Several legislative bodies in the United States are strongly considering a “Fat Tax” on sugary drinks, a rate of  1% per fluid ounce. This is their solution to fighting obesity. First, cities and counties banned restaurants from serving trans fats, or food products containing hydrogenated oils, now taxes on soda pop? The Center for Consumer Freedom, who motto is “Promoting Personal Responsibility and Protecting Consumer Choice”, believes that these “food police” are infringing on Americans’ personal choices. Why stop here, why not tax all fast foods, cookies, cakes, pies, donuts, ice cream, etc.?

With the possibility of a government option health care, and obesity one of the leading health care costs, tackling obesity is certainly something to look at more closely. First, let us look at the scope of the problem.

According to the U.S. News and World Report, published July 1, 2009, two-thirds of American adults are now obese or overweight. As recently as 1991, no state had an adult obesity rate higher than 20 percent; in 1980, just 15 percent of adults were obese. Now, in 31 states, obesity rates exceed 25 percent, and in 49 states and Washington, D.C., the rates are above 20 percent. This same report also stressed concern regarding childhood obesity. Children who are obese are at greater risk of being obese adults, and all the health risks related to obesity. According to this report, the rate of childhood obesity has more than tripled since 1980!

How does the U.S. compare to other industrialized and non-industrialized countries? According to 2005 health data from the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the U.S. tops all 29 countries studied with an obesity rate exceeding 30%, Korea and Japan being the lowest at just over 3%. Notice the northern and eastern European countries that offer public health care, which the U.S. is attempting to emulate, have some of the lowest obesity rates. Although other industrialized nations, such as Australia do not fall far behind the U.S. in the rankings, there are some major differences.

A January 09, 2009 article by Ryan and Bita in The Australian, showed that the obesity rates among children in Australia leveled off around 1998 and have remained steady since that time. According to research by Timothy Olds from the SA University School of Health Sciences, who analyzed 27 Australian studies of childhood weight status between 1985 and 2007, the rise in the percentage of children who were overweight or obese recorded through the 1980s and much of the 1990s had halted, with a “clear plateau” in recent obesity data. Therefore, Australia does not have the future of an obesity epidemic that the U.S. has.

Rank: Country: Amount of Obesity:

# 1 United States: 30.6%
# 2 Mexico: 24.2%
# 3 United Kingdom: 23%
# 4 Slovakia: 22.4%
# 5 Greece: 21.9%
# 6 Australia: 21.7%
# 7 New Zealand: 20.9%
# 8 Hungary: 18.8%
# 9 Luxembourg: 18.4%
# 10 Czech Republic: 14.8%
# 11 Canada: 14.3%
# 12 Spain: 13.1%
# 13 Ireland: 13%
# 14 Germany: 12.9%
= 15 Portugal: 12.8%
= 15 Finland: 12.8%
# 17 Iceland: 12.4%
# 18 Turkey: 12%
# 19 Belgium: 11.7%
# 20 Netherlands: 10%
# 21 Sweden: 9.7%
# 22 Denmark: 9.5%
# 23 France: 9.4%
# 24 Austria: 9.1%
# 25 Italy: 8.5%
# 26 Norway: 8.3%
# 27 Switzerland: 7.7%
= 28 Japan: 3.2%
= 28 Korea, South: 3.2%
Weighted average: 14.1%

As we know from constant media coverage, health care costs are rising, along with our health insurance premiums. Interesting, our health care cost have been increasing along with our waistlines. So how much it the obesity problem “costing” us? See the chart below taken from Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Percentage of Health Care Expenditures Between 2001-2006 for people categorized as:
1.

1. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/07/obesity_and_health_care_costs.html

As mentioned in my June 19th Newsletter, obesity is linked to several physical diseases which are controlled by expensive medications, and often require surgery and other non-invasive procedures. Aside from the physical disease, all those extra pounds are greatly responsible for being a catalyst to degenerative joint disease. According to the Rothman Institute, which specializes in working with obese patients, it is estimated that obesity is responsible for 200,000 joint replacements a year in the US. Imagine if Americans could loose the weight through proper nutrition and exercise, and have obesity rates as low as in countries such as Switzerland and Japan. We could revamp the health care system right there. With such low costs of health care as seen in the chart above, health care costs would significantly decrease due to non-use, rates would be more competitive, affordable, and insurance companies would be more competitive for your business.

This transition doesn’t begin with the government banning or taxing certain foods, it begins at home with how we eat, and our activity level. In addition, teaching our children how to eat healthy, and getting them active. Quick easy recipes are available right at our fingertips, thousands of healthy cookbook have been published and online on websites such as http://www.allrecipes.com/. These recipe websites often categorize them by ingredients, level of difficulty, and prep time. We have to stop with the fast food, take-out, and frozen pre-packaged foods, and start buying fresh foods and preparing them at home. We have to make this time for ourselves, and our families, we are worth it!

We have to get moving… our bodies were meant to move. Find an activity/exercise you like, and do it. Get outside and walk…not leisurely, but fast! Start jogging, or invest in a bike and go for bike rides. Need help with motivation? Try doing these activities with a partner, to keep each other motivated. Another way to motivate yourself is to spend a little money. Join a health club, take tennis lessons and join a camp, try martial arts, yoga or pilates classes, hire a personal trainer, or check and see if there are any boot camps in your town. Pine Brook, NJ has one of the best, and serves all surrounding towns. http://www.dynamicpersonaltraining.com/.

Get your kids off the computer and video games, limit the time they are allowed to spend on these sedentary devices. Encourage them to be outside instead of inside, chances are, they will be more physically active. Enroll them in school or town sports, or dance. If they are not athletically inclined, hire a personal trainer to get them moving, or martial arts, etc.   Some health clubs often have special student discounts, teen yoga classes, or town boot camps. These are all viable options that can be fit into anyone’s budget.

Once we implement these healthy values in the home, then we can shift these ideas into the school system, where children spend a great deal of time. We need to bring daily physical education back into school, in addition to health and nutrition being added to the curriculum. Get those soda pop and juice machines out of the schools, of course, school lunches need to have vegetables other than corn and tator tots. We don’t need to government telling us what to do, we are intelligent enough to know what we should and should not do, and where to go if we need help or have questions. What we need is simply some direction, guidance, and motivation to do it. Please contact myself or Mark at http://www.dynamicpersonaltraining.com/.

I welcome your comments

Melanie Clark Mogavero, RYT, CSCS, CPT