A sobering reminder...............

lessismoreohio

I was on the Internet this afternoon to do some background research on an obesity related health condition that my father is suffering from. I came across the following statistics in a March 2016 on-line article written by a group called TexasMD.

These are likely statistics you've seen before. Still, it struck me as a sobering reminder of why I need to do a better job with the tracking of my macros (calories, sodium) and why I need to be more consistent in my approach to exercising. Tracking calories and getting to the gym three times a week are two habits I'm cultivating.

FROM TexasMD:

"In 1985, about 35 percent of adults were overweight or obese, and now, it is closer to 69 percent."

How big is this problem?

Total deaths from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as of April 2014: 6,848
Total deaths of American soldiers from the Vietnam War: 58,209
Total American deaths from diabetes in 2013: 78,831
Total number of obese Americans that die annually from obesity: 300,000+
Total number of obese children from 6- to 18-years-old: 9,000,000
Total number of Americans with pre-diabetes 20-years-old and older: 86,000,000
Total number of overweight or obese Americans: about 190,000,000

LeanButNotMean44

We have first-world problems, don't we? There are so many starving people in the world, and we have increasingly gotten fatter as a country. I wonder how many obese are actually malnourished due to a reliance on fast food? I know one can get fat overeating any kind of food, but it seems our culture is about convenience and easy access.

sunnybeaches105

Agree that these are a sobering reminder. I think the solution is for each of us to take responsibility for ourselves and our children. As depressing and, frankly, annoying as this obesity epidemic is, it is also completely self-caused and self-perpetuating.

As for our culture being about convenience and easy access, sure that may be accurate, but what we really have is a country of overgrown children who never bothered to grow up and take responsibility for themselves. It's so much easier to blame fast food, processed foods, sugar, gladular problems, and being too "busy" or "tired" to exercise or cook. It other words, convenience and easy access are just additional excuses for not doing something about our own health and fitness.