Recent studies are unveiling startling facts or theories, whichever you prefer, about America. But whether fact or theory, they are no less intimidating or terrifying to think about. One study at Johns Hopkins suggests that 100% of Americans could literally be obese by the year 2048. On the good side, one could theorize that there could be no more anorexia or bulimia as everyone would be obese. But the health problems connected to obesity are just as bad, if not worse, and it will never come to the point of 100% of the population suffering from an eating disorder. But it is plausible for 100% of the population to eventually suffer from obesity.
So where does this idea or fact come from? They calculate it using the rates of obesity and the rise thereof over past years. The rates are quickly accelerating in numbers never seen before in the recorded history of the United States. While we look at rates of the overweight as a serious problem, amounting to 32.7% of the population, the rates of obesity are actually higher at 34%, meaning the overweight and obese combined also make up a majority of the population. One could say that they should rethink the meaning of overweight. Obese essentially is qualified by a certain BMI and fat percentage. But overweight only means someone being over a certain weight for their height. It does not account for higher levels of muscle or other non-fat tissue.
But without question, the rates of obesity are a serious concern. In 1994, statistics showed that 33% of Americans were overweight and only 22.9% of Americans were classified as obese. But when one considers that rates of obesity have basically doubled in the past 15 years alone, that is a scary thought. It means that more people are getting into bad habits, more people are failing to take adequate care of themselves, and it is a quickly spreading epidemic. And moreover, even those who are overweight now eat 523 calories more per day than they did just 30 years ago, leading to higher rates of overweight individuals and higher rates of those who are overweight not because of higher muscle ratios, but because of higher fat ratios.
In short, we eat 63% more fats and oils, 43% more refined grains, and 400% more sugars than we did 30 years ago, meaning we would have to run or walk an extra 50 miles per week to burn off the extra caloric intake as opposed to 30 years ago. And because of these rising rates of obesity, some are estimating that we actually spend $100 billion more on healthcare costs than we did 30 years ago and experiencing higher mortality rates among younger individuals, when we should be spending less due to improved medical innovations. Obesity is quickly becoming an epidemic, or maybe it became an epidemic a long time ago, that needs to be stopped for a number of different reasons, certainly not limited to self esteem and vanity concerns among the general population.