Obesity

There is at least one thing that we see in our everyday life that just drives us crazy. It is the one problem that we see that we want more than anything to change. This desire is called a “Revolution”. Personally, my revolution is the growing problem and general principal of obesity; specifically in the United States. This problem is increasing in a drastic manner. If we don’t do something about this problem soon then Americans are going to begin suffering from numerous heath issues starting with hypertension. That is the sustained high blood pressure.

The term obesity is usually described as the BMI (Body Mass Index) number that is greater than the average, optimal number. Usually if your BMI is great than 30, then you are considered clinically obese. Many people mix up obesity with being overweight, and interchange the two of them on a regular basis. They are different however. Obesity is being extremely over weight and could become seriously dangerous if things aren’t dealt with. The two are not the same thing. Obesity is higher in some regions and states than others. As of 2004, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi had the highest percent of obese people. Vermont, Montana, and Massachusetts had the lowest. Maine was right in the middle. For the reason the states are higher and lower than others, I can’t explain. But mathematically they were the tops and bottoms of the scale.

The thing that drives me crazy about obesity is that matters can be taken care of one way or another. There is no excuse to being obese. Proper diet and exercise will decrease one’s obesity level on its own, but if that is just not enough or fast enough then there are surgical procedures that can be done as well. An argument for not having surgery to get rid of the fat is that it is quite dangerous. My rebuttal to that proposal is that it is much more dangerous and eventually fatal to live a life of obesity. It has to be worth the risk to do whatever is necessary to reduce the BMI. I give zero respect and sorrow for those who do nothing about their disease except keep eating and not exercising; and continue eating fatty, high cholesterol, and unhealthy foods.

People talk about obesity being hereditary. Most say, “Look at his whole family! It’s in his blood and there is nothing he can do.” I don’t buy this rational. I think your family has a lot to do with things, but it is the overall eating habits and life style rather than heredity. I don’t think we have a gene in us saying that we are going to be fat no matter what we do. If your family lies around, eating all the time, then growing up you will too. There for you don’t work off a lot of the things we eat. It is a never ending cycle. One fine inference I have seen with family who everyone is obese, is the lack for interest in sports, and outdoor recreation. I’m not saying that if you don’t play sports you are going to be obese. But, I think those who are active, and are always out messing around are typically less obese. They have higher metabolisms and get more exercise. Instead people watch T.V., use the computer, and play video games. All of those activities do nothing for your body in a good way. If the parents have these bad habits, then so will their kids. That is another never-ending cycle.

We can talk about the growing obesity problem our nation has all we want but that doesn’t go and change things. At least 3 times a month on at least one newscast, they have some sort of article on this problem. Yet we do nothing. Until more people are educated on the harmful effects of being obese, things are going to continue as they are. Maybe if we scare some people to realize what is going to happen in their future, they might start to change things. It starts one person at a time, and is going to be a very long process.

Another thing I think we have to do is not be so acceptable of people’s high BMI and weight. As a whole nation we baby the obese and tell them that they are loved the same as others. I think the people are loved but we shouldn’t accept that they are obese. If they realize we think less of their character for not taking care of themselves, then they may not want to be the way they are. We see this type of denial of obesity being ok everywhere. Celebrities that are obese promote others who are the same way. Those people think that since it is good enough for Oprah or whoever so it is good more me. This is very dangerous. Also now in the modeling world, we have “plus-sized” models. This just promotes obesity even more. There is no way those models will ever want to be skinny again. If they do they can’t be a model anymore. We can’t be willing to accept obesity. If we do, things won’t get any better; only worse.

There is no quick, easy solution to our problem. We may never be able to fix it, but if we can just slow the increase down, that would be a success. Today with fast food, pizza, and desserts, the odds are against us even more. People it this stuff instead of fixing a good, well balanced meal. I think if more doctors took control and offered more help and solutions to the obese that could help. But if people believe its ok to be fat, they won’t care and won’t want to do anything about it. It’s hard for me to understand why people want to be obese. I’ve been a skinny runt my whole life. But I see obese people; a lot of my family is overweight and borderline obese.

Almost always I see that these obese people are unhappy with their selves and their lives. That fact alone has me so scared that I will do what ever it takes to stay a healthy weight. I don’t want it to be hard to tie my shoes, walk through a mall all day. It frustrates me to see this problem continue to get worse every day. It saddens me to look at them and not be able to help them. All together, one person at a time, we might be able to make a difference.