American Obesity Rages On – We Are The Sickest Nation On The Planet
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Over 72 million American adults are now obese – that makes 26.7% of the US population. This number is even on the low end of the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study, as other sources estimate a staggering 34% of obesity amongst Americans. And the trend goes further up – despite a federal initiative in 2001 to lower the US obesity rate to 15% of the adult population. No state has met that target, and the top rank for obesity is held by Mississippi with a whopping 34.4%. At the other end of the scale is Colorado with an 18.6% obesity rate. And we are not even counting obese children, which the CDC estimates around 20% for the 6-19 year olds. The global average obesity rate (not counting the US) lies by around 16%.
The very bad American standard diet habits are to blame for this. What happened to the calls for a tax on high fat cheeseburgers and other cardiac arrest-inducing foods that are part of everyday US standard nutrition? Oh I forgot – it didn’t go anywhere as US fast foods chains would lose 0.01% of their gazillion $ revenue per year….
You can no longer advertise tobacco in public media – and the same should apply for fast food too. The risks of dying early from obesity is almost as high as the current #1 preventable death reason: smoking cigarettes. The US medical costs linked to obesity topped $ 147 billion in 2008, and are expected to rise to $344 billion by 2018, if the current growth rates continue. This trend also estimates that the US will count 43% of its population as obese by that time.
That is, if people continue to turn a blind eye to the great alternative diets and foods that would make permanent weight loss and health seem like a walk in the park, in short: veganism!
I would vote for upping the medical insurance rates of people that refuse to let go of the American SAD diet in favor of better food choices. Fatal illnesses like heart disease and diabetes are almost always preventable! Even today, an obese person pays about $1,429 more in medical costs than a person of healthy weight – and by 2018 this discrepancy will rise to $2,460.
Sadly, the highest obesity rates are often found in the poorer parts of the population, where saving today on the dollar-meal at Mc Donald’s pays a fateful tribute to increased Medicare spending by the end of the year. That is what all kids should be taught in school!
For a land that considers itself free we are under serious dictatorship of the food industry – and for all the wrong reasons. Nothing to be proud of!
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Sources:
- http://www.cdc.gov/media/pressrel/2010/r100803.htm
- http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/weightloss/2009-11-17-future-obesity-costs_N.htm
About the author: Ina Mohan is founder of Belsandia
While I agree that eating vegan is much healthier than the standard American diet, it always bothers me to see vegans contributing to the faulty idea that fat is necessarily unhealthy. Isn’t there a way to emphasize the health value of a vegan diet without alienating people who, for instance, may be vegan and eat healthful food and who are just genetically fat? I read an interesting piece about this ( http://animals.change.org/blog/view/veganism_and_fat-phobia ). But to me it seems like suggesting that becoming vegan will help people lose weight makes veganism seem like some kind of fad diet rather than a meaningful lifestyle dedicated to eliminating suffering.
I’ve been vegan for 5 years, and am a graduating student in dietetics, and even I don’t believe in this idea of “Vegan diets are inherently healthier” or this idea of an “obesity epidemic”. The standards for overweight and obesity, are at best, arbitrary, not to mention discriminatory against people that are genetically heavier. It assumes that with proper diet, that all people can have a BMI under 25. According to the literature, there has not been a proven cause of diabetes (type I or II) nor has there been found a proven cause of heart disease.
Taxes on “junk food” only puts financial strain on the poor. Many of the poor live in areas where quality grocery stores are out of reach. So by taxing fast food joints and junk food, you’re making it difficult for these people to afford to eat. It’s not like all of them have a great grocery store down the block, and they are choosing to go to McDonalds instead.
As far as health, according to the literature, fat or “obese” people do not have diabetes or heart disease rates significantly higher than those that have a BMI <25.
I look for any reason to plug veganism that I can, but insinuating that the way to free yourself from the risk of obesity or heart disease through a vegan diet, is irresponsible, and simply not true. There are ways to include any and all foods into a healthy diet. Any other arguments for veganism besides compassion for animals, can be solved with better eating, or environmental standards. There isn't however a way to have complete concern for animal welfare, but use the death of animals to benefit your own life.
While I agree that:
- not all people lose weight when they go vegan; I didn’t lose any weight when I went vegan, but I didn’t gain any either
- an emphasis on weight can alienate some people and overall may not be beneficial to other rights movements (anti-size discrimination and feminism for example)
- sales taxes are regressive and impact poor people more than wealthy people; I support a tax on fast food as much as I support a tax on cigarettes
- the focus of veganism is not weight loss or even health, it’s animal rights
However…
Vegan Health, which compiles relevant health information and uses a logical and critical eye concludes:
source: http://veganhealth.org/articles/dxmarkers#bmi
Moreover, the ADA (American Dietetic Association) says:
source: http://www.eatright.org/About/Content.aspx?id=8357
The article does not try to generalize obesity reasons, or that everybody will miraculously become slim and healthy by eating a vegan diet. However, changing an existing diet to plant-based whole foods usually adjusts a person’s metabolism to require less food intake for a feeling of fullness and satisfaction. This in general leads to consumption of fewer calories overall, and consequently often to weight loss. This may not be true for everybody, but as mentioned, in general it has been observed.
If the vegan diet persists, the weight should also not fluctuate as much as it would with all these highly publicized restraint diets that lead to the famous yoyo dieting effect. Similar to what Elaine said, I have not changed my weight after becoming vegan from formerly vegetarian, but my metabolism changed, and with my exercise routine, what was formerly fat is now muscle.
In my opinion, nutrition needs to go along with regular exercise and other lifestyle habits to really improve overall health, and to retain a desirable weight. Muscles metabolize much more efficiently than fat, and I don’t care about any particular weight or the body mass index at all -the importance is to keep the circulation going, the blood flow unblocked, the blood pressure down, and the bad cholesterol level low (ideally under 150).
Heart attacks in people with cholesterol levels under 150 are basically unheard of, if all other factors are equal, and this can likely be accomplished with a vegan diet. Here is a good PCRM article about this: http://www.pcrm.org/about/careers/heart_speech.html
I don’t imply that health or weight concerns should be the main drivers for the adoption of a vegan diet, and I am fully aware that it might not work for everyone. However, every person reacts to a different message in order to adopt a dietary change that essentially benefits animals.
While I agree that animal suffering is the number 1 reason that keeps people consistent with their vegan lifestyle choice, I believe that many others need other entry avenues too, and may respond to health or environmental concerns first.
Please remember that we are trying to get people to change their “carnistic belief system”. This is much harder to do than just adopting a new diet. In my opinion, health concerns are a formidable introductory way into the vegan lifestyle, which will lead to more information about animal suffering, and that in turn often results in embracing the vegan lifestyle permanently. It is how I started too!
If you manage to adjust your food choices to veganism – for whichever reason you start down this avenue – it should be much easier to adopt other lifestyle habits that eliminate animal suffering, wouldn’t you agree?
Once a person becomes a “health vegan”, she often seeks out other like-minded people, and will be exposed to the full circle of ethical reasons and concerns, that further cement her excellent dietary choice. The health vegan could thus easily embrace an eternal vegan lifestyle for multiple reasons – but has simply started off with something close to her heart at the time – her health.