Last weekend I read an article on Obesity in America the main focus was child obesity and the things I read rasied some real concerns for me. In the article they talked about a Rialto boy who now weighs in at over 500 pounds. The boy is 5'9 and 15 years old.
Americans seem to like to put the blame on others for their problems. Most people blame places like MCDonalds and other fast food chains for not offering enough healthy foods on their menu. I also hear people blame video games, schools, and parents for the problem. So who really is to blame here?
Since I have gone from being a child to an adult which at age 24 was not all the long ago I have seen some real changes in how children do things. I can remember as a kid being outside all the time building bike jumps, riding bikes everywhere we went and playing sports in the street. Video games were around and we played them but our parents limited the amount of time we were allowed to play video games in favor us doing things like riding bikes and playing sports.
Today I look on the streets and see very few children outside playing anymore. About 60% of the kids who live in my neighborhood now are fat not just chubby but fat. They come out of their houses for about 30 minutes on Saturday to mow the lawn and then they are back inside playing video games and eating pizza. The people 2 houses down from me seem to have the pizza man at their house about 4 nights a week.
This is a real concern for me. I was reading somewhere that within 20 years 1 in 12 adolescent children will develop type 2 diabetes. If a child develops Type Diabetes before age 15 it will shave aproxamately 20-35 years off of their life span. So why do parents allow it to happen?
In the last 2 years my grandmother, best friends grandmother (who has been nothing less then a grandmother to me), and another close friend have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. They now have to take tons of meds everyday just so they can feel somewhat normal.
When my grandmother was diagnosed it was a real eye opener for me and made me look at how I was eating and made me realize the effects of how I was eating and living could really mess me up. On January 1st I wrote off beer and most junk food. I drink a beer from time to time but not very often and when I do it is one or two beers. Since January I went from 250 lbs to 220 lbs and I'm still losing weight. My goal is 195 lbs by January of 06 and I think if I stick to it I can achieve that goal. I don't have a lot of will power but have managed to do it so why is it a problem for so many other people?
What do you guys think we should do as a nation to stop obesity?