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Rate of obesity should be cause for alarm
There are times when unrelated news comes out that so obviously seems connected we can't understand why others don't see the link. This is one of those times.
Over the past few months there have been some alarming statistics on obesity in America. For instance, obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States. An estimated 400,000 people die each year from problems attributable to poor diet and low physical activity. That is about 10 times the number of people who die in automobile accidents each year, yet we have a number of organizations working to prevent car crashes.
Approximately 62 percent of women and 67 percent of men are overweight. A total of 127 million American adults are overweight, 60 million are obese and 9 million are extremely obese.
Most of those obese adults started with pediatric obesity. Sixteen percent of children under 16 are obese, not just overweight, and that number is growing exponentially. That does not bode well for our future fitness.
Now comes news from the Nielsen Company, which monitors television viewing in America.
The average American household watches eight hours and 18 minutes of television every day. Think about that. That is more than a third of a day and about half of the average person's waking hours. This is an all-time high. Granted, sometimes the TV is on while we are doing other things, but that is a lot of time.
And it doesn't include the more than 27 hours a month people spent online and - believe it or not - the more than three hours a month people are watching videos on their cell phones. If you add the Internet and cell phone time to the TV time, we are being entertained electronically more than nine hours a day.
That is a huge change from 50 years ago when obesity and fitness were not big problems in this country.
Back then, kids went outside to play, rode their bikes and kept moving. Now they plunk down in front of a screen to be entertained. Is it any wonder that juvenile diabetes numbers are soaring?
Let's keep that in mind as adults. Get the kids outside moving around. For that matter, go with them.
We wouldn't knowingly give our kids something that would lead to serious illness and a shortened lifespan. And yet, by not insisting on healthier lifestyles and by not being role models for the same thing, we are doing just that. We are heading into the holidays where families spend time together. How about turning off the TV instead of promoting a nation of couch potatoes?
Over the past few months there have been some alarming statistics on obesity in America. For instance, obesity is the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States. An estimated 400,000 people die each year from problems attributable to poor diet and low physical activity. That is about 10 times the number of people who die in automobile accidents each year, yet we have a number of organizations working to prevent car crashes.
Approximately 62 percent of women and 67 percent of men are overweight. A total of 127 million American adults are overweight, 60 million are obese and 9 million are extremely obese.
Most of those obese adults started with pediatric obesity. Sixteen percent of children under 16 are obese, not just overweight, and that number is growing exponentially. That does not bode well for our future fitness.
Now comes news from the Nielsen Company, which monitors television viewing in America.
The average American household watches eight hours and 18 minutes of television every day. Think about that. That is more than a third of a day and about half of the average person's waking hours. This is an all-time high. Granted, sometimes the TV is on while we are doing other things, but that is a lot of time.
And it doesn't include the more than 27 hours a month people spent online and - believe it or not - the more than three hours a month people are watching videos on their cell phones. If you add the Internet and cell phone time to the TV time, we are being entertained electronically more than nine hours a day.
That is a huge change from 50 years ago when obesity and fitness were not big problems in this country.
Back then, kids went outside to play, rode their bikes and kept moving. Now they plunk down in front of a screen to be entertained. Is it any wonder that juvenile diabetes numbers are soaring?
Let's keep that in mind as adults. Get the kids outside moving around. For that matter, go with them.
We wouldn't knowingly give our kids something that would lead to serious illness and a shortened lifespan. And yet, by not insisting on healthier lifestyles and by not being role models for the same thing, we are doing just that. We are heading into the holidays where families spend time together. How about turning off the TV instead of promoting a nation of couch potatoes?
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The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of vailsun.com.
john wrote on Dec 18, 2008 2:54 PM:
" The author never attributed diabetes with obesity. He simply stated that lack of physical exercise MAY cause a form of diabetes AND probably obesity for that matter. So a juvenile that has Type 2 diabetes is not considered juvenile diabetes? Also, it's NOT harmful to children to tell them to go exercise is it? Oh, unless you count their poor little feelings in which case they may need to get used to it when they grow up to be obese adults and are ridiculed daily. "
DiabetesMom wrote on Dec 3, 2008 6:15 AM: