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The Lancet published a study last week that predicted by 2030 50 percent of the population would be obese, that’s 164 million Americans.
It’s difficult to imagine such a statistic, considering that the body isn’t meant to be obese, in fact, it’s detrimental to every system in the body.
Obesity is defined as having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 and up, while a healthy BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9. A BMI of 30 is equivalent to weighing 186 pounds if you're 5 feet 6 inches tall. Calculate your BMI.
When asked what the world would look like, I can’t help but picture the movie Wall-e, a world where the morbidly obese ride around in hover chairs, filling the void with endless consumption. But what would the world actually look like?
Heart Attacks, Blindness, and Cancers
Coronary heart disease, stroke, and high blood pressure are all related to obesity. High cholesterol and high triglycerides are also associated with obesity. Heart disease is currently the number one killer in the U.S., but with rates of obesity jumping from one-third to one-half, more and more people will suffer heart disease younger, risking early death through heart attack or stroke.
Type-2 diabetes is another painful disease tied to obesity. The CDC predicted that 1 in 3 Americans will develop diabetes in their lifetime. Diabetes is a disease where the body can no longer properly use insulin, a hormone which controls glucose or sugar entering the body’s cells. As a result, the disease damages vital organs because glucose and fats remain in the blood stream. Diabetes patients can even go blind as a result of the debilitating disease.
Various cancers including breast cancer and colon cancer are also linked to obesity.
The fatter the population gets, the younger these diseases take hold.
Healthcare Cost Statistics and Your Tax Dollars
Even if living in a world where everyone is massively overweight doesn’t bother you, it will impact you in a big way. According to the CDC, “[i]n 2008, overall medical care costs related to obesity for U.S. adults were estimated to be as high as $147 billion. People who were obese had medical costs that were $1,429 higher than the cost for people of normal body weight.”
As a nation, we’ll be spending much of the national budget on healthcare, that is--fixing preventable problems, rather than moving this nation forward. No matter where you think your taxes should go, I’m sure it’s not toward dealing with the numerous health consequences of eating too much.
Work Productivity and Overall Performance
I’m sure you’ve worked with people that are often out of the office as a result of health problems. Sometimes sickness isn’t preventable. Sometimes it's part of life and it’s why we pay for healthcare. But obesity-related illness is preventable and predictable. The chronic diseases listed above, amongst a host of other ailments, take us out of action, reducing work productivity.
Obesity and National Defense
It's no secret that the American diet is making people fat but who knew that the military has to turn away 15,000 potential recruits a year because weight makes them unfit for battle. Turning away one-third of eligible recruits as a result of obesity seems terribly regrettable.
Mental Consequences
Obese people are more likely to be clinically depressed than non-obese people. Specifically, “obese people of both sexes had a 20 percent to 50 percent higher than average rate of various mood and anxiety disorders.” Undoubtedly, holistic health is impacted by being overweight.
Let’s Change the Prediction
Those are some truly eye-opening stats, but one-half of the American population doesn’t have to be obese. It’s a prediction that can and must be altered for the sake of our nation and we CAN do it.
Prevention is the name of the game and we need to get started early. Let's put wellness centers in every neighborhood, rich and poor, that include exercise facilities, wellness education, and a farmers’ market during the week. It may start out costly, but in the end it saves so much money in healthcare costs and work productivity. It’s worth it. We need to educate and make both activity and fresh whole foods available to every member of our population. That’s not to say that it’s the only thing that should be done, but it’s certainly a start. The battle isn't going to be easy, but what choice do we have?
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