Contributor: “Dr. J”Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200.
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Winner winner chicken dinner is an expression that probably originates in Las Vegas indicating a positive betting outcome.
Bob Wieder recently addressed the state of obesity in America with his “Fat American Jokes: How We’ve Become Our Own Laughingstocks” column, in which he observed that with humor in the last three years, “the fact of American obesity isn’t even stated. Instead, it is assumed. It has become a given. There is an implicit message about our culture in that fact.”
Obesity really is no laughing matter, but it does definitely matter. Actually, we are betting our lives against it. It’s affecting us in every area of our lives. Desks are not large enough for many children in schools. Scales, for those who even use them, do not register enough weight. Maybe a “let’s just laugh about it” should be written on the dial after the numbers run out. Every piece of furniture now comes in super sizes except perhaps the infant highchair, and it’s only a matter of time for that to happen. Our vehicles are getting bigger. The cost of everything is growing, and our size is directly related to that. The list grows daily.
It would all be fine if our bodies could just adapt to this size increase, but our bodies can’t, and nothing will ever allow them to. No orthopedic device, no extra-strength Viagra, no heart, pancreas, liver, lung transplant or other replacement will adequately fix us, although perhaps the as-of-yet-impossible brain transplant might.
Scientists all over the planet have warned that the world is facing a serious emergency as increasing rates of obesity threaten to overwhelm us with the multiple diseases that it directly contributes to.
Presently two-thirds of us are overweight or obese. This condition is not only generating $190.2 billion in health expenses a year but rapidly becoming the No. 1 killer of Americans.
U.S. childhood obesity rates have more than tripled in the past 30 years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, our children’s life expectancy is now less than that of their parents.
More than 105 million Americans have cardiovascular disease, despite the successes in reducing and treating heart disease over the last half-century.
Over 25.8 million Americans have diabetes, and the number grows rapidly daily.
We are living a lifestyle that will destroy us.
“Addressing these devastating trends requires each of us to personally engage and take positive action, while encouraging others in our communities to do the same,” said Jeff Zwiefel, the executive vice president and chief of operations of Life Time Fitness.
As stated by British epidemiologist Geoffrey Rose, “Mass disease and mass exposures require mass remedies. Mass remedies require the masses to be part of the solution.”
I wish I could write a more positive encouraging column suggesting that we are winning this bet against obesity. I am not without a sense of humor on the subject, however.
Winner winner, extra-large deep-fried chicken dinner!
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Betting on Obesity is a post from: CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog
Source: http://calorielab.com/news/2012/10/09/betting-on-obesity/
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