Weight loss is on the minds of a large portion of Americans. Americans in general are eating too much. Americans in general enjoy junk food too much. Americans in general have a misconstrued view of what a portion size should be.
Due to these little misconceptions and unhealthy
eating preferences…many Americans are overweight and even obese. When you think of Italy you think of pasta. When you think of French you think of a variety of cheese. When you think of Germans you think of beer and bratwurst. What do you think of when you think of America? The answer used to be apple pie. But down home desserts aren’t the major American calling card anymore. McDonalds is what comes to mind for most people trying to identify the eating preferences of Americans. Americans are being defined by their love of fast food.
The convenience of fast food is undeniable. But there aren’t really any other advantages when it comes to the fast food industry. Even after years of negative attention focusing on the “unhealthy” state of the fast food industry…the healthy options are still minimal at best.
Weight loss diet statistics offered by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Source: Health, United States, 2009, Table 67) make the problem clear:
- 67% of not institutionalized adults are overweight or obese
- 34% of these adults are obese
- 18% of teenagers between 12 and 19 are overweight
- 15% of kids are overweight (aged 6 to 11)
- 11% of 2 to 5 year olds are overweight
It’s hard to argue with this kind of weight loss diet statistics. They really bring home the severity of the problem. The sheer wide spread nature of the issue is something that should draw a lot of attention from experts. While experts continue to study the cause and effect of being overweight or obese the basic situation can be easily defined. Too many people need to lose weight. Being unable to lose weight results in negative health. Individuals who need to lose weight need to access drastic weight loss through safe methods of weight loss.
