The Obesity Explosion

I went to the hospital today. I needed a pre-op meeting for my upcoming prostate operation. As I sat in the waiting room I was surrounded by people who were either overweight (BMI >25) or obese (BMI >30). I felt like such a skinny twerp sitting there.

Then on came the hospital staff. Fully half of them were also either overweight or obese. Fortunately, the other half of the staff seemed to be able to control their weight. They were mostly the young ones. May they persevere in their good habits.

Pondering this, I felt so sorry for the surgeons who would have to operate on these people. This surely must make their work more difficult – and more disagreeable.

As noted in another blog article, all of this foretells an oncoming health services disaster – maybe even a total societal collapse, unless the growing obesity epidemic is brought under control.

Obesity is the new “smoking”. Remember the all-out campaign against smoking? It involved education, public pressure by non-smoking laws and economic costs such as higher cigarette taxes and higher insurance rates for smokers.

An all-out campaign is now needed on obesity. It should be tackled on all fronts. When/if this happens I can almost hear the shouts of resistance. “Prejudice against the weighty!” “Human rights abuses against heavy people!” “Stop the discrimination against fat people!”

However, finally we will have to decide. Are we willing to offend some people in order that society can survive? If not, then we should all get ready for a major crisis in health services.

p.s. What to do about the obesity explosion? Yes, it is caused by eating too much of the wrong kind of food. Yes, it is because of our lack of exercise as we stare at our computer screens too much. But more basically it is because of our wrong mental attitude. If a major crisis were to hit us all now, we would scramble to survive and we would all lose weight. Therefor we have the capacity to physically lose weight. Where is a manufactured crisis to get us off of our buts when we need one?

As an example of what has happened in the past, consider Cuba. When the USSR collapsed in the 1990s, Cuba, which had been heavily dependent on Russia, went through a time that they have called the special period (periodo especial). Soviet assistance disappeared. As a result, transport became very difficult and bicycle transport and walking flourished. Food became very scarce. It was generally a very rough time. During this period the weight of the average Cuban dropped by 20 pounds. I have talked with Cubans about this and they have warned me that it was a wretched time which they would not like to repeat.

So the challenge for us as we face impending disasters, both environmental and that of an obesity epidemic, is which would we prefer? A gradual, disciplined change in our established patterns of behaviour? Or would we prefer to wait for a disaster to force us to change?