![]() Check this one out: Americans consume more than 23 quarts of ice cream and other frozen products a year. ![]() The statistics are eye (and pants button) popping. America has been called “the land of plenty,” but today it should be called “the land of too much.” Portion sizes have ballooned out of control, making it impossible for you to maintain your weight. In 1970, you consumed 2,200 calories a day. These habits are pretty easy to recognize. Obesity is the result of bad habits and behaviors, and if these bad habits can be replaced with good ones, you can get into shape. ![]() Sure, some people have slower metabolisms, and some people have historically overweight families, but don’t expect your metabolism to speed itself up without exercise, and don’t expect to stay thin while eating more food than you need. Be honest with yourself: you need to change. Until we face up to our national weight problem, that percentage-and our waistlines-will keep growing.Īnd please America, don’t “genetics” or “slow metabolism” me. It makes your effort easier and more sustainable. Dieting and weight loss can be isolating, make sure to do it with a friend. The chances are good that someone very close to you is struggling with their weight as well. You have plenty of moral support: 63 percent of adult Americans are overweight. Obesity isn’t the plague you don’t need to deny it or make excuses, it’s really quite common in our culture. Obesity is just like any other problem people deal with-a bad temper, personal debt, selfishness-it can be rationalized and explained away, or it can be recognized and attacked at its root. It doesn’t mean you’re bad people, America, you just need to lose some weight. America, let’s face it: you have a weight problem. No, you’re not just portly, big-boned, large-framed, husky, solid or rotund. The national dialogue on the obesity epidemic is severely lacking, and I thought I needed to bust through the door on this one, not knock on it. This is a subject we do not talk about nearly enough. If people think I’m being mean or unfair, I would disagree, but you certainly have the right to voice your objections in comments. Let me just say that I do not mean to offend. I know my editors know a hell of a lot more about newspapering than I do, but I think the title the piece was given, “America: Don’t Blame the Big Mac”, was trite and a misrepresentation of the real focus of the article: personal accountibilty and behavioral change. The editors decided to change the point of view from second person singular to first person collective, along with additional, slight changes. This is my draft of an opinion piece that ran in this past Thursday’s issue of The Berkeley Beacon-the Emerson’s newspaper.
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