The Battle of the Bulge(lol)

Japans battle of the bulge

So I came across this article on Yahoo today, referring to Japans plan to battle obesity and Health Care costs regarding being overweight. Now I don't agree that they should be using a standard waist size, being that people, even the Japanese, come in every shape and size, and what is unhealthy for one individual, may be perfectly fine for another. But that is neither here nor there, because its about time a country took an interest in its citizens health, especially its weight. Something people here in America would definitely do to acknowledge.

Over the last decades, America has gotten fatter. Not just fatter, but obese. Now I have no real quarrel with people living their life in whatever way the deem correct, but to force their children to be overweight, even by failing to lead by example, is a tragedy. Why a person would want to be overweight is beyond me, since it limits your energy, ability to go out and do activities, especially with your children, who need as much physical activity as possible during their "formative years". Enforcing a physical fitness regime for all of its citizens would be one way to address this problem, another way would be to deliberately overstate the effects of obesity to "scare" kids and young adults into wanting to be fit. Now by fit I don't mean skin and bones. I'm talking healthy weights for children and adults, not the Media hyped version of skinny people with no muscle tone and sometimes not even much muscle.

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With those numbers in mind, how can we not be vigilant on the obesity front. We can't simply ignore it and hope it will go away. We need to start educating everyone now on the dangers of letting it go(so to speak). One cause might be the types and varieties of food we eat, with fatty foods being available on almost every city street, health foods cost more, since they are scarcer, and people don't always have the time to eat right, especially when raising kids are involved. But that doesn't mean that we should just give up. We should be teaching kids about eating healthy and staying active as soon as they can understand it. That means elementary school health classes, teaching physical fitness at the earliest possible time. It would also mean increased penalties for Schools and or parents who underachieve in fitness. We should be leaving no child behind on the battle of fitness vs. laziness.

Essentially I am saying we need some legislation to battle this. Along with requiring schools to start at a much earlier age, we should not allow it to stop. There is no reason for one area to have different requirements for Physical fitness classes. When I moved to Nebraska to finish High School, they required only 1 1/2 years PE, instead of the 3 years required in some California schools. Additionally the health Classes offered usually refers to either Sex Education, or basic overview of the human body. What should also be covered are essential eating habits, addressing psychological issues( what we refer to as baggage so often) that can cause a person to not care about their future or health, and giving tips for young adults to (to borrow Kaiser's motto) thrive.

Now all of this might seem that I have some prejudice towards obese or overweight people. This couldn't be more wrong. Most of my extended family is overweight if not right out obese, I grew up thinking of course( since this is a rationalizers motto) that everyone was the size they were supposed to be, that to contemplate them being in shape was just unheard of. Now I realize that it not only jeopardizes your future, but costs so much more to live. A person who intakes in excess of 5000 calories a day, regardless of their metabolism, will put on weight, but will spend a fortune on food, clothes( which cost more due increased material), mpg in your car, even how much you will pay for a plane ticket in the future( yes this was just announced recently with the cost of gas going up, airlines are looking for ways to pass on the buck). And that is just the monetary costs of overeating or obesity. The physical implications have been expounded over and over, and are still be studied. To name a few: hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high cholesterol, etc etc. The list is continually getting bigger and bigger, while more and more you see people rationalizing away the danger to their life and their children's lives.

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So lets all take a second to think on what we could do to prevent this problem being passed on to our children, like the current generation is doing on Gas and Energy issues.