The 13% Solution

Let’s define terms. There’s fat and then there’s obese, but what does that mean? According to the Harvard School of Public Health, while there are technical definitions of obesity involving a body mass index formula, the shorthanded view uses are waistline measurement (“abdominal obesity”): “Guidelines generally define abdominal obesity in women as a waist size 35 inches or higher, and in men as a waist size of 40 inches or higher.” The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, led a study (published in Lancet) that aggregated over 1700 surveys in 188 nations from 1980 to 2013. Their mission: track global overweight and obesity rates.

The biggest non-loser in the race, with roughly 5% of the world’s population, was the United States of Fat America. We have a stunning 13% of the world’s overweight population (more than any other country), although as percentage of our own total population, we pale in comparison with statistics from the Middle East and North Africa, where nearly 60 percent of men and 65 percent of women are heavy… China and India combined have about 15 percent [of the world’s heavies].” AOL.com, May 28th. In Europe, the U.K. can boast that 2 out of 3 of its adult population are overweight; it tips the scales as the fattest European nation.

Two billion fatties! Wonder if the planet is spinning as fast as it used to. “’It's pretty grim,’ said Christopher Murray [from the above Institute,] ‘When we realized that not a single country has had a significant decline in obesity, that tells you how hard a challenge this is.’… Murray said there was a strong link between income and obesity; as people get richer, their waistlines also tend to start bulging. He said scientists have noticed accompanying spikes in diabetes and that rates of cancers linked to weight, like pancreatic cancer, are also rising.

“[In mid-May], the World Health Organization established a high-level commission tasked with ending childhood obesity… ‘Our children are getting fatter,’ Dr. Margaret Chan, [World Health Organization]'s director-general, said bluntly during a speech at the agency's annual meeting in Geneva. ‘Parts of the world are quite literally eating themselves to death.’ Earlier this year, WHO said that no more than 5 percent of your daily calories should come from sugar.” AOL.com.

Think about it. Walking to talk to someone versus reaching for the now-all-pervasive cell phone. Fizzy sugar-laden soft drinks are everywhere. Folks shift from vegies to animal protein (with a tad o’ fat along the way) as their incomes rise. Folks ride in cars when they used to walk. Machines till the fields and increasingly do the heavy lifting.

The Centers for Disease Control tell us that 34.9% of American adults are technically obese. The CDC also tells us: “By state, obesity prevalence ranged from 20.5% in Colorado to 34.7% in Louisiana in 2012. No state had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Nine states and the District of Columbia had prevalence between 20-25%. Thirteen states (Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia) had a prevalence equal to or greater than 30%... Higher prevalence of adult obesity was found in the Midwest (29.5%) and the South (29.4%). Lower prevalence was observed in the Northeast (25.3%) and the West (25.1%).” Guess folks in the South love to sit around and chew the fat!

It’s all adding well over $150 billion to our annual healthcare costs, but just think how much money the processed foods and soft drink industry is making… and how our lovely GOP comrades in the House want to let school districts go back to processed foods and sugary drinks if they can’t afford the healthy stuff: “The House Appropriations Committee on [May 29th] passed an agriculture budget bill that included nearly $21 billion for child nutrition that would allow schools to opt out of White House nutritional guidelines passed in 2012. The vote was 31 to 18.

“The Obama administration, hoping to combat rising childhood obesity, announced new rules in 2012 that added more fruits and green vegetables to school breakfasts and lunches; the rules also reduced the amount of salt and fat children consume at schools… About 32 million children participate in school meal programs each day.” New York Times, May 29th. These are the same guys trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act too? I wonder if their elephantasy-symbol will be replaced with the legendary pushmi-pullyu.

I’m Peter Dekom, and we might save a whole pile of other dollars just by having a lot of old people just die when they are “less old.”