You know, my lovely wife, Sherrie, made a great observation this morning. It was another one of those don’t-attack-the-working-class-by-taxing-out-sugary-beverages commercials. Says Sherrie “What? So it was ok when tobacco was the big baddie, but it’s not so funny when it’s your Coca Cola?” And she’s totally right. Much like tobacco in the very earliest days of of the anti smoking campaigns, the culture around drinking sodas hasn’t shifted yet. In 5, maybe 10 years it will though. We know sodas are linked to obesity and all kinds of associated diseases. But like most truths, it’s still in the transition from an intellectual understanding to real acceptance. What would you do if Katie Couric or Brian Williams lit up a Camel on the nightly news? Edward R Murrow did it all the time. But it was accepted then. These days we see Coke, Pepsi & Snapple advertisements everywhere. With as much sugar as 6 fudgecicles, I wonder how long it’s going to take for people to fight for an R rating on all movies that show Snapple Iced Tea consumption like they’re doing with cigarettes now? How long until the average joe out there starts to understand that getting your kids started on soda at a young enough age that they’re effectively hooked for the rest of their lives isn’t all that much difference from a health point of view than giving them their first smoke? How long before we get over it, start taxing the foods and beverages that are killing us get them out of our kitchens?
Archive for the ‘childhood obesity’ Category
A Word on the Soda Tax
Sunday, May 2nd, 2010Resolve Nothing
Tuesday, December 30th, 2008It’s a new year, a new start, a new me. I resolve to give up chocolate, stop eating before bed, cut back on my drinking, run 3 miles every morning, go to the gym 5 times a week, join a yoga class….
Junk.
This New Year’s, don’t resolve to give up sweets and hit the gym every day. I know, it’s not very trainer-ly of me is it? I like challenging people. Maybe I’m just a challenging kind of guy, but you know what? I know you’re better than that, so I’m challenging you again. Resolve nothing. Start 2009 resolution free.
Resolutions are like low carb, no carb, raw food, all natural, grapefruit only, or any other hair brained diet out there. They fail you. After your hard work, determination & energy, they fail you, rob you of your momentum and stick you right back where you started with an extra 5lbs to boot. Don’t do it to yourself. They failed you once. Then they failed you again a year later. So don’t waste your time. That’s insane. They’ll do it again.
Instead, try this. Make the next best decision for your health and fitness. That’s it. Just the next one. Maybe you just say “no” tonight when the waiter asks if you’d like fries with that. Maybe you choose to take the stairs to your fourth floor pad after work instead of the elevator. Maybe you choose the red wine instead of the vodka mixer. Maybe you pick up the whole wheat pasta at the market instead of the regular stuff. Small things. One at a time.
Make the next best decision for your health and fitness. It’s not a high pressure do or die resolution daring you to fail. It’s one choice at a time. Broke down and ordered the fries? That’s ok. You’re fine. Just make a better decision for yourself next time. Little choices throughout your day…Maybe it starts as just one decision in a day. Fantastic! You did it. You made a good decision for yourself. You made a start. The next time you do it, it gets a little easier. Then it gets a little easier the time after that. Before you realize it, it becomes a lifestyle.
Congratulations. You just lost that last 5lbs.
Above all else, have a happy, healthy and safe New Year’s!
On a serious note
Saturday, December 13th, 2008Understanding how it is one of the most devastating things anyone could ever have introduced into their lives, I am almost never comfortable when any one of the various ills of our world are described by our leaders, media personalities and spiritual leaders “a cancer.” Cancer is a devouring of the human body by a tumor so ravenous, so malignant that is can only be stopped by the introduction of toxins that attack both disease and patient, breaking the body down in every system, in every function to the point that the cure begins to resemble some of our world’s most notorious illnesses. Apologies, but I just don’t see talking on a blue tooth headset in public the same way.
There is one case in which I do not disagree with the application of “a cancer” as a label. In fact, I feel as though it is rather appropriate. There is one thing that is eating our population at an alarming rate. It is literally eating away our bodies, our friends, family and children. Attacking our hearts, our joints, our arteries, our livers. It attacks us economically. It attacks us socially. It attacks us emotionally. Right now it will be a significant contributor to the over $4 trillion we’ll spend on healthcare in 2016 alone. We would watch as our family & friends die around us at ever decreasing ages. The longer it grows, the more the treatment will cost, economically and in lives taken.
We educate. We legislate. But it isn’t enough. At this rate our reaction is akin to taking a garden hose to the great Chicago fire of 1871. We are allowing the “cancer” to win. As reported by the CDC, the slideshow below shows the actual spread of obesity in America since 1985.
It even looks like a cancerous growth doesn’t it.
I’m not going to belabor the point. Simply put
Right now 2 out of 3 people in the room are overweight or obese. By 2030, 3 out of 4.
Right now 1 out of 3 children are in the same boat.
Obese 12 year olds show the vascular health of a 45 year old individual. Their bodies ages 33 years ahead of their chronological age.
For every 2.2lbs of fat a child puts on, their body must generate 2 miles of veins and arteries to support that tissue. Think how much harder that 12 year old’s heart has to work…just to feed the fat.
Obesity leads to:
Diabetes
Heart disease
Stroke
Arthritis
Gall Bladder Infection
and yes…cancer.
Take a stand and make a change today.