Americans Tipping the Scales
According to a new study from Washington University in St. Louis entitled “A Silver Lining? The Connection between Gas Prices and Obesity,” an additional $1 per gallon in real gasoline prices could reduce U.S. obesity by 15 percent after five years.
Obesity, defined as having a body mass index greater than 30, has been considered to factor in as many as 112,000 deaths annually. And Charles Courtemanche who wrote the report for his doctoral dissertation in health economics said gasoline prices can reduce obesity by leading people to walk or cycle instead of drive and eat leaner at home instead of rich food at restaurants.
U.S. health costs related to obesity are estimated at $117 billion per year as studies sponsored by the U.S. government have linked it with high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
Americans consumed more than twice as much high-fructose corn syrup per person as in 1980 and remained the fattest inhabitants of the planet, although Mexicans, Australians, Greeks, New Zealanders and Britons are not too far behind.At the same time, Americans spent more of their lives than ever — about 8 1/2 hours a day — watching television, using computers, listening to the radio, going to the movies or reading.
This eclectic portrait of the American people is drawn from the 1,376 tables that comprise the Census Bureau’s 2007 Statistical Abstract of the United States, the annual feast for number crunchers that is being served up by the federal government today.
For the first time, the abstract quantifies same-sex sexual contacts (6 percent of men and 11.2 percent of women say they’ve had them) and learning disabilities (American Indians are most likely to have been told they have them).
The abstract reveals that the floor space in new private one-family homes has expanded to 2,227 square feet in 2005 from 1,905 square feet in 1990.
Americans are getting fatter but now drink more bottled water per person than beer. In fact they drank more than 23 gallons of bottled water per person in 2004 — more than 10 times as much as in 1980.
They’re taller, too. More than 24 percent of Americans in their 70s are shorter than 5-foot-6. Only 10 percent of people in their 20s are.
The abstract also reports more people are injured by wheelchairs than by lawnmowers. Bicycles are involved in more accidents than any other consumer product, but beds were a close second.
Most of the statistical tables, which come from a variety of government and other sources, are presented raw, without caveats; and because the abstract is so concrete, the statistics can suggest false precision. The table of consumer products involved in injuries does not explain, for example, that one reason nearly as many injuries involve beds as bicycles is that more people use beds.
American adolescents and adults now spend, on average, almost 65 days a year watching television, 41 days listening to the radio and a little over a week using the Internet. Among adults, 97 million Internet users sought news online last year, 92 million purchased a product, 91 million made a travel reservation, 16 million used a social or professional networking site and 13 million created a blog.
“The demand for information and entertainment seems almost insatiable,” said James Rutherfurd, executive vice president of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, the media investment firm whose research the Census Bureau cited. Rutherfurd said time spent with such media increased to 3,543 hours last year from 3,340 hours in 2000, and is projected to rise to 3,620 hours in 2010. The time spent within each category varied, with less on broadcast television (down to 679 hours in 2005 from 793 hours in 2000) and on reading in general, and more using the Internet (up to 183 hours from 104 hours) and on cable and satellite television.
How does all that listening and watching influence the amount of time Americans spend alone? The census doesn’t measure that, but since 2000 the number of hobby and athletic non-profit associations has risen while the number of labor unions, fraternities and fan clubs has declined.
More Americans were born in 2004 than in any years except 1960 and 1990.
Meanwhile, the divorce rate, 3.7 people per 1,000 people, was the lowest since 1970. Among the states, Nevada still claims the highest divorce rate, which slipped to 6.4 per 1,000 in 2004 from 11.4 per 1,000, just ahead of Arkansas and California.
U.S. to look at TV advertising, child obesity link - Concerned that a steady diet of TV ads is putting too many pounds on American children, the Federal Communications Commission plans to study links between the ads, viewing habits and the rise of childhood obesity. Earlier this month, the Institute of Medicine found that one-third of American children are either obese or at risk for becoming obese. At the same time, American companies spend about $15 billion a year marketing and advertising to children under age 12. Martin cited reports showing the average child watches 2 to 4 hours of TV per day and views about 40,000 TV ads every year, most of them for cereal, candy, toys and fast food.
Trends & Patterns in Kids’ Snacking Habits in the US - The incidence of obesity and other nutrition-related problems among American kids is on the rise and highly publicized. This report includes snacks that are specifically promoted or generally consumed by the majority of children aged 6 to 11. Children are some of America’s most frequent snack consumers. In 2005, there were 23.6 million children aged 6 to 11. They constitute a third of the under-18 population and 8% of the total population. This report examines trends and patterns in kids’ snacking habits, including the influence children have over purchases and spending power, types of snacks kids eat, and attitudes towards food and snacks.
Obesity coupled with diabetes could be deadly - People who are obese and suffer from diabetes could face the risk of developing critical illnesses and an earlier death than those who are not diabetic, says a new study. Obese patients with diabetes are three times more likely to become critically ill with acute organ failure and they are three times more likely to die from acute organ failure, or from any cause, than patients who do not have diabetes, regardless of their BMI.
Gwynn Dyer – The fat and the starving – Being fat is the new normal, but it won’t last. The global surge in overweight people is concentrated among lower-income city-dwellers, and some may choose to slim down as they climb further up the income scale. (“You can never be too rich or too slim.”) But the real guarantee of a slimmer world, unfortunately, is climate change. …
With medical costs rising, more people say they pray for their own health than invest in alternative medicine or therapy combined.
Related blog posts:
Going Vegetarian
Can Vegetarianism Cure Bird Flu?
Best Berry Recipes: Blueberries, Raspberries, Strawberries
Americans not eating enough fruits and vegetables
Food and Health: An Intimate Relationship
The Raw and Living Food Vegan Diet
Vegetarian Experiences: A Scrumptious Lunch Menu
Tags: food, gas prices, obesity, Americans, United States
no need to get crazy bout obesity, simply go vegetarian
Food has become our enemy hasn’t it!
Eating less is the only way and as you said the awareness can only come with education.
@Nita
Humans have a strange ability to become addicted to almost anything. Sit that inclination alongside parents who encourage kids to eat more, more, more and add an abundance of choice and it’s not surprising that many Americans resemble the fatted chickens, calves and porkers that they eat.
Worse still is the effect of obesity on physical health and care costs that we all must bear to deal with the health issues of those who have cheerfully poisoned themselves for years on end to fill the emptiness within them.
But most annoying to me are those who trumpet their acceptance of their excessive body fat. This really amounts to giving themselves permission to become progressively less healthy and their rhetoric is designed to co-opt the rest of us into agreeing that it’s okay for them to do so. Well being obese isn’t okay, regardless of your cultural and/or genetic background.
I have grown tired of hearing fatties direct our attention towards the opposite extreme ie. anorexic models and argue that the parameters of BMI are all wrong. They don’t fool me. Once all the blah, blah, blah about cultural, peer group pressure and genetics is said and done the fact remains that the vast majority of people on this planet, who are not starving are fat ie. not fit. They are unhealthy and in the vernacular – that’s not cool so I refuse to be co-opted into silence on the issue.