2011-07-07

Obesity Amongst the Young.

Well, we've got ourselves a situation, that's for sure.

I was recently in the same room as about one hundred people who were between the ages of seventeen and maybe twenty-two years old. To see all of these youthful people together was quite scary; scary because 90% of them were overweight (and I am NOT exaggerating). And this was just a random group of young people, a group in which the vast majority was nearing obesity. This was just one sampling of young adults; sadly there are likely countless other groups that can be found across the country that have the same overweight to healthy weight ratio of around 9:1. I know that this is the sight amongst even younger groups as well; it is a problem with children, not just teenagers/young adults. I am really scared when I think about their health and how they may suffer from a lifetime of health problems if they continue to maintain they high weights. Who do we blame for our country's growing obesity problem? Parents, teachers, industries, the Internet, advertising agencies, fast-food restaurants, liquor stores, restaurants, bars, outright laziness or carelessness, the very nature of the youth themselves...? We need to find the root cause of this problem and fix it fast. If these youth remain overweight, the health care sector is going to become saturated. I wish that more people of authority (politicians, teachers, government officials, medical doctors, etc) took this problem more seriously, because obesity among the young is a really scary problem and it is definitely on the rise.

Thanks for listening to my rant of the day.

I'll end the post with a little quote:"All you have in this life is your body and your mind".

I love this quote because it takes out of the equation all of the materialistic things in life and sums up all we really have: our bodies. You can be successful and have a great job/social circle/car/home/computer/etc., yet without your body and health, you really have nothing. I've heard stories about really wealthy people who have it "all", but they are sick, and as such they feel as if they have nothing. I guess the lesson from this quote is that ff you take care of your body and mind, the your life will be greater.

Thanks for listening to my second rant of the day.

2 comments:

  1. Your Gram and I had this discussion this am. We live in generation of fast food, diet drinks & food[that are not healthy]and technology that takes away natural exercise. I'm not sure how you get the message out!!!! Turn time back 60 yrs.?

    Lv. Ant. D.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your comment. Yes, it is going to be difficult to solve this massive problem, but if we start thinking about it now, we might be able to make at least some changes.

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