Conquering obesity improves lives
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I’ve written many times that we are the fattest society the world has ever seen, and we are getting fatter year by year, and at a faster rate. We lead the world in obesity, but, unfortunately, many parts of the world seem determined to catch us.
The World Health Organization projects that from 2005 to 2015, the incidence of overweight adults worldwide will increase from 1.6 billion to 2.3 billion, and the incidence of obesity will increase from 300 million to 700 million. These trends, if ignored, foreshadow severe implications for the future, both human and economic.
The human cost in terms of compromised and ruined lives from chronic diseases like heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes is obvious.
What about the economic cost? Let’s consider just one small element of the big picture: the cost of drugs to treat type 2 diabetes, a condition closely tied to obesity. Projections are that over the next decade, drug costs for treatment of diabetes in the United States will escalate from $18 billion to possibly as high as $25 billion.
Looks bleak, but what if we tried to turn things around? A recent research study suggests that by cutting back modestly in caloric intake, we could reduce the incidence of obesity in the United States substantially.
A reduction of just 100 calories per day per adult over the next four years would pay big dividends. Here’s the math: 100 calories per day times 365 days times four years equals 146,000 saved calories. At 3,500 calories per pound of stored body fat, this equates to 146,000 divided by 3,500 equals 41.7 pounds of lost fat. That amount of fat loss was estimated to cut our incidence of overweight and obesity nearly in half.
But that’s only part of the story. This reduction in body fatness was projected to lead to 1.7 million fewer diagnoses of heart disease, 1.5 million fewer diagnoses of type 2 diabetes and a savings of $58 billion in health care costs.
Finland shows the way
I remember when I was a graduate student back in the 1970s and in classes we discussed the remarkably high incidence of heart attacks in Finland. At fault were the usual suspects — a horrible diet loaded with fatty dairy products, a high rate of obesity and too much smoking.
Tiring of their reputation as the heart attack leader of the world, Finland decided to do something about it. The country initiated a huge campaign to educate the public about the dangers of an unhealthy lifestyle, how it contributes to heart disease and how to change it.
In addition, there was productive activity associated with the campaign. Competitions were organized among communities to see which could boast the most pounds lost, the greatest reductions in the waistline and in cholesterol, etc.
The result was many noteworthy changes, led by a huge decrease in obesity. In turn, this has translated in 30 years into — get this — a reduction in heart attack deaths among those 20 to 65 years of age by a whopping 80 percent, and a remarkable 10-year increase in the average lifespan.
When examining the astounding turnaround seen in Finland, can there be any doubt that a change in lifestyle makes a difference? The answer is so obvious it would be laughable if the stakes weren’t so high.
The bottom line
The powers that be want to overhaul our health care system. At first, there was talk of the need for increased individual responsibility for one’s state of health and the importance of healthy lifestyle practices, and for a brief while I was mildly optimistic. Unfortunately, the agenda soon shifted to health care’s big-business interests.
Common sense tells us clearly where the problem is and how to fix it. Just ask the Finns.
Bryant Stamford is professor and chairman of the department of exercise science at Hanover College. To contact him, go to his Web site, professorstamford.com. Or write to “The Body Shop,” The Courier-Journal, P.O. Box 740031, Louisville, KY 40201-7431.
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