There is undoubtedly something wrong with the way Americans are eating; today over two-thirds of are classified as overweight (Flegal et. al. 2002), and – though I usually detest such factoids – every minute, an American has a fatal heart attack. Though the US is a world leader in wealth, standard of living and education, it is also one of the unhealthiest nations, with an enormous prevalence of degenerative diseases and early death.
What I am exploring is the relationship between our health, especially in relation to our diet, and to our wellbeing. It astounds me that our life expectancy ranks below that of Chile, when our GDP per capita is over 3 times higher (Wikipedia). Is it the decadence of the developed world that leads us to such gluttony, the gap between our own rich and poor, or the failings of our health-care and education systems?
There are several obvious points in this issue; firstly that the primary causes of heart disease and diabetes – the two diseases I will be concentrating on – are inextricably linked to an unhealthy lifestyle, and secondly that the unhealthy lifestyle is one that has (a) a diet high in fat and sugar, and overall calories and (b) has a lack of physical activity (American Heart Association 2006). In my daily life I can recall now the images which epitomize our fulfillment of these factors; drive-thru restaurants, escalators, vending machines in primary schools and our national dishes of hot dogs, burgers and donuts.
Each area of our society is more insalubrious than the previous, and from my own perspective I cannot see it clearly in terms of a rich/poor divide, merely a culture pandemic. The usual theory is that naturally those who are the poorest, will buy the cheapest food, and that this is generally processed and high in saturated fats and sugars, and generally more calories to the dollar, and this makes sense on the surface, but I think there is a more complicated issue.
Many people in my own life who are significantly worse-off than me maintain a healthy diet, and cook a lot of their own food, certainly not gorging themselves on TV dinners every night. One study in Science Daily magazine states that a major contributing factor socioeconomically is the neighborhoods in which people live, even more so than their personal income. The author claims that low-income areas are often a barrier to basic physical activity such as walking or sports, and have no local source of healthy foods, and that this actively affects the ability of those who could be willing and able, to pursue healthier lifestyles.
My own opinion is that the issue at hand is effort, and that it is easy to eat badly if you are unwilling to apply yourself to your food, and would rather microwave or order-fast food, and even easier to avoid physical exercise. However it seems so incredibly irrational to me – practically giving oneself an early-death sentence by avoiding a relatively small amount of exertion, and I would find it hard to comprehend anyone who realizes the reality of the risks and ways around them being this cavalier.
Perhaps people are simply oblivious to the facts about health, lifestyle and the dangers of lethargy and excess, and their excuse is ignorance. It is this explanation which to me makes a lot of sense, and reconciles some of the astounding contradictions in my mind, but alleviating personal responsibility and leaving it at that does not suffice as an answer. The truth is that, even as a developed country with a fantastic education system, we are not teaching our children what they need to know in order to lead healthy lives, and this is an important time in their development in which life-long habits form.
If childhood obesity was cut then it would logically follow that this would follow into the adult population, and that future generations will be less effected due to a proper information program. Catholic Schools have been using the fear of hell to quash the lust of the youth for centuries, and we can take their example – however unpleasant it may seem – with gluttony; children are not hard to scare, and the images of cholesterol-clogged arteries or fat-coated hearts certainly still have an effect on me.