Despite the proliferation of health clubs, a constant marketing barrage for diets and home exercise equipment and an exploding array of low-calorie foods and drinks, Americans are putting on the pounds.
According to a recent Harris poll, nearly three-quarters of all Americans are overweight, with the proportion of overweight people increasing with age. The national survey found that 71 percent of Americans aged 25 or older are overweight. That compares with 69 percent last year; 64 percent in 1990, and 58 percent in 1983.It was found that 10 percent of Americans are at least 30 percent overweight, another 12 percent 20 to 30 percent overweight. That puts them in the obese category.
And more men than women, 79 percent to 64 percent, are overweight.
The poll's findings are disturbing because of the health risks associated with excess weight. These can include heart disease, stroke and some cancers. The cost in terms of illness and suffering, even death, to individuals is enormous. So is the financial cost of caring for victims of these illnesses.
It seems that the message of healthy lifestyles simply isn't getting through to a majority of Americans. Perhaps many people are put off by the bombardment of exhortations to eat right, drink right, and exercise in order to emulate the perfect-smile-in-a-perfect-face models on TV. We rationalize that if we can't look like Christie Brinkley or Tom Cruise - and, of course, we can't - why bother?
Possibly the pace of life, the stresses affecting American families militate against weight control. The temptation to eat on the run or out of a packet or to tune out after a hard day by tuning in the television set and vegging out on the couch can be too great to resist. That's understandable, but not acceptable.
The ill effects and health-care costs of having three out of four Americans overweight mandates renewed efforts to promote improvements in diets and lifestyles. People can't be forced onto stationary bicycles or into aerobic classes or made to eat fruit, vegetables, and high-fiber, low-fat foods, but they can be made to understand the dangers of high-fat, low-exercise lives.