How the government of the United States help stem the obesity epidemic in the US

Thirty-two point two percent of adults in the US are overweight, and about twenty-two percent are obese.

Ogden C, Carroll M, Curtin L, McDowell M, Tabak C, Flegal K. Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity in the United States, JAMA 2006.

This is the approximate phrase given at my little classes at my little University of South Florida St Pete campus, whenever the issue of eating disorders is mentioned. Fellow students, mainly women, want to speak of the horrors of eating disorders, in their eyes anorexia and bulimia. They are fascinated by young girls who stick the fingers down their throats after meals, or those who don’t participate in meals at all. “What an epidemic!!!” they exclaim. “We must do something to help these poor children before they kill themselves, or hurt themselves beyond repair.”

I look at these women, giving their presentations and think what troubles they had in their youths. Were they ostracized by their when while in high school? Did they have the type of eating disorders that they now speak of? Do they still feel fat? Most of the time, I think they have a perfectly fine body. I like big hips, big butts, and big boobs. Of course big is fairly ambiguous, especially since I would like bigger boobs than a bigger butt, I just assume that anyone would picture my preference respectively. I think a lot of men do prefer this body style. In fact, there have been studies to show that the majority of all men in every society prefer a fairly plump lady, with a waist to hip ratio of about point seven.

http://www.exrx.net/FatLoss/AttractiveBody.html.

http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hbe-lab/acrobatfiles/profilewhr.pdf

So why this obsession with loosing that ass?

The presentations catch my interest at this point. The usual suspects are revealed, the media, advertising, peer pressure, these are the evils of our days. The magazines are apparently a big culprit. Women in size twos and zeros, try to figure that last size out, are on every page. Girls at an attractive size ten or twelve are placed in sections labeled, “plus size.” Furthermore, the most popular stores are selling the most popular clothing in the absolute smallest sizes. This is an atrocity!!!

“So we shall start by going to every teenage female’s house within our community! We shall address the situation as outlined within your speech. Let them know that it is ok to be a bit plump, if it weren’t illegal, I’d say that it sexy! Ignore those air brushed magazines, and your toothpick friends. In fact, don’t ignore your toothpick friends, help them. Let us go to their houses right now and cut off their forefingers!! Then we shall force feed them like cattle until they are the same size as you!! Then the feel it, yes, they will all soon succumb to the fingerless imperialism that rebels against Abercrombie and his gay friend and…”

“Kevin, that’s not my point. I don’t want to cut off anyone’s fingers! I just want to make them aware that it can be unhealthy to be as slim as some of those models. We can even petition to stop underweight models in the US as they have done in Italy and Spain!”

“Ms Smith, I don’t mean to interrupt, I just have one question for you… What percent of the US population is underweight?”

“Well professor, I do believe I read in one article that it is toping one point seven percent!”

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/04facts/healthbehaviors.htm

“Yes, and do you know what percent of the US population is overweight?”

“Well, I’m not really sure professor.”

“No? Well there are estimates of around sixty percent. At sixty percent of the population being overweight and about two percent being underweight, which should we really be focusing on?”

“Well, the poor little girls…. I mean, they starve themselves, and they throw up…”

“Yes, but people all around the world are starving and throwing up, aren’t they Stacy? Right now we are discussing a few stupid teenagers who don’t even realize what they have in life, or at least what others do not. It would seem that at sixty percent of the nation being overweight, we should be focusing on obesity. Now… who’s presenting next.”

KevinRb