There are certain similarities about the warming of the planet and the fattening of those who inhabit it. People with IQs above room temperature have been aware of the trends for the last 25 years and yet only recently have these problems seemed able to permeate the brains of politicians and the media moguls. It’s as though someone threw a switch and suddenly every politician has a green agenda and every newspaper, magazine and talk show has discovered obesity. There is much hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth about our overweight children, diabetic adults and the social and health costs that go along with the bloated bodies. There are also dire warnings of how much real estate will be submerged as the polar icecaps melt.
Awareness has arrived and we are beginning to respond, but there has been a lot of momentum in the wrong direction and it’s like trying to turn a supertanker around with a couple of ski-boats pulling the other way. Progress is like the story of the elk hunters who were flown into a remote lake in Canada. The pilot dropped them off and said he’d be back in 3 days and would be able to carry 2 elk, no more. The pilot returns at the appointed time to find the hunters have 4 elk ready to load. He tells them that the limit is 2, but they are persuasive and say that previous pilots allowed them to take 4 elk. So the elk are loaded, the plane skims across the lake, barely lifts off, hits some trees and subsides into the forest. One hunter looks at the other and says, “Where are we?” His colleague replies, “About 200 meters farther than last year.”
The story reflects our progress in countering global warming and obesity. We get a tax break for a Prius, erect a bunch of windmills and start talking about ‘carbon footprints’; but meanwhile our friends in China are building 100 new 500 megawatt coal-fired plants every year. Each plant will throw off 3.7 million tons of carbon dioxide, which makes changing a few light bulbs seem insignificant. Perhaps the only positive spin we can put on global warming is that it can only be tackled by a global response. Rising waters do not respect national boundaries, religious affiliations or massive weaponry, so the threat of submersion just might be enough to unify all nations in an effort to survive.
The obesity problem is somewhat more manageable, because while the culture might favor fast food, sofas and screens, individuals and groups can take charge of their own destiny. The CDC (Centre for Disease Control) Obesity Maps tell the North American story better than any words. In an earlier edition of ‘Well’, I showed the obesity progression from 1985 – 2003, in 2004 and 2005 things went from bad to worse with an increasing number of states showing more than 30% of their population obese. In the words of Dr. William Dietz of the Centre for Disease Control, “A rise of this magnitude in unique in the annals of chronic disease.”
Canadians are fattening up along with Americans. In a recent report to the House of Commons titled “Healthy Weights for Healthy Children”, it was noted that between 1978 to 2006 the number of overweight and obese children between the ages of 2 and 17 more than doubled, going from 12% in 1978 to 26% in 2004. The bar