I recently had the chance to catch Wall-E for the first time with Krystalle thanks to the magic of Netflix-On-Demand through the XBox 360.  It was an absolutely delightful film, but I walked away from it slighly troubled by one aspect of the film – The state of humanity thanks to technology.  I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but let’s just say that the advances in technology as depicted in the movie are not quite so beneficial to the overall health of mankind.  Wall-E was a very clear warning sign about the dangers of living a pleasure-based disposable lifestyle.

Unfortunately it appears in some ways as though the predictions made in the movie have the potential for coming true.

In the realm of personal health and fitness we live in what could be seen as the perfect time – Fruits and vegetables are available year-round at your neighborhood grocery store,  There are countless low-calorie snacks on the market that actually taste good, and it seems like you can’t turn a corner in my home town without running into a gym.  Hell, even video games (long vilified as the bane of healthy living) are getting with the fitness program.

Despite this veritable mountain of healthy living options we have available we constantly hear about how obesity is the number one health problem in America, and an upcoming study in the American Journal of Medicine confirms it.  According to an article from BBC News Americans are continuing to make unhealthy lifestyle choices at an alarming rate.

Overall, researchers found, the number of people adhering to all five “healthy habits” – including maintaining a healthy weight and stopping smoking – decreased from 15% to 8%.

The one bright spot of the study suggests that middle-aged adults are more willing to make changes in their lives to get healthier.  I suspect that’s due to the whole “Oh, hai…Grim Reaper looming” thing that happens when you realize that you aren’t going to live forever, but I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.  I only hope that by realizing how far down the slope we’re sliding we, as a society, are able to put the brakes on the downward trend before those flying chairs become a necessity.