HOW SHALL WE DIE: SWINE FLU OR SWINE SHAPE?

The news announcement got my attention.  It should have gotten everyone's attention, particularly the Obama administration people responsible for monitoring the nation's physical health.  We are one of the fattest nation's on the earth!

I suppose I shouldn't throw in the Obama administration that way.  For all I know they are aware of the statistics and doing all they can.  The problem is, I don't know.  I'm not hearing much out of Washington except some hand-wringing about the numbers.  Where are the Republicans on this matter?  Let's hear their proposal for dealing with the nation's blubber butts and pot bellies.

Here are some of the numbers, in case you missed them:

• 43 percent of Americans will be obese by 2018 (That's awfully close to half, folks.)
  
• 10 percent of people who are classified medically as obese believe they have a healthy body size and do not need to lose weight (Don't they ever get naked in front of a mirror?)
  
• 32 percent of kids and teens from 6 to 19 years of age are overweight and 17 percent are obese.

You don't have to wait until 2018 to see how fat we have become.  Just go to Walmart's on Saturday, come to Florida (it's got to be the fat capital of the world), go to any flea market,  visit Sonny's BBQ, Golden Corral, a Chinese buffet or most any restaurant you can name and you will see first hand some really super sizes waddling around.  Some fat people I suspect go to Walmart's on Saturday just so they can feel good standing next to the obese people there.

It's not fair to pick on Walmart's.  They are not the cause of the problem.  We are!

We eat too much.  We eat too much of the wrong foods.  We have too much soda, ice cream, snack chips and other junk around the house in easy reach.

And we do not exercise enough.  We will sign up for exercise class and then drive over someone to park as close as possible to the front door of the exercise room.  We will drive around and around the parking lot waiting to find a parking space right up near the entrance to the store we plan to shop.  And then we will come out, start the car and drive a half block to the next store in the mall.  In every way possible, we avoid getting off our fat butts and moving.

Here are some suggestions:

• In the 1960s, President Kennedy created the President's Council on Physical Fitness.  The president publicly encouraged physical fitness and the council published a book of age-appropriate exercises for adults and children.  We need that again.
• Park at the far end of the parking lot from any store entrance and walk that 100 yards or so.  Do that every shopping trip and you will add miles to your shoes over the next year.  Strive for 10,000 steps a day.
• Get the junk food snacks out of your kitchen cabinets, if you and your kids cannot otherwise control your cravings.  If it's not there you won't eat it.  If you want it bad enough, get up, make it or bake it yourself, or do without.
• Let's have enabling legislation that allows insurance companies to hike the rates (health or life insurance) on overweight people.  Overweight people already cost companies millions each year in missed days work, excessive health care costs and physical accommodations for their "plus" sizes, and they put a strain (literally) on our medical facilities.  Let's start charging overweight individuals and maybe if they have less money (because of higher insurance premiums) they will eat less.
• Let's stop making fools of ourselves by making a fuss when our porky-sized child cannot get the swine-flu vaccine.  Deal with the health problem you can see, Mom, and stop harassing health officials over the one you worry about.
• If you or your kids have emotional issues or self-esteem issues, then get help for the problem.  Don't avoid the issue by eating and creating a physical condition that adds to the problem.  Eating is not a cure!
• And, let's stop making excuses.  We are out of shape, physically.  We are fat and getting fatter.  Just look around.  We created the flabby mess we are in and it's up to us to change it.
  

And by the way, it's not just the kids.  I don't mean to pick on them except to remind you that if they start their young lives overweight, they will likely continue to be overweight, even obese, in adulthood.  The really fat people I see are the ones that are really obvious because of their size ... the adults in Florida and elsewhere.