Obesity

I've recently moved to New Jersey, USA from Sydney, Australia and prior to that I lived and worked in the UK. While I'm sure I'm unfairly stereotyping the USA the obesity issue here is significant.

On one hand I struggle to understand how people can allow themselves to get so obese. I fully understand that people put on weight gradually over time, I've done the same.. increasing by 15kg / 33 lbs over 4 years however we're talking about something much much more than this. Typically 100s of pounds in extra body weight. On the other hand I see a significant amount of 'victim' mentality. The advertising in shops and on TV is only going to result in an increasing level of obesity and it is here that the governments world wide need to consider the future cost to the world of treating obesity.

My local Walmart may not be the best place to see a representation of the population however it is shocking. Here we have many people who weigh 250lbs and more and it is not muscle. Looking at the contents of the shopping trolleys shows colas, crisps and many other sugar, fat and calorie laden foods and then popping to the in store McDonalds for who knows how many burgers, fries and colas.

So my question is.. why? Surely these people know that they're killing themselves and that their life expectancy is severely shortened and they run the risk of type 2 diabetes, other health issues and a life on drugs? Do they not want to see their children grow up. Probably what saddens me more is then seeing children who are between 6 and 12 years old who are already obese. It's easy to blame fast food joints, computers, televisions and many other influences, however for the kids the 'blame' and responsibility must surely lie directly with the parents and not looking after their children. Maybe I'm speaking out of turn, I'm not a parent however the information on nutrition etc is readily accessible and obesity is a known issue.

I don't have any statistics to hand, however I'm certain that less than 1% of obese people are obese as a result of genetics rather than eating too much and exercising too little. To this point the graph below is from 2003 courtesy of Wikipedia and the World Resource Institute.  It shows the average calorie intake in kcals/person/day per country between 2001 to 2003. The world average was 2800 kcals/person/day. Now compare the countries and even the 2800kcal world average to the standard recommendation of 2000 to 2500 kcals a day. We have a problem.... now look at the USA, an average > 3600 kcals per person! We have an even bigger challenge!

Now compare the above to how it looked back in 1961.. much fewer calories, the average back then was 2253 kcals/person/day.

I plan to write a separate blog entry on advertising and fast food, however to pre-empt this let's just say that my experience of the USA advertising on television is that there are far more TV adverts for fast food and also for medication... interesting?

Now the obesity issue isn't limited to the USA, many other countries including the UK and Australia are fast catching up. However in all of these countries the obesity is more focused to certain locations and demographics of people. For example in the USA I've visited both Washington DC and parts of California where I noticed very few obese people. In Australia if you go to Manly, Bondi Beach or other similar locations then once again there are few obese people.

I read on the news a few weeks back that stated the average cost to treat an obese person in the UK. While I don't recall the exact figure it was large due to surgery (bypass and stapling), the drugs/medication and ongoing monitoring required. The cost is then burdened to the tax payer. We must surely be able to come up with a better plan, maybe we can't offer free gym memberships to all the population but I'm sure there are other ways to use the billions of dollars/pounds more effectively? Or maybe some form of gym subsidy to help those who are making the effort?

A quick Internet search indicates (in the USA) that in 2006 the average medical care costs per year paid by the patient was 42% more for people who were obese. i.e. they needed more medical care. In 2006 the direct and indirect costs of obesity in the USA for the year was around $147 billion. A staggering amount that is increasing each year!

In the news this week is that more than half of adults in most EU countries are overweight or obese according to the European Commission.As a result they're looking to change food labeling to spell out more clearly exactly what's contained inside. I have to say I'm not sure this will work, in my experience food labels are already pretty clear as to what is in the food, it's just people don't care or bother to read them.

So my plea to humanity is to take responsibility for yourself, don't become a victim, start looking after your own body and send the message to the corporations that sell and advertise drugs/medication and unhealthy food that we're not interested in their products! So let's think about what we buy at the super markets, let's go for less processed food that is full of fat, sugar, salt and calories and invest in one of the most important things we have... our health...