Since the 1950’s, obesity in America has
been a growing issue. Thousands of people every day ask the question, “Why are
we so fat?” There are many obvious, and many not so obvious answers to that
question that health experts have been trying to uncover. They are providing
the American population with “do’s and don’ts” on how to avoid the epidemic
that is taking over America. But how did it all start? How can it be prevented?
More importantly, if obesity isn’t stopped, what does the future hold for the citizens
of America?
The obesity epidemic in America is stemmed
all the way back to the 1950’s. Back then, doctors and more specifically, obstetricians did not
have the level of knowledge that they have today. The babies that were born in
the 50’s were the first generation to suffer the wave of obesity. Obstetricians
gave pregnant mothers false information that at the time they thought was
correct. They were told that smoking a pack of cigarettes a day would help keep
off baby weight. They were also told to gain less then 20lbs during pregnancy.
In the 50’s breast-feeding was very uncommon, so most women bottle-fed, which resulted
in over nourishment of their babies. Breast-feeding also effects ovulation, so
in the 50’s women had many babies in a small period of time. This caused too
much nutrition during gestation, which permanently caused slow metabolism,
thus, an increased chance of obesity. Little did the baby boomers of the 1950’s know,
their children would be suffering the consequences of the decisions they made
during their pregnancies.
Many factors go into the constant increase of obesity in America. Until
about the 1980’s, the daily life of the average American was much more labor
intensive. People walked everywhere, cooked from scratch, cleaned by hand, rather
then by machine, and ate more natural, unprocessed foods. Not only did the size
of Americans increase in recent decades, portions did too. In 1957, a hamburger
was 1oz. Today, a hamburger can be as large as 6oz. Daily calorie intake since
the 60’s have increased by nearly 500 calories. Americans have become lazier, and have lost
will power. On average, Americans today spend 26 hours per week watching TV or
surfing the internet. Only 20% of Americans bother to increase their health by
exercising regularly.
Ever since the 1950’s, the
percentage of overweight and obese Americans has been at a steady increase. It
even has a huge impact on the youth of America. In the 1950's, the adult obesity rate in
America was 9.7%, now it is up to 35%. In the 50’s, 32% of adult Americans
were overweight. Today, an astonishing 70% of Americans are
overweight. What is even more unbelievable is that between the ages of 2
and 19, 30.4% of girls are overweight, and 33% (1 in 3) boys are overweight.
Out of
the top 10 most obese states in the country, 8 are states that are in the Deep
South. However obesity is an issue that covers the whole map. The top 10 most
obese cities in America are scattered all across the US, including the west
coast and the North East.
Currently, all but 11 states have an obesity rate between 20% and 30%.
If obesity rates continue to skyrocket at the same pace, America in 2030 will
be a scary place. Thirteen states would be at risk of having an adult obesity
rate above 60%, 39 states could have rates above 50%, and all 50 states could have rates
greater then 44 percent. Today, in the Unites States, $18 billion per year
are spent on obesity related medical costs. By the year 2030, those costs are
estimated to increase to $66 billion per year. What if the future for America
didn't look like this? What if Americans made a change, and all obesity rates
and costs decreased instead of increased? If every state decreased their
obesity rate by 5%, billions of dollars, and thousands of people could be
spared life-threatening diseases. Every state could save between 6.5% and 7.9%
in health care. In the state of California alone, 1,506,169 people would never
have too suffer type 2 diabetes, obesity related cancer, and heart disease. All
because they made the decision to save their life and make a change.
Obesity is ever changing, and
so are the statistics that go along with it. In an effort to keep my blog up to
date, I plan to change the information as needed and add to the Google maps
that are linked on the blog. I plan to preserve my blog and the information it
contains, so I have all the visuals saved on my computer drive incase the blog ever
crashes. My goal is that people will be able to find my blog and get informed
on the risks of obesity.