America is, undeniably, getting larger around the waist line. As a matter of fact obesity has become such a problem here that back in July of last year Senators Chris Dodd, Tom Harkin, and Jeff Bingaman introduced the Federal Obesity Prevention Act of 2008. This bill was in response to what Dodd called “a medical emergency of hurricane-like proportions” in our country, and would have established a government strategy for preventing and reducing obesity. This strategy would have included short- and long-term goals for childhood and adult obesity rates.
Which, in Orwellian terms, meant that the United States Government may have taken a direct interest in America’s waist line if this Bill had passed (it was referred to committee back in September of 2008 and has not been brought back up in the current session).
There has been a great deal of debate on why America is getting as fat as it is, and a lot of that has focused on the theory that modern day Americans simply don’t move as much as their predecessors did. While there is undeniably some truth to this I’ve always had my personal doubts about the claims that TV and Video Games were killing our children, and the results of a study by the World Health Organization seem to support my position. Researcher Boyd Swinburn claims that our expanding guts are largely due to the fact that we are, quite simply, eating more.
The study doesn’t discount the need for physical activity, but it does point out that on the whole we are consuming a significantly higher number of calories today then we were in the 1970’s. The research claims that average youth is taking in about 350 more calories daily compared to 30 years ago, while the average adult is taking in about 500 more. That may not sound like much on the surface, but that is 3500 more calories a week and 182,000 per year for the typical adult.
To drive this point home a little further, I used a BMI and Calorie Calculator to find out how many calories I would need to be eating in a day to maintain my current weight (NOT something I want to do, but for the sake of argument). For me an extra 182,000 calories in a year is the equivalent of about 57 days of food.
That’s a lot of cheeseburgers, which is about the caloric equivalent of what an adult would need to cut out of their life to get rid of those calories. Kids can cut back by eliminating one “fizzy drink” (i.e. soda) per day. Those may seem like little changes, but as you can see it adds up to a lot in the long run (and it’s considerably easier than adding in almost two hours of walking on a daily basis).
I agree with the amount theory. Look at the fast food today. When I was 16 and working in a burger joint, our Extra-Large soda was 32 ounces. And, we would mock the obese people who would order them. A “normal” drink was a medium or large at 16 and 24 ounces, respectively. And, you didn’t get refills.
And, there was no such thing as a value-meal, much less a super sized one. Wendy’s had just come out with the double and tripple, and I didn’t know anyone who could finish one. I tried the “Ultimate” cheeseburger at Jack in the Box, and if I did finish it, I didn’t eat my fry’s, and I was hurting for the rest of the day.
Those were the days when a Whopper alone would fill you up. (Or, at least, would fill me up). So — I agree . . . the problem is portions.
And, if the “fed” wants to step in and change something, he’ll have to change our greedy minds. It is hard to pass it up when the lady at the drive through says, for $0.25 more, you will get twice as much food. . .
Yeah, it’s kind of frightening when what was a “Big Gulp” back when we were kids is a “regular” now.
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