Killing Us Sweetly: Conservatives’ role in the growing burden of American obesity [View all]

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from In These Times:



Killing Us Sweetly
Conservatives’ role in the growing burden of American obesity.

BY Theo Anderson


Conservatives interested in defining and defending American exceptionalism should really love our waistlines. The United States may not lead the world in much anymore, but its citizens are easily among the fattest in the industrialized world. And there is no end in sight to our growing size. Our political system, paralyzed by a lethal combination of conservative dogma and corporate interests, is completely unprepared to face the realities underlying America’s obesity epidemic.

One-third of the country’s adults were classified as obese in 2010. That’s double the adult obesity rate in 1980. The state with the highest overall obesity rate in 1995 was Mississippi. Its rate at the time–19 percent–would now be the lowest in the nation. Mississippi’s obesity rate remains America’s highest, at more than 34 percent, while Colorado has the lowest rate, at 20 percent.

Those numbers will almost certainly continue to rise, and it’s plausible that half of America’s adult population will be obese within the next two to three decades.

The medical costs related to obesity are enormous, because it’s closely linked with diabetes–a chronic disease requiring costly, long-term treatment. In 1995, only four states had a diabetes rate above 6 percent. But as rates of obesity have soared, so has the incidence of diabetes. All but eight states now have a diabetes rate above 7 percent. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/12286/killing_us_sweetly