THE FATTENING OF AMERICA
Remember the old saying "Animals sweat: men perspire; women glow''? Forget it. If you're a nineties kind of person, male or female, you sweat . . . and you boast about it. Today fitness is big business. Health clubs are one of the hottest business opportunities, followed closely by weight-loss centers, diet books, and workout wear. And what about the way we eat? Low-fat or fat-free, artificially sweetened, high fiber, low cholesterol, vegetarian, low salt, whole grain . . . take your pick. If it sounds healthy, it's in.
But consider this: With all the interest in healthy food and a healthy lifestyle, why is America so fat? And why are we getting fatter every year?
Each spring, weight-loss books proliferate on bookstore and supermarket shelves like crabgrass spreading through a lawn. Drug companies challenge expensive research staffs to synthesize magic pills that promise to melt the fat off your hips without asking for dietary sacrifices. Madison Avenue admonishes us: "Just do it!" So we pull out our credit cards for jogging shoes, hiking shoes, biking shoes, aerobic shoes, tennis shoes, walking shoes, boxing shoes—not to mention high-heeled sneakers. We buy Cardioglides, Healthriders, treadmills, rowing machines, ankle weights, wrist weights, stationary bikes, barbells, Nordic-Tracks, Thighmasters and Buttmasters. We buy video workout tapes that promise eight-minute abs and eight-minute buns and turn our TV rooms into in-home health clubs.
Sweat is like a sacred ointment with which we seek absolution from our dietary sins, and we feel guilty if we don't anoint ourselves every morning.
For all this effort we're still fat. Over 51 percent of Americans are overweight, and these percentages are increasing every year. Approximately 12.5 million Americans are severely overweight, and of these, 8.4 million are morbidly obese—over 140 percent of their ideal weight.
The middle of America (pardon the pun) seems to be increasing the fastest, with the highest incidence of obesity in the Midwest (particularly in Wisconsin and Indiana) and the lowest in the West (particularly in New Mexico).
Obesity used to be an adult problem—that "middle-aged spread" we laughed about. It was the guy who complained of his "furniture problem" (his chest sinking into his drawers) or the dumpy dowager or the frumpy middle-aged mom. Obesity is no longer just an adult problem. According to recent statistics, obesity among our younger generation has more than doubled in the past decade, up to 11 percent from just 5 percent in our six- to seventeen-year-old children. More than 22 percent of all children under the age of eighteen are "potentially overweight." Currently, 25 percent of American kids are at risk for the adult consequences of being overweight. Yes, obesity is now a pediatric condition with consequences that reach far into adulthood.
Some parents view the weight challenges of their chubby youngsters as a problem they'll outgrow. But according to the American Institute of Nutrition, this simply isn't the pattern. Most overweight children grow up to be overweight adults, with eating habits and weight challenges so firmly ingrained in their physiques that it becomes next to impossible to normalize their weight without extraordinary effort.
The health consequences of this pattern are bringing the health-care system of the richest nation in the world to its knees. Fat is a very serious problem in this country—economically, medically, and socially. The weight-loss industry is a $33 billion a year industry, with a failure rate of over 95 percent.
This is not to say that all dietary failure is the result of a poor diet plan. Dieters aren't exactly known for willing compliance with restrictive eating regimens. In fact, two of my recent clients dropped out of the program just because they were "tired of being told what to eat. ..." And one client wouldn't set aside time in his schedule to plan and prepare healthy meals, even when he knew that by doing so his former svelte waistline would reappear.
Yet the truth remains that obesity costs the United States over $40 billion a year—more than 5 percent of all illness-related costs in our society—and the numbers continue to rise.
What, in the age of Diet Pepsi, Olestra, fat-free potato chips, sparkling mineral water, frozen Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig entrees, Ultra Slim-Fast, and pocket calorie counters, is making our kids and adults overweight? We're eating fewer calories than we've ever eaten, other than in famine conditions (total energy intake in the United States has decreased by 10 percent since 1900), yet obesity has more than doubled in the same period of time. The issues of obesity and even minor weight challenges may be much more complex than most people think.
For some, dieting is a lifestyle. It's just what they do, sort of like a vocation or a hobby. But for many others, their dress or pant size is a nightmare that haunts them every time they step outside the front door, every time they go shopping for clothes or food, every time they sit down in a nice restaurant to eat, every time they invite someone over for coffee. Weight has taken a huge toll on their mental, physical, social, and spiritual health. They would do literally anything to stop the pain.
If you're one of these people, if you really have tried every diet, you really have complied with doctors' orders, you really are willing to do whatever it takes to regain control over your waistline, this book may unlock the mystery of why maintaining your desired weight seems like an impossible task. This book is written for every man or woman who has ever sincerely tried to lose the weight but lost the battle.
These are the individuals who suffer from what I call "stubborn obesity." These are the ones who struggle with female hormones, adrenal exhaustion, or sluggish thyroid, or who just can't find a reasonable explanation for why they remain fat on the same number of calories or low-fat diet their skinny neighbors eat. Most of all, this book is written for every man and woman who just wants to end the weight struggle and look and feel good again!
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