Last Updated Jan 2011
According to just about every recent government statistic or privately funded study, the obesity rate in the United States continues to hover at rates that are alarmingly high. In fact, according to an in-depth report released in June 2010 by the Division of Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, a whopping 33.8% of US adults age 20 or older were considered to be obese during the examination period of 2007-2008. The World Health Organization recently estimated that obesity costs the US over $270 billion a year for obesity-related medical care and lost worker productivity related to obesity.
As a healthcare professional…are you concerned? You should be! You live it every day; many of your patients/clients seek medical treatment as a direct or indirect result of their being overweight or obese. Are you taking the proper steps to address the issue head-on your patients, or turning a blind eye to their issues as it’s easier to treat the immediate problem than what is often the root causes:
· Poor diet: US residents are fortunate to live in a country that, for most of us, has an abundance of available food. However, the choices that people make are often poor ones. Foods high in fat, calories (or “empty calories”), salt, and sugars are often on the menu at home, in the workplace or at our favorite restaurants. As a nation we’ve become accustomed to eating these quick and “tasty” foods, but as a result suffer nutritionally.
· Overeating: Supersizing, mega sodas and “all you can eat” buffets have become a way of life. Many of us feel entitled to treat ourselves to large meals and eat until we’re stuffed, making sure we “get our money’s worth” at the local fast food restaurant. While it may be initially satisfying, we’re paying the price literally and figurative with the damage it does to our bodies.
· Lack of exercise and increasingly sedentary lifestyles. Many US residents today spend the majority of their day sitting in front of electronic equipment; laptops, smart-phones, TVs and computer games. We do it for work, we do it for pleasure. We’ve become a society that would rather play a video game that provides a “virtual workout” than actually going to the gym or, heaven forbid, go for a walk around the block. We fuel our bodies with junk and then do nothing to burn it off.
As a healthcare professional that is on the front lines of dealing with the tremendously damaging effects of weight problems, are you doing anything about it? Do you discuss the root causes of why your patient or client may be experiencing weight-related knee problems or do you treat the knee and leave that discussion to someone else in the healthcare continuum of practice? We’re “eating ourselves to death”…but are we doing anything about it?
Tell us how you address the issue of being overweight with your patients – leave a comment below. We want to hear from you!