Obesity: The Past, the Present, and the Future

     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.