By Michelle Letriz
You can walk anywhere and everywhere and find almost everyone busy eating or in a drive thru, waiting for a quick meal. In today’s age we have come to a point where everything is instant. For example, the movie Wall-E perfectly portrays our future as the generation of immediate responses and morbid obesity. That poses the question of,” What is wrong with the average American diet?”
In the 1950’s about 9.7% of Americans were clinically obese. Those numbers changed in the beginning of the 70’s to 11.3% and an additional 3.1% by the end of the decade.
In 2012, the number of people who were clinically obese was approximately 26.2% of Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those numbers have also increased to about 68% of all Americans that are considered obese.
Comparing that to the measly 9.7% of Americans in the 70’s, should show you that something in our eating habits has drastically changed in the past 40 years.
In the past, the average American family was more likely to sit down for a home cooked meal of pot roast and mashed potatoes than to go out and eat some processed who-knows-what type of meat and greasy potato slices for dinner. On average, a family from the 60’s was only consuming about 1,800 calories compared to the whopping 2,640 calories we consume now.
In 1979, the obesity rates were not only affecting the adults, but were now slowly falling upon the kids. This shouldn’t be effecting the kids if they are out and about running around parks playing with their neighbors like they did back when they weren’t glued to their gaming systems.
During that time period technology was slowly rising and kids were finding themselves drawn towards staying home rather than making the effort to go outside and exercise.
Comparing the percentages of then and now may not change anything, but it will make this everyday struggle better known. The fight to get our health back up to par has been going on for way too long and it’s up to us to make a difference. Let’s revert back to those times when instead of sitting at home watching Netflix or on Facebook for an unreasonable amount of time, we take the opportunity to go outside and walk around, enjoying the day for what it is; the perfect chance to slowly get our life back. Obesity isn’t a joke. It’s not something you can take lightly because the epidemic is not only affecting one type of person now. It’s affecting everyone. Take control of your life before its too late. Start the revolution.
Photo Courtesy of: wordpress.com
You can walk anywhere and everywhere and find almost everyone busy eating or in a drive thru, waiting for a quick meal. In today’s age we have come to a point where everything is instant. For example, the movie Wall-E perfectly portrays our future as the generation of immediate responses and morbid obesity. That poses the question of,” What is wrong with the average American diet?”
In the 1950’s about 9.7% of Americans were clinically obese. Those numbers changed in the beginning of the 70’s to 11.3% and an additional 3.1% by the end of the decade.
In 2012, the number of people who were clinically obese was approximately 26.2% of Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, those numbers have also increased to about 68% of all Americans that are considered obese.
Comparing that to the measly 9.7% of Americans in the 70’s, should show you that something in our eating habits has drastically changed in the past 40 years.
In the past, the average American family was more likely to sit down for a home cooked meal of pot roast and mashed potatoes than to go out and eat some processed who-knows-what type of meat and greasy potato slices for dinner. On average, a family from the 60’s was only consuming about 1,800 calories compared to the whopping 2,640 calories we consume now.
In 1979, the obesity rates were not only affecting the adults, but were now slowly falling upon the kids. This shouldn’t be effecting the kids if they are out and about running around parks playing with their neighbors like they did back when they weren’t glued to their gaming systems.
During that time period technology was slowly rising and kids were finding themselves drawn towards staying home rather than making the effort to go outside and exercise.
Comparing the percentages of then and now may not change anything, but it will make this everyday struggle better known. The fight to get our health back up to par has been going on for way too long and it’s up to us to make a difference. Let’s revert back to those times when instead of sitting at home watching Netflix or on Facebook for an unreasonable amount of time, we take the opportunity to go outside and walk around, enjoying the day for what it is; the perfect chance to slowly get our life back. Obesity isn’t a joke. It’s not something you can take lightly because the epidemic is not only affecting one type of person now. It’s affecting everyone. Take control of your life before its too late. Start the revolution.
Photo Courtesy of: wordpress.com