national “junk food tax,” similar to cigarette and alcohol taxes. Such a measure would not only even out the playing field, says Dr. Margo Wootan, D.Sc., and obesity expert formerly with the Center for Science in the Public Interest, but the money generated by the tax could be spent on campaigns to promote healthy eating and exercise programs.
“People have thought about nutrition and physical activity as purely a matter of personal responsibility for a long time,” says Wootan. But now that obesity has reached epidemic levels in the United States, she says, it’s clearer than ever that we’re not dealing with a few individuals’ lack of willpower or laziness. “Unless the U.S. government starts treating the nation’s poor eating and exercise habits as a public health issue,” Wootan says, “the problem will only continue to get worse.”
Health, not vanity
Diabetes, obesity, and smoking are collectively responsible for more than 1 million deaths a year in the United States. Additionally, American Cancer Society researchers say that poor nutrition, physical inactivity and obesity account for about one-third of all cancer deaths in this country.
Despite the increase in obesity, a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine noted that only 42 percent of overweight adults said that they had been told by their doctors or healthcare workers to lose weight. That’s the reason health officials at the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommend that doctors assess patients to determine their BMI. If they’re obese, they should make weight loss counseling part of their talks.
There are also an increasing number of state initiatives across the country to address the obesity epidemic. California has led the way with the toughest school nutrition reforms, requirements of restaurant chains to post calorie information, and the adoption of the first physical education standards in the country.
Hennings, for her part, believes we’d all be better off if we threw our TVs out the window, or at least scaled back on the couch-surfing. “I know plenty of people who see nothing wrong with coming home from work at a desk job and going straight to the couch where they sit until it’s time for bed,” she says. “I think there would be fewer overweight people out there if they would just turn off their televisions and find something else to do.”