We are a nation of fatties. Next time you are walking down the street, look around, it’s true. Most of the people you see walking down the street may not be gigantic- but most of them will be overweight. I mean yeah, it is kind of funny that we are fat… it may not be attractive… it may make us feel a little insecure… but let’s be honest- it’s way bigger than that (no pun intended).
The obesity epidemic that we hear about is killing people and costing us a lot of money. As diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, liver disease, depression, infertility…etc. skyrocket, healthcare costs rise, too. According to the CDC, in 2008, medical costs related to obesity were estimated around $147,000,000,000. That figure has only been on the rise since then.
So what’s the solution then? We’ve all thought it at some point in time, “Why don’t those fat people just eat less? They are making the choice to be big and unhealthy.” Much of our policy with food revolves around the concept that adults have the choice to eat what they put in their mouth.
But is this true? Is it really this simple? Do adults really get to choose what they eat? Let’s look at some of the influences on food consumption in adults:
- Childhood. Everyone was a kid at some point! This is where you learn how to eat, how to cook, what role food plays in your life. According to the CDC, 17% of children ages 2-19yrs are obese. Even more alarming, 1 in 7 low-income PRESCHOOLERS are obese. If you were obese from the time you were 4 years old, can you even imagine how much you would have to learn about healthy eating and how much effort you would have to put forth to lose weight later in life?
- Wealth. It is a pretty well-known fact that eating healthy costs more money. In fact, according to a study done by the University of New Hampshire, many people in America can’t even afford the USDA’s new “MyPlate” food recommendations. Additionally, lower income individuals are less likely to have a reliable car to grocery shop with, likely to have grocery stores located further (on average) from their residence, and are less-likely to be well-educated about healthy eating.
- Marketing. Billions of dollars each year are spent each year on trying to make unhealthy food appear healthy. For casual consumers trying to make healthy decisions, choices can easily be swayed by such tactics. Let’s take the organic food market as an example. Since organic foods appear healthier to the average consumer, people will often pay a surplus for goods labeled as organic, even if they aren’t actually healthier. There is organic mac-n-cheese, goldfish knock-offs, cookies… pretty much all the junk food you can imagine in “organic form” to appear healthier.
- Tighter restrictions on food and beverage marketing and sales. Why do we even allow crappy food to make it to the shelves? It’s literally a toxin that pushes our people towards an earlier death and less fulfilling lives. It would be one thing if it were just adults feeding themselves, but we are letting parents feed their kids frozen pizza, McDonalds, chips… etc.. for dinner every night. Those kids who have been overweight since younger ages not only are likely to continue those habits later, but are also more likely to develop chronic diseases later in life.
- Health education in schools. Remember health class? Yeah, that class you have for a year during high school where you learn about sex, drugs, and that you should exercise? These classes should be better utilized to inform our youth about healthy eating and the impacts of unhealthy eating. In an ideal world, schools would combine foods class, gym class, and health class to create a well-rounded approach to encouraging health lifestyles.
- Healthier hot lunches (good tasting ones!). If we are feeding our children chicken tenders, fries, and flavored milk for lunch… how can we expect them to make healthier choices outside of school? Many schools who have tried to feed kids healthier food end up giving their kids gross canned peas or “mystery meat.” If we teach our nation from a young age that eating healthy food can be good tasting and fun, there would be less of a stigma on healthy eating later in life.
katie christon 