The Obesity Epidemic

I believe obesity is the biggest killer in America today. It’s the reason people get heart disease. It’s the root cause of most cancer and most forms of cerebrovascular disease. Diabetes, and the list keeps going. Obesity is also why people get prematurely old and suffer through innumerable heath issues in middle and later life.

I think obesity is playing out very similar to how smoking played out. People always knew smoking was bad for them, but they did it anyways and in fact it became more and more popular. Eventually after enough studies reinforcing just how bad smoking is for you it’s started declining in popularity. Right now obesity is in the stage where it’s getting more and more popular. I really hope obesity takes the path of smoking and starts its long slow decline. I’m not too confident it will though. To villainify smoking it was clearly the manufacturers of cigarettes that were the bad guys. It was a black and white picture. With food it’s more complicated and requires a more education to the consumer. I’m hopeful attitudes towards food in America will change, but I’m not going to start holding my breath anytime soon.

CNN has an interactive map that shows just how fast the obesity epidemic is spreading. Click here to see their interactive map. It’s scary.