would double every decade and could reach $956.9 billion in 2030 - 1 of every 6 health care dollars spent -- according to a new study published online by the journal, Obesity on July 24. The study was authored in part by Lan Liang, Ph.D., with the federal government's Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and was led by Youfa Wang, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of International Health and Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The study is conducted based on several large national survey data sets collected over the past three decades, including those collected by AHRQ and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overweight is defined as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 25 to 29.9.

Obesity and overweight are especially worrisome because of their impact on quality of life, premature death, and health care, as well as associated costs. Being overweight or obese increases the risk of many health problems including diabetes, stroke, heart disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, breast cancer and certain other types of cancer. If the rise in current rates of overweight and obesity continue, as most experts believe they will, future adults may have shorter life-spans than the current generation.

According to the researchers, who also included coauthors Drs. May Beydoun and Benjamin Caballero from Johns Hopkins and Shiriki Kumanyika from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, half of U.S. adults, as a whole, will become obese, as will 97 percent of black women and 91 percent of Mexican-American men by 2030.

The authors also estimate that by 2022, about 80 percent of adults may be overweight or obese, and 100 percent could be by 2048. But the prevalence will reach 100 percent in black women by 2034.

Moreover, nearly one third of all U.S. children and adolescents could become obese (body mass index is greater than the 95th percentile) by 2034, and the prevalence could increase to half by 2070. Black girls and Mexican-American boys are especially vulnerable--four in 10 may become overweight or obese by 2030, and half by 2050.

For details, see "Will all Americans Become Overweight or Obese? Estimating the progression and cost of the US obesity epidemic."

http://www.ahrq.gov