Living In USA

Although not yet technically considered a disease in its own right, obesity is nonetheless an epidemic in the United States. According to the American Obesity Association, the rate of obesity in the United States roughly doubled between 1970 and 2000, to over a third of all adults. Even more alarming is the rate of childhood obesity, although these increases are partly due to a 1998 change in the way obesity is calculated. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, in 2003 Americans ate an average of twenty-five pounds of candy each! Our love affair with the automobile, along with road construction that is decidedly bicycle/pedestrian-hostile, has made it difficult (and in some cases impossible) in many areas to walk from one place to another. Combined with the plethora of television programming and the rise of video games, the reality is that we get very little simple exercise. Amazingly, some people will go so far as to drive one or two miles to a gym in order to walk on a treadmill!

In addition, many foods are extraordinarily high in fat content, and our portions are quite large by almost any standard. Although some fast-food places have recently discontinued "super-size" from their menus, the "large" size is quite large enough. The fat content of many menu items is increased without noticeably increasing serving size. It is not just hamburgers, however, that should be viewed with caution. During that same period, one chain's small vanilla shake doubled its fat content. Another fast-food chain increased the saturated fat content of its french fries by 60 percent.

Fast-food giants gear their marketing toward children, hoping to develop loyal customers who will prefer the particular taste of their food items. According to Eric Schlosser in his book Fast Food Nation, McDonald's operates more playgrounds than any other private entity and is one of the largest distributors of toys in the United States. It uses a clown (who is depicted in advertisements as a child's one true friend) as its spokesman.

Not all overweight people are obese. In order to be considered obese, a person must exceed a body mass index (BMI) of 30, which is a ratio of body fat to height. This ratio, however, fails to distinguish between fat and muscle, differences in bone density, and other factors when determining whether a person is overwieght. Nonetheless, the social costs of obesity are high — lost productivity, increased healthcare costs, and shorter life spans can all be attributed to obesity. Each year, Men's Fitness magazine publishes an index of the fattest cities in the United States. While Detroit came in first in 2004, five of the top eight — Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth, and Arlington — are in Texas.