Fitness Files: America’s weight problem is a drag on insurance, the economy
Hiking Crystal Cove State Beach on Monday morning, my friend Laurie asked, “Did you see the ‘Bizarro’ cartoon in Sunday’s Times?”
I hadn’t, so she emailed it with the comment, “Not so funny funny!”
Dan Piraro had drawn early man’s progression, from gorilla-like stance to upright posture and finally to “today,” a veritable mountain of flesh in the form of a guy spilling out of his pants while seated on a wheelchair scooter.
This set me wondering. Is there really an obesity epidemic? How bad is it, and what does it really matter anyway? Isn’t weight a matter of personal choice? Maybe it’s nobody’s business how much Americans weigh.
When one half of my brain wonders, I ask the other half — Google.
WebMD‘s Sherry Rauh wrote, “The average American is 23 pounds over … ideal weight.”
The Centers for Disease Control stated that “two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese.”
The American Heart Assn.’s heart.org called obesity “one of the top three most urgent health concerns.”
With those figures, yes, there’s a fatness epidemic.
But who wants to look like one of those stringy, sickly supermodels? What”s wrong with 23 extra pounds?
Harvard School of Public Health’s online Newsletter caught my eye, zeroing in on the body-as-a-whole system.
“Weight is connected to virtually all [functions],” according to the site. “A healthy weight sets the stage for bones, muscles, brain, heart … to play their parts … efficiently for years. Excess weight … diminishes almost every aspect to health … reproductive, respiratory, memory, mood and [brings on] deadly diseases, including diabetes, heart, some cancers.”
Yeah, excess weight matters to basic well-being.
I want to say stay out of my holiday cookies and restaurant hot fudge cake. (Yum!) But our habits are costing us all.
Forbes’ Rick Ungar wrote an article in 2012 titled, “Obesity now costs Americans more in health care spending than smoking.” He quoted a Reuters’ report that said obesity in the U.S. adds $190 billion to the national healthcare price tag — “public health enemy number one when it comes to cost.”
“The annual medical spending for an uninsured obese person was $3,271 compared with $512 for the non-obese.”
Forbes reported that a significantly overweight population costs “1 billion additional gallons of gasoline being used each year by automobiles — nearly 1% of our total gasoline usage.”
Yes, obesity is costly to every person, from supermodels to septuagenarians.
In 2012, CBS News’ Monica DyBuncio said, “Medical costs affect everyone, not just the obese. Higher health insurance premiums lead everyone to cover extra medical costs.”
Aetna.com/health stated that “obesity accounts for an estimated 12% of health spending in recent years … 20% of the 2010 gross domestic product.”
Finally, thefiscaltimes.com cites an analysis prepared by Scott Kahan of George Washington University that “pegs the total cost of obesity, including direct medical and non-medical services, decreased worker productivity, disability and premature death, at $305.1 billion annually.”
Yikes! My restaurant fudge cake could be responsible for national economic disaster, not to mention elevated insurance premiums.
That’s if I ate it nightly, which I don’t.
Turns out the modern man with the humongous midsection in “Bizarro” is everybody’s business. Meaning “business” in an economic sense.
I’ll end with this hopeful quote.
“Losing small amounts of weight gives disproportional health benefit,” Dr. Louis Aronne, New York Presbyterian Hospital, said in a 2007 article in Skin and Allergy News.
So help America’s bottom line and your own bottom line. Dive into fresh fruits and veggies, and subtract just 3 pounds, because my friend Laurie’s right. There’s nothing funny about America’s obesity epidemic.
Newport Beach resident CARRIE LUGER SLAYBACK is a retired teacher who ran the Los Angeles Marathon at age 70, winning first place in her age group. Her blog is lazyracer@blogspot.com.