How Fat Can We Get?
by Jennifer Chait
The race to get fat is on!
And, according to research released by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, most Americans are going to place in this race with a big fat blue ribbon.
The research points out that if Americans keep gaining weight at the current rate they’re gaining; in just eight years 75% of Americans will be overweight and 40% will be obese.
Raise you hand if you’d like to come in last in this race.
Our kids are affected as well. It’s not fair to train them for a contest that will kill them.
Sorry if I sound agitated, I do tend to be chipper and positive — look on the bright side.
But when my son and I go to the city park I count far more chubby kids than slim kids. More parents sitting on the bench then playing Frisbee or swinging with their children. It’s sad. Many of the people my age aren’t going to live to see their grandkids. Fat will do them in early — if they even have grandkids. Studies show that overweight individuals have a much harder time conceiving.
Right off the top of my head I can think of two revolutionary ways to stop this…
Eat better and exercise.
Cutting out soda and fruity sugary drinks will help too. As will trimming down food portion sizes and actually hanging out with our kids; setting a good example by playing with them, outside in the fresh air.
Other key points found by Johns Hopkins:
- Currently 1 in 3 adults is obese.
- 80% of African American women over the age of 40 are overweight.
- Asians born here in America are four times more likely to be overweight than their foreign born cousins.
- 16-34% of children (11 million) are overweight and many more are at risk of becoming overweight.
- Women ages 20-34 years have the highest rate of increased weight gain.
But no one is entirely off the hook. The overall fact remains that 75% of ALL Americans will likely be overweight by 2015. Imagine what this will do to the already escalating health care costs.
This is serious. I hear peppy talks by fitness trainers. I see nicely worded articles about slimming down youth. I feel all warm and fuzzy when I learn that yet another overweight pregnant woman thankfully gave birth to a healthy baby.
But honestly, I think we’ve reached the point where happy pep talks and saying “robust” when we mean “grossly overweight” has got to stop. It’s not working. Maybe knowing that we’re willfully harming our children will work. Maybe considering that there soon won’t be enough healthy people to care for the unhealthy people will work. Is death a motivator to get in shape?
Maybe…
If you’d like to see your children grow up healthy and happy you can visit:
The Alliance for a Healthier Generation
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences kids page
Why not make a choice right now that you and your children will lose this race. All you have to do to get started is click on a link above. It’s that simple.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 1:44 am and is filed under Child Abuse, Exercise, Healthy Eating, Healthy Living, Nutrition for Adults, Weight Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 26th, 2007 at 7:22 am
[…] 3. More evidence that fat people are ruining it for everyone. We make our friends fatter and we’re abusing our children with our fatty fatness. Never mind that the government’s own studies suggest that people who are “overweight” live longer than the folks who meet the government’s ideal. Even obese people are only going to lower the life expectancy of Americans two years over the course of the next century. Two years. Over a hundred years. Still Jennifer Chait is convinced that many of the people her age aren’t going to live to see their grandchildren. Well, yeah, maybe if everyone waits until they’re forty to have kids and then their kids wait until they’re forty. […]
July 26th, 2007 at 9:53 am
These statistics are really alarming, aren’t they? And it just seems to be getting worse and worse.
For some obese adults, even with healthy eating and exercise, it may not be possible to get really slim anymore–because of screwed up metabolisms or whatever, but at least some weight loss and good general health should be a goal.
But for kids, who have their whole lives ahead of them, it’s incredibly crucial to start NOW in preventing a life of obesity. Lets hope parents take this seriously and find ways to provide healthy food, opportunities to exercise, and good role-modeling of healthy behaviors.
(Without stigmatizing those who are fat, however. Low self esteem doesn’t help anything.)
July 27th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
Hey Crabby. I liked your post on the fat situation too. I agree we should not stigmatize. But I do think people should pay attention to the stats.
Take care