America The Beautiful Obese
Let’s be real for a second. America is fat. And we seem to be content with that and that in and of itself is a problem. I think, and this is just my opinion, a large percentage of our population have been fat and probably have been getting fatter for a very long time. They have been fat for so long that they don’t remember how good it feels to be a healthy body weight. How good it feels to wake up and be able to walk up a flight of stairs without being out of breath. To be able to put on your socks and shoes without a struggle. To be able to run and have fun with your kids or grandkids. Life is so much better when you can enjoy living. So exactly how fat is the American population? What is causing this situation? How can we fix it? These are problems that should’ve been addressed 30-40 years ago when we first noted negative changes in our population’s weight and health but unfortunately, we didn’t and haven’t so here we are. Let me dive into a few details and give you my thoughts on how to fix this.
At the present moment, about 43% of the American population is considered obese and close to 10% are considered severely obese. To be considered obese and severely obese, one must have a BMI of greater than 30 and 40, respectively. The only inputs needed to calculate BMI are height and weight. In general, BMI provides a clear picture for a large population, like an entire country, however, on an individual basis, it can be skewed because it does not consider muscle mass into the equation. For clarity, here are a few examples of what that means:
The average height of an adult male in the US is approximately 5’9. At 5’9, anyone between 203-270 lbs is considered obese. Anything over 270 lbs is considered severely obese.
The average height of an adult female in the US is approximately 5’4. At 5’4, anyone between 175-232 lbs is considered obese. Anything over 232 lbs is considered severely obese.
Compare these present rates to rates of the past and you’ll notice a drastic weight increase in the US population. The rates of obesity and severe obesity, according to data from CDC are listed below:
As you can see, there has been a steady increase in both the rate of obesity and severe obesity which has only accelerated in the last 30 years. In plain terms, the United States has become a very fat nation.
Obesity presents several health complications including reduced quality of life and early death. Obesity as a medical condition strains the medical and insurance systems, as well as results in drastic reductions in work capacity for our economy. There are absolutely zero positives to being obese.
According to the Framingham heart study, adult male and female non-smokers with a BMI of 40 or greater lived on average 5.8 and 7.1 years less than their non-obese counterparts. Other studies on mortality related to obesity have found similar results. Not only is life expectancy drastically reduced but quality of life is also reduced as well due to the increase in health complications resulting from obesity.
Obesity is the main predictor for type 2 diabetes which can result in loss of limbs, loss of eye sight, and nerve damage among other serious health complications. Obesity is also linked to hypertension, heart disease, dyslipidaemia, sleep apnea, gastrointestinal disorders such as heart burn and acid reflux, reproductive disorders and infertility, osteoarthritis, and potentially some cancers.
And if the individual health concerns aren’t enough, there is a huge economic impact to our society. As of 2019, obesity related medical costs were estimated to be over $170 billion. And the reduction in nationwide productivity costs due to obesity related absenteeism is estimated to be between $3-$6 billion. It is fair to assume that obesity and severe obesity have both increased since 2019 as well as the cost of medical care, and therefore all of these expenses are much higher today than they were in 2019.
It’s bad enough that our society has created a culture where adults are obese but one of the real tragedies of the last 50 years is the childhood obesity rate. As of 2019, the childhood obesity rate for children aged 2-19 years old is 19.3% and 6.1% are severely obese. These numbers are drastically higher than the first data collection which was between 1971-1974. During that time frame, the childhood obesity rate was 5.2% and the severely obese rate was 1.0%.
The most current obesity rates I could find was from 2019, however, I would be very interested to see the adult and childhood obesity rates and the impact of the government mandated COVID lockdowns. Sadly, I would not be surprised to see another sudden spike in the numbers again in both adult and childhood obesity rates.
These are alarming numbers plain and simple but also alarming is the rate of increase in the numbers. What will our country’s health look like 10-20-30 years from now? The time to make these corrections to our society was 25 years ago not now or 25 years from now. We have lost generations. Healthy habits are passed down from parents to children. The current set of parents are the unhealthiest that we have ever had. They cook at home the least of any generation, many don’t even know how to cook. They feed their children processed junk all day long, and have little to no physical activity themselves or ingrained into their children's lifestyles.
Society itself has become very easy, for better or worse. In many ways it’s better. Is it better that our men are not inside a coal mine all day where they develop iron lung and other diseases? Yes. Is it better that we have so many of our men and women sitting at desks all day doing mental gymnastics rather than physical gymnastics? No.
