Billions and Billions Served: So what's exactly in this serving?

Imagine your  typical drive to work in the morning, sun shining but probably not as bright as those golden arches.

The smell of autumn pervades the air but is masked by the comfort of the doughy scent seeping into your car from the nearest coffee shop. You pass a sign for a $0.99 breakfast sandwich and immediately think of the instant gratification brought on by the pleasant feeling of crispy bacon, buttery English muffins, and savory sausage settling in your stomach. Sounds a lot tastier and more filling than that $0.99 apple you briefly saw at the local farmer’s market. Yet that’s the way our society functions today.

It’s true, our busy schedules and our plummeting economy drive us to eat quickly and cheaply. Let’s face it, eating organic lean protein, vegetables, whole grains, and fruits drains our pockets. However, put into perspective, the extra money spent on eating healthy may ultimately save us a hefty sum on treatment for diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and not  to mention may save our lives.

Colorado—a state boasting snowy mountain tops soaked in sun, twisting bike trails, and fresh crisp air draws the active fit population into its borders. However, about a month ago, Colorado joined the ranks of the other 49 states who have an obesity rate (yes, a BMI>30, not simply overweight) of over 20%, or one in five people. Sadly, the trend begins in childhood as a Children’s Hospital Boston study tracked over 44,500 newborns and showed that 11.6% were obese by the age of 5 and 16.1% were obese at age 10. If you’re more of a financial thinker than a health nut, know that annual healthcare costs associated with obesity is around $240 BILLION.

So what can we do to slow this epidemic, transform the lives of millions, and create a healthier nation? The first step is to get informed and inform others. With the election on the rise, presidential candidates need to recognize the seriousness of such issues and start publicizing the above statistics because few people realize how much they are harming their body through what they put in their mouth. The good news? Fixing the problem is all in our control. However, we’ve been saying to eat healthy and exercise for years and who has actually listened? I began listening when I found out my insurance company pays for the first $250 of my annual gym fee. How did I know this? I had to ask and that’s the problem. Such incentives need to be more frequent and better represented in the media. Employers have been promoting weight loss programs with cash incentives for quite some time but in order to be effective, they need to become a trend. We need to see tweets about incentives, status updates about the fun had in kickboxing, posts asking friends to go hiking. Trust me, even if your social media outreach did not convince others, it will at least continue to motivate you to continue to live healthy.

We've covered one aspect of the problem, individual determination, but what about general cost? Lower income neighborhoods have higher obesity rates and KFC is always going to be cheaper than wild-raised salmon. The government subsidizes corn yet the price of one avocado at my local grocery store is still $2.50. If politicians took action in curbing the price of eating healthy, perhaps we’d begin to dampen the ever-growing costs of healthcare while also making a difference in the way people feel, look, and perceive their self image from the inside out.




Additional Links/Referenced Material: 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080207163807.htm
http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2011/11/the-myth-of-benign-baby-fat/

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