Stats on Adults: According to Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity is the overt manifestation of a poor diet and sedentary lifestyle, but it's preventable. All the candy, chips, fast-food and soda we've been feasting on for years has caught up with us.
In the past 40 years, Americans have gotten taller and fatter. The average adult is an inch taller than in 1960 and weighs nearly 25 pounds more. Just look at photographs of your grandparents and see how slim they were. I don't remember grandma being on any diet programs or grandpa working out at the gym.
Obesity is also taking a heavy toll on the military. Today's soldiers are 37 pounds heavier than their Civil War counterparts. Besides terrorists, germ warfare and nuclear weapons, military officials are increasingly worried about a different kind of threat: troops too heavy to fight.
Thousands of troops are struggling to lose weight, and thousands have been booted out of the service in recent years because they couldn't drop the pounds. The Veteran's Affairs health system is also struggling with vets piling on the pounds and developing weight-related diseases, such as diabetes. Ironically, the big concern used to be soldiers not weighing enough. Congress passed the school lunch program after World War II, worried that too many
high school students were malnourished and unfit to fight.
Source:
Marchione, Marilyn. Obesity Takes Heavy Toll on Military." Associated Press, 4 July. 2005.
Men and Women: In the last forty years, the average weight for American men has increased from 166.3 pounds to 191 pounds - for women it has gone from 140.2 pounds to 164.3 pounds. The biggest weight gain has been in men ages 40 to 49. Men consume 7 percent more than they did in 1971, a total of 2,618 calories per day, up from 2,450 (an increase of 168 calories, comparable to a 12-ounce Pepsi per day.)
The largest weight gain in women has been between those ages' 20-29 with an average increase of 29 pounds. The CDC reported in February of 2003 that American women were becoming fatter because they eat more than they did 30 years before. Women now eat 22 percent more calories a day -- the equivalent of a McDonald's Egg McMuffin or a large chocolate cookie. This comes to 335 more calories than they ate in 1971 for a total of 1,877 calories. Carbohydrates (carbs) are the biggest culprit. About half of all those calories are from carbs in the form of cookies, bagels, pasta, chips and soda.
Immigrants Moving to the U.S. Pack on the Pounds, Too
A new study published in December 2004 in the Journal of the American Medical Association examined obesity rates among immigrants and native-born peoples. In general, immigrants are healthier than native-born Americans when they arrive on our shores. They have lower rates of heart disease and diabetes, but, after fifteen years in the States, the prevalence of obesity among immigrants approaches that of U.S.-born adults. Mita Sanghavi Goel, a doctor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois is the lead author of the study. She said, "The longer you live here, the more likely you are to be obese."
Goel believes the weight gain occurs because of the changes in diet and ways of living. Previous research has shown that immigrants initially tend to consume less fat and sugar than Americans, probably because they eat fewer prepared and processed foods. But as they become more Americanized, they eat fewer fruits and vegetables and more processed food, meat, and sugar. The children of the newcomers are prime motivators in this behavior, as they are pressured by TV ads to be more American and "eat American."
Rural America: There is a myth that rural, farm communities with their wide expanses of land, farm chores and fresh air, make leaner, stronger bodies. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania released a study comparing urban and rural seventh graders. It found that 16 percent of urban students and 20 percent of rural students were obese. Most alarmingly, researchers found that during the years of the survey, between 1999 and 2001, the number of obese students in rural school districts rose 5 percent, more than twice the rate of their urban counterparts.
Researchers say that there are fewer farm families now, and mechanization has taken over some of the heavy work that once was part of farm culture. Therefore, there aren't as many calories being burned, and, at the same time, high-calorie meals and snacks are being consumed.
Another reason could be found in the increase in number of satellite dishes, computers, and game consoles that have popped up in almost every town, regardless of economic situation. The only place where researchers find U.S. obesity rates similar to those of rural America are in the poorest urban neighborhoods, suggesting that poverty may be the overriding issue.
Source:
Sheehan, Charles. Associated Press, 14 March, 2005.
Guess What We're Feeding Our Toddlers?
As if matters weren't bad enough, a new study of more than 3,000 youngsters found significant numbers of infants and toddlers downing French fries, pizza, candy and soda. Here are some of the findings:
. Children of ages 1 and 2 years require about 950 calories per day; The study found the average intake for that age group is 1,220 calories, an excess of nearly 30 percent.
. For those 7 to 11 months old, the daily caloric surplus was 20 percent higher than it was a few years ago.
Random telephone interviews found more disturbing statistics:
. Up to a third of children under 2 consumed no fruits and vegetables. And for those who did have a vegetable, French fries was the most common selection for children 15 months and older.
. Nine percent of children 9 to 11 months old ate French fries at least once a day. For those 19 months to 2 years old, more than 20 percent had fries daily.
. Hot dogs, sausage and bacon were daily staples for many children: 7 percent in the 9-11-month group.
. More than 60 percent of 12-month-olds had dessert or candy at least once a day and 16 percent ate a salty snack. Those numbers rose to 70 percent by age 19 months.
Shortcomings were more pronounced for families receiving financial assistance through state and federal programs. More than 40 percent of WIC (Women, Infants and Children Program) toddlers did not eat any fruit, and those children also drank more sweetened drinks.
Teens & Beyond: U.S. teenagers have high obesity rates and a greater tendency to be overweight than those in fourteen other industrialized countries, according to a study in January 2003 by the National Institute of Public Health, Copenhagen. A U.S. study of 10,000 teens found that the percentage of people who are obese doubles from the teen years to the mid-twenties.
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Side Notes:
I know you didn't want to hear any more Fat-Fast-Food-Facts. Sorry, but this information may have alerted to just how pervasive obesity has spread throughout our culture. For those who would like lose some weight, please say the words "Fat-Fast Food Facts" five times and then start the task of cutting ten pounds. The key is not to go on a diet but to change your eating lifestyle, one bite at a time. And don't try and to change too quickly.
Cut out some of those chips and sweets and begin the rhythm of taking daily walks, exercising and eating more salads, vegetables, whole foods, local chicken, eggs and beef, and preparing foods from scratch. You can also learn how to "put food by" by canning, freezing and storing and by all means, grow a garden.
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