Certain things we cannot change. We are not putting people back into coal mines or fields by the thousands, which is obviously a good thing. But that doesn’t mean we can’t change the obesity epidemic. First, we need to know, what is the cause of all this? I am a strong believer in the MAHA movement - Make America Healthy Again. Put politics aside for a minute. Who wouldn’t be in favor of making our society healthier than it currently is. There are certain things that we should be universal in, one of which should be a desire to have a healthy population, especially children.
I think some of the focus on that movement has been on things that play too small a role in achieving our shared goal, making Americans healthy. Things like food dyes and seed oils may not be the healthiest things in our foods and we might be better off removing them from our food, for the most part. The problem with focusing on these types of things, is that we miss the forest through the trees. The real issue causing obesity is total calories consumed. If we can fix our obesity problem, we will see a drastically healthier population, regardless of seed oils or dyes in food. Just to be clear, I think we can “walk and chew gum at the same time”. There’s no reason not to improve the quality of our food while we are also working on the bigger issue at hand, which is the number of calories consumed on an individual basis everyday.
Data from The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations shows that the average caloric intake has increased 24% since 1961. In 1961 the average American consumed 2880 calories per day whereas, in 2013 that number has skyrocketed to 3682 calories per day. Other data from the US Department of Agriculture in 2023 suggests that the most updated caloric consumption by Americans per day is 3864 calories.
For reference, it has been said many times, in many places, by many people that the average male needs approximately 2500 calories per day and the average female 2000 calories per day.
This is not rocket science. It’s easy to see what the main culprit is in our American obesity epidemic… excess calories.
One of the ways I believe we can start to change the course of our obesity culture to a health conscious, fit society is by being more aware of our food choices. I strongly believe that choosing more whole, minimally processed foods such as real fruits and vegetables, meats, dairy products like greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and milk, etc. can be the solution to our troubles. There seemingly is nothing inherently wrong with processed or even ultra processed foods however, they make up far too much of our daily diet.
Researchers at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health performed a study and found that 54% of the calories consumed by adults at home come from ultraprocessed foods. Examples of ultraprocessed foods are chips, hot dogs, prepacked meals, or in other words, foods that contain little to no nutritional value. Pure empty calories.
Like I said, there is nothing inherently wrong with these foods, if they are a small part of the diet. The problem is companies make these foods to be ultrapalatable, meaning they taste amazing!! That’s how they get you to come back to the store and buy their product again. It tastes great. Often, these foods are high in calories and low in nutritional value making it extremely easy to consume a larger number of calories throughout the day, especially when, as the researchers found, more than half of the calories adults in the US consume is from ultra processed foods. The researchers also found that minimally processed foods fell from 33.2% of the calories consumed in 2003 to just 28.5% in 2018.
It is often said that eating healthy foods is more expensive than cheaper processed foods. While it may appear that way on the surface, that statement is far from the truth, especially as of late with the high inflation we’ve experienced over the last few years. You may have been able to buy a bag of chips for $1 or $2 in the past but now, if you’ve been to the grocery store lately, you’ve seen that same bag of chips is probably closer to $5 and it’s half air! What’s actually cheaper is buying a family size container of chicken breast and a large bag of rice or potatoes. This might be an upfront cost of $30ish dollars but you can actually feed a family multiple meals with this type of food and it can be made in a healthy way!
The way to combat our obesity epidemic is most likely not through government intervention, that rarely works, especially on such a large scale issue like obesity. What can the government really do in this situation anyway? Ban extra large soda like they tried in New York City in 2012 but was struck down by the courts a year later? No. Remove food dyes that make kids' foods extra eye catchy and attract buyers? Maybe, that’s not a bad idea. But is it the ultimate solution? No.
What is the ultimate solution is personal responsibility. You are responsible for you. You must take your health seriously! As a society we can encourage more cooking at home with real, minimally processed foods. Eating around the dinner table with family and friends with no electronic devices. Slow down for just a minute. Eat enough to feel satisfied but not overly stuffed to the point where we can’t move. Drink water.
The problem with this advice is it’s too simple. It’s literally too easy that it’s hard. People would rather have a quick fix that involves something intricate and complicated that sounds sexy and new that they can brag to their co-workers, friends, and followers online.
However, it is the truth. It’s not sexy. It’s not glamorous. It just is what it is, boring. Boring works though. Boring can be consistent. In a society that loves the flash, the glitz and glamour, and also is content with being fat – be different. Be boring. Eat your fruits and vegetables. Have a piece of meat and a slice of cheese. Maybe even a glass of wine every now and then. If you can do this, you will do your part in Making America Healthy Again.
