The epidemic of obesity is a vast and growing public health problem. “Weight sits like a spider at the center of an intricate, tangled web of health and disease,” writes Willett in Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating, arguably the best and most scientifically sound book on nutrition for the general public. He notes that three aspects of weight—BMI, waist size, and weight gained after one’s early twenties—are linked to chances of having or dying from heart disease, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and several types of cancer, plus suffering from arthritis, infertility, gallstones, asthma, and even snoring.
Reading Josh’s thoughts on weight loss, I looked up my own body mass index and found I just tip the scale into “overweight” at 25.1.
Since I heard a lot of grumbling about snoring this morning, I was chagrined to see that listed as one of the aspects of weight listed above (I think I fail all three). The phrase “pear-shaped” comes to mind . . .
The good news, if there is any, is that it’s a steady state: my evidence of prosperity isn’t increasing. The bad news is it’s not going away either (but it’s not like I’m working at it, and I think that’s the problem).
It could be worse: when you see snippets like:
The Way We Eat Now:
Childhood obesity, also once rare, has mushroomed: 15 percent of children between ages six and 19 are now overweight, and even 10 percent of those between two and five. “This may be the first generation of children who will die before their parents.”
it makes you wonder. I see some of these kids everyday, but I don’t remember seeing them when I was their age.