Obesity in America

[aliki]

Most believe the growth of portion sizes to be a contributing factor to the rise in obesity in the US. Test your knowledge of food portion below. You may be surprised.

http://hin.nhlbi.nih.gov/portion/

Though many in America are vehemently opposed to cigarettes and applaud moves by numerous cities to ban smoking in all restaurants and bars, few are as outraged at growing food portions and obesity in this country. Yet soon, obesity, not tobacco, will kill more of us.

Obesity is rapidly gaining on tobacco as the number one killer in the U.S. Two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese (30 pounds or more over a healthy weight). Perhaps the most frightening development is a rise in obesity in children. Fifteen percent of children age 6 to 19 are overweight. The number is ten percent higher than a decade ago, and this weight gain is reflected in rising rates of type 2 diabetes and heart ailments, once associated with grandparents, not grandchildren.

Comments

[manipul8.livejournal.com]

There are two very different issues here and comparison really shouldn't be made. As an adult you can choose not to eat the entire portion of your meal, you can choose more healthy meals and you can educate yourself as to how often, how much and what type of food you should be eating. Unfortunately the same adult can't always control their exposure to passive smoking, especially when their only employment options are in bars, clubs, restaurants and other smoke filled establishments.

Obesity is an issue and noone could deny that portion sizes certainly are part of the problem (Sedentary lifestyles and bad food choices/education could be easily argued to play a bigger role), but I truly don't believe it deserves the same level of outrage and campaigning that passive smoking warrants.

[aliki.livejournal.com]

Maybe not passive smoking per se, but what about smoking as is? Taxes on cigarettes is as high as 50% in some states (New York, for example, it's US$8.00 a pack!) Considering that medical problems arising from obesity will soon overtake incidences related to smoking, shouldn't we start taxing Super Sized meals more?