I have come to the conclusion that there are way too many fat people on campus. I am not talking about a few pounds overweight, but more like morbidly obese. Now before you start writing that letter to the editor, put down your jelly doughnut and hear me out.
This weight problem is not just an occurrence here on campus but is a nationwide phenomenon. For the last twenty years the United States has been increasingly becoming fatter and fatter. The most recent available statistics peg 65 percent of the population as overweight. It also lists 24 percent of the nation as obese. These are not biased numbers produced from the diet industry, but a non-partisan group using the body mass index as a scale. Does anybody else find these rates a little disturbing?
Many people like to claim there is nothing wrong with being overweight, they like their body the way it is. For those people, I applaud your beliefs and your ability to keep a positive self-image that is not contorted by Hollywood. However, I am not trying to discuss body image or self-esteem levels. Instead, I am going to let you on in a little secret. There are serious health risks for being overweight and obese. When overweight, you are at an increased risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and even some cancers. All in all, your physical health usually decreases the more your weight increases.
Well if being overweight is so poor for our health, how come everybody in America is so fat then? Do we not live in a society that has the most advanced health care and treatment system in the world? Here is the problem; the current culture of Americans is doomed to fatten us all up. Look up and down High Street, there is McDonalds, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, Chipotle and various other artery clogging establishments.
Fast food constitutes such a large part of our diet; it makes you wonder why more people do not have heart attacks at age 25. Almost every item on the menu in any fast food restaurant is not even remotely good for your health. Besides the actual poor health qualities of the food, are the sizes of the portions. Do we really need to have a super/king/biggie size? Is large no longer big enough for our appetites? What is even considered the small size today, is vastly bigger then the portions of past generations. For example, the small fry of McDonalds today, is equal in size to the large fry of 1960. Did our appetites really triple from forty years ago? We live in a society that promotes overindulgence and excesses. Why then should our food intake be any different? Our incredible amount of caloric intake from fast food is not the only thing that is making us such a fat society.
The lack of exercise is another major problem in the fight against obesity. Gym membership is on the rise, more people claim to be regularly exercising, then how can there be a lack of exercise? Our current society has been radically changed by the onset of the service based economy and the rise of the Internet. No longer are as many Americans working in a factory giving themselves a natural workout. Instead we are wallowing away at a desk for eight hours a day staring into a computer screen. Also there are fewer reasons to leave the house and do some walking, if you can pay your bills, shop, and communicate with the world from your own home. Suddenly that 30 minutes you spent working out at the gym is not doing much, if you spend the rest of your day partaking in absolutely no physical activity.
What then can and should we do so we are not all Porky Pig. Do not go to McDonalds and get two Big Macs and then get the Diet Coke. That is not helping you or your health. Avoid fast food as much as possible. Second, we really need to exercise, a lot of exercise. Instead of driving to class, walk. Hell, do sit-ups in class; get something useful out of that lecture. You could have more sex. I am sure everybody can think of his or her own activities. The point being, we need to start living healthier lives, and slim down a bit, because twenty years from do you want to the person on the 6 o’clock news that is being taken out of their house with a forklift?
Alex Stechschulte is a junior in sociology and criminology and has given up his beloved Wendy’s. Send words of support to [email protected].
