Fat America
The NY Times has a pretty good article about the “elephant in the room” in the health care reform debate: our food. It’s no secret that America is known as a fat nation, and just by taking a drive down any main street in suburbia, it’s not hard to see why. Apparently three-quarters of health care spending currently goes towards “preventable chronic diseases.” $147 billion to treat obesity. $116 billion to treat diabetes. And hundreds of billions more towards cardiovascular disease and different types of cancer that are most likely a result of our horrible eating habits. But of course, trying to fix this would require a giant restructure of every food outlet in America which seems undoubtedly impossible. It’s hard enough to encourage one person to eat healthier let alone an entire nation. And which fast food giants are going to voluntarily clean up their entire menu, or lower their portion size? I suppose we’ll just have to face the facts. As a relatively young country, America is a melting pot of cultures in which we have seemingly come to adapt the fast food culture as our own. For most Americans, it takes great willpower and strength to opt for a healthy meal. Before I get carried away, you should probably just go check out the article.
