The Obesity Epidemic

Shows like "The Biggest Loser," and "Celebrity Fit Club," routinely create heart-wrenching miracles- through excessive exercise, and low calorie diets their contestants lose weight. The newly buffs then procede to make comments like, "If I can lose weight, then anyone can lose weight." Well..not quite.

I get the feeling that these shows are supposed to inspire viewers to get off the couch- take that first step, eat an apple, and remove Domino's from their speed dial- but with the best trainers and nutritionists barking at the contestants all day long, their situations are hardly normal. In fact, it would be more of a miracle if they didn't lose weight.

The latest obesity figures are out, and 31 states showed an increase in their rates of obesity. None decreased. Mississippi became the first state to have more than 30 percent of its residents be officially obese. So I guess "The Biggest Loser" and "Celebrity Fit Club" are not so inspiring after all.

But, then again obviously none of the other million messages out there are either.

We all know that eating healthier and exercising more is the way to lose weight, but either the message is getting lost, or people just aren't hearing it. Or they don't care that they are obese.

I think part of it is just that here in America it is so easy to get fat. There is drive-through everything (In NZ there is drive-thru at fast food chains, but that's it), there is sooo much junk food and it's everywhere, and it seems to be fairly normal to eat crappy and not exercise. I don't want to make it sound like NZ is this perfectly healthy country, but I think being fat is a little less socially acceptable there than it is here. Which of course brings me to other study that recently came out about how our fat friends are making it ok for us to be fat too.

Anyway, clearly obesity is became this crazy epidemic, which is causing other crazy epidemics like diabetes and heart disease- even in kids, so we do need to do something.

As a closing remark, I'll add this because I thought it was quite funny- I was watching Oprah oneday over summer and she had a doctor come on and tell people (I guess the message was for men) that for every 30 lbs they lost, they would gain on inch on their penis.

Something to think about...

Links: The article on increasing obesity rates (includes a state-by-state map so you can see how your state did). Read it

The article about how our friends are making us fat. Read it.