It’s a growing problem: the rounding of America. 57%+ of our children are on track to be obese by age 35:
More than 57 percent of children in the United States will be obese by age 35 if current trends in weight gain and poor eating habits continue, researchers warned Wednesday.
The risk of obesity is high even among children whose present weight is normal, said the report in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Only those children with a current healthy weight have less than a 50 percent chance of becoming obese by the age of 35 years,” said the study, led by researchers at Harvard University.
Some 36.5 percent of the US adult population is now considered obese, a condition federal health officials define as having a body mass index of 30 or higher.
This future prediction mirrors existing adult trends, with over 70% of our population either just overweight or outright obese. If 57% of the next-gen adults are in the later category, how many will fall into the former? What’s the overall chart going to look like? 80%? 95? All of ’em??
A seemingly unrelated story about a lobster might explain part of the trouble. Might. The Pepsi part, maybe:
“I’m a Pepsi fan 100 per cent. I drink one cup of coffee in the morning and then Pepsi all day. On average it would be about 12 cans.”
12 cans. That’s like 2,000 calories and a month’s worth of sugar. Working on a lobster boat might help burn it. Sitting by the TeeVee or the Xbox will not.
Get up. Move. Exercise. Eat responsibly. Not that hard.
Or, if things, health wise, go south, then go South – to Mexico:
My son had an attack of appendicitis late Saturday night. I knew that the Obamacare inflated prices for surgery in the U.S. would be ridiculous and that the service would likely be impersonal, involve long waits, and be nerve-wracking. I have friends in the medical field so I inquired just for grins. The price for the latest routine appendectomy in my area was, my jaw dropped, $43,000. I read on-line that the average cost for an appendectomy in the U.S. is $33,000. I am not near some of the great direct-pay medical facilities in the U.S. like the Surgery Center of Oklahoma, but I am near Mexico. I chose that option since I have often utilized foreign medical and dental facilities in the past and find the service and prices to be outstanding.
The main first rate hospitals in this part of Arizona are run by the Catholic Church. They, of course, operate under the constraints of Obamacare and other onerous U.S. rules and can’t offer pure free-market rates. So, they are pricey along with all the others.
I opted for the nearby private Catholic hospital in Mexico driving past a Catholic hospital in the U.S. en route. I also drove past the state run socialist hospital in Mexico which of course has deplorable service and doesn’t serve Americans anyway. Most of the private hospitals in Mexico have great service, modern equipment and procedures, and affordable prices. You can actually have extensive conversations with surgeons and the rest of the medical staff. They are very patient, respectful, and understanding. We arrived on a Sunday morning. This counted as an emergency after-hours visit. The fees listed below are higher because of the Sunday call-out for surgical personnel and the extra fee for the emergency room doctor that could have been avoided if I had come during normal business hours.
$43,000 in the US, or $3,000 in Mexico – in a modern, efficient Mexico. Medically efficient, that is; they must be getting the government and insurance rackets wrong with prices like that. Something to work towards, amigos.
Think of the children, especially if you don’t live near the border. The roly-poly, not-so-little children…
Also think of that poor, delicious lobster. I wonder if you could successfully add Pepsi to the butter?
Hey! Hey! Hey! It’s fat lobster! Fat Albert/Bill Cosby.
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