| |
If "you are what you eat", then Americans
are living large - and looking the part because of it. The following
facts may partially explain the increase in obesity:
1) On a typical day, more than 40 percent of adults will
eat out at a restaurant.
2) Restaurant sales are projected to exceed $440 billion in
2004.
3) 25% of the vegetables eaten in the U.S. are French Fries.
4) Fast-food spending by consumers has increased 18-fold since
1970.
5) A typical hamburger in 1957 weighed one ounce and contained
210 calories. Today, it's six ounces and packed with 618 calories.
Conversely, our daily exercise has diminished:
1) 44 percent of Americans say it is hard to
walk anywhere from their home.
2) Americans run only 25 percent of errands by foot, a drop
of 42 percent in the past 20 years.
3) Two-thirds of all trips are less than a mile from home.
|
|
The
following are a few facts about the health consequences of the alarming
obesity epidemic:
1) It contributes to more than
300,000 deaths annually in the United States.
2) Losing weight could
prevent one in six cancer deaths annually.
3) Excess weight could
account for 14 percent of all cancer deaths in men and 20
percent in women.
4) It causes more medical
problems and poorer health-related quality of life than smoking,
alcoholism and poverty.
For more details about the health
risks of obesity, click here.
|
|
