America has a significant weight problem. According to healthline.com, "In the United States 36.5 percent of adults are obese. Another 32.5 percent of American adults are overweight." That is a staggering statistic, and one that is readily easy to see, when we simply look around at our fellow Americans. It would be thing if all of this weight gain was strictly cosmetic, that is to say, that though Americans were heavier, they were still essentially healthy. Unfortunately, that isn't true as those that carry a lot of excess weight most definitely suffer the woes of such, by thereby suffering far more frequently from diabetes and heart disease, which is a major contributing factor to increased healthcare expenditures as well as the shortening of people's lives and in particular, the quality of such.
What has changed in America is that Americans overall, eat far more sugar based products and highly processed foods then they ever have in the history of America. These particular foods are typically convenient, competitively price, and often taste good. The fundamental problem with these foods, however, is the fact that the body treats these less dense calories far differently than it does for those that ingest meats, fruits, and vegetables, and the like, so that processed foods, are basically too easily digested and thereby leaves the eater of such, feeling far less satiated, then eating whole foods that contain fiber, and thus slows down the digestion and metabolism of such.
While America could spend a lot of time and effort, trying to educate the public about the dangers of sugars and highly processed food, another way to address this very real problem is to place a national excise tax upon those foods that are highly processed so as to raise their cost to the consumer; while, on the other hand, subsidizing foods that are more wholesome, by providing a tax subsidy to them, thereby making foods that are better for the body, more competitive in price.
Another very important avenue to address this very real problem is the recognition that good habits that are developed at an early age can be beneficial for changing bad eating habits into much better ones. So that, in consideration that schoolnutrition.org, states that "Nearly 100,000 schools/institutions serve school lunches to 29.8 million students each day," it is thereby incumbent upon the government as the provider of these educational facilities, to not be contributing to the problem of obesity, but rather instead being pro-active and thereby becoming part of making the diet of our American children, better, by not providing highly processed foods as an option for school lunches or for breakfast.
The bodies of Americans are getting fatter, not really because Americans don't walk as much as they use to, or have more sedentary activities, in general, but rather it comes down to the salient fact that Americans consume more calories than their body needs to on a given day, and by doing this day in and day out, they pick up weight. Not too surprisingly, the food that we eat, good or bad, will be reflected in the bodies and the weight of those bodies that we have, in which, based upon the fact that never have so many been so overweight or obese, America needs to make a concerted effort to right the ship, for in truth, this weight gain, and thereby the poor health that accompanies such, is a very real health crisis.