Land of the Free and Home of the Obese

America is the fattest country in the world today, which isn’t surprising in the land of the free, we are free to as much as we want and whatever we would like. The rise in the percent of the public that is overweight and obese is rising at staggering rates that should cause major concerns. 

As of 2012 over thirty five percent of people over the age of fifteen are considered obese. Of this childhood obesity and diabetes is at an all time high as well. Much of the problem that cause these health related diseases and obesity come from people being uneducated about their health.

            The United States, one of the world’s major powers is also one of the few countries that doesn’t label consumer products correctly and safely. With this they do not state the methods or process crops go through before it reaches the shelf. These are the leading reasons why this country is extremely obese, besides a persons will to better themselves. Steps need to be taken to assure people are educated in their decisions just like any other decisions in their lives. Labeling needs to be changed to show all ingredients used to make up the product. They products also need to be labeled in a way that the average consumer can understand. The final step to promote a healthier lifestyle in America is for governments and communities to invest in heal in daily life.

            Since the start of our education in this country we all have to learn how to read, write, add and subtract. Later on we learn history and are required to participate in physical activities, but why is it that something so important as our health is left out from general education. More than one out of every three children in 2012 were overweight or obese according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This problem isn’t fixed by requiring physical activity and trying to have healthy alternatives in the cafeteria it’s fixed by educating at a young age. In the state of Nebraska and in most states it is required that a student has two years of a physical health and education class. This mostly includes one year of Physical Education and a year of an awkward health class. A health class that covers valuable information used in life such as safe sex, health risks of using drugs and alcohol and healthy relationships. Nutrition and the effect obesity has on the body is left out or just mentioned in these general classes, but deaths related to obesity is dramatically rising and catching up to deaths related to tobacco use. Preventable diseases caused by obesity are far greater then those of drug and tobacco use, this is why the same dedication put towards tobacco education needs to be in place for healthy eating. Increasing the required credits needed in a health class or specifically a nutrition class could dramatically improve awareness and healthy lifestyles in American’s.

            Brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, agave nector, glucose, dextrose, xylitol, mannitol, if you ever turn over a product and read the label you will most likely see several of these words. Who actually knows what all these words are? All of those ingredients listed above are all sugars and are only a fraction ofthe words to describe sugar. This is another great reason why we need to educate society so changes can be made toward a healthier country. The jumble of words used for a single ingredient and the ways the ingredients are placed and manipulated on labels is unfair to consumers. Ingredients are placed byweight on the label but that is where the problem occurs. If a company uses eight different types of sugar and combined out weighs every other ingredient the types of sugar are still scattered throughout the list. This misleads consumers who try to eat healthy and not just removed processed sugars but fats as well from their diets. Another catch on how ingredients are placed is that there is a minimum weight or percent before it has to be recorded. The easiest to notice is trans fat, which is one of the worst fats to consume. If the percentage per serving is below point zero five percent it can be labeled as zero. This doesn’t seem like a huge number to cause any harm but we have all looked at the serving size and thoughts who actually only eats three Oreos. Lets just say that there is point zero five percent trans fat in those three Oreos, but you sit down and eat fifteen. Well, that turns into almost a gram of trans fat, which again doesn’t seem like much but do that with everything you eat in a day. This all adds up quickly. The Easiest way to prevent this is to just eat fruits and vegetables because they are naturally trans fat free but that’s not realist for us who love Oreos. Labels need to be fixed so that consumers know what is in their food.

            While we educate this country about health and healthy eating we can start to remove the misleading labeling on consumer products. It is already hard enough to eat healthy in modern times with all the preservatives and incomes the majority of the population live on, but to then add misleading information onto labels makes it impossible if a person is uneducated. Bread, something this simple can continually guide a person down the path of obesity because of the way we label in this country. If a person is looking to add a little more nutrients into a their diet and switch to whole grain bread they really are not getting one hundred percent whole grain bread. For bread to be considered “whole grain” all it has to contain is more whole grains then refined grains. In the best-case scenario they’re getting

fifty one percent whole grain bread. Of course companies have found a way to get around this regulation on labeling and keeping their profits high. Rice, corn and other cheaply grown grains can be added and are already naturally fine making the bread then realistically thirty three percent whole grain. Going back on how labeling is so important, when labeling “wheat” in a label the FDA just requires that wheat is used to define any species from the genus of Triticum. Triticum the family considered to be wheat could be any of the seven major species of wheat each having different properties and nutritional benefits. This is better then eating one hundred percent refined grains

though but can and should be changed. The safest route for someone looking to better themselves is to stick with the products labeled one hundred percent whole grain and has the stamp from the Whole Grain Council. With this stamp it insures that the product is actually one hundred percent whole grain. The USD and FDA both do not have requirement on labeling of the products that is why the stamp for the Whole Grain Council is so important. They provide the research and regulations themselves to insure the produce is correctly labeled. What I am trying to get at is that in the example of bread if it is labeled wheat bread it should be one hundred percent wheat bread. Consumers shouldn’t have to go through every product they buy to make sure what is labeled on the package is really in the ingredients.

            The biggest step needed to decrease obesity is to promote a lifestyle of heal. This means communities investing in walking trails, bike paths on roads, and community events. If just riding a bike to work is added to a persons daily routine heal benefits are greatly increased. Community support and interaction is a great base to promote change. AA has used the same ideas for years and seen success. When looking at individual states and overweight and obesity rates, Colorado has the slowest increase and is considered the healthiest. Besides being naturally beautiful Colorado invest large sums of money into these types of projects to promote health. These same ideas and investments need to be made on a large scale for the whole country.

            Many that argue against this ideas presented are arguing on the bases of the troubles it will cause, troubles being cost to research products more, change in labeling, education, and altogether how to fund all this. All products have to be tested and we know what the make up is before it reaches the shelves the labels just need to be changed. For educating the process does not need to be immediate, if we start in schools many kids will become opinionated and influence and educate their families so no added information for adults is needed just a start. Then for funding I know there are plenty of government projects that could be decreased and many other taxpayers would agree this would free up huge sums of money. Along side this many communities have sponsors that are more then willing to help support this ideas.

            Once we are able to inform and educate American’s we can start taking the steps we already have in the forms of activity and nutrition in schools but until then we are just continuing the cycle of malnutrition and obesity in this country. With the education people can start requesting accurate labeling of products and have more control over what is placed and used in our foods. When people see results they become motivated and that is what is need to convince government to support more polices on heal. Only if this is changed can the United States decrease the number of obese and dying citizens.