No more.
We are FAT City. It is bad. It is getting worse. Here’s what it looks like geographically:
Map of Obesity in the USA 2011
The map shows the problem in 2011, but it does not show the growth of the problem over time. Exploring that growth is part of the search for the cause and the solution.
If being overweight were just an aesthetic choice, no one would care. If being overweight were totally beyond the control of individuals, we would simply live with it as we do other things beyond our control, such as the limits of our life span.
But, the problem of obesity has an impact on our entire society and is at least in part modifiable. It makes finding soldiers who can pass basic physical exams scarcer than would otherwise be the case, and it puts a burden our health care system, both payers and providers, particularly public programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
While we will want to consider diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, as well as other preventable causes of death and disability, in discussing the health of our nation, they are affected profoundly and substantially by the prevalence of obesity in the society. There are a considerable number of obesity-related illnesses,
and they impact our health, our longevity, our national budget, and our family budgets.
So, initially I may be writing a bit more about obesity than other health challenges, but we will get to them as well in the fullness of time.
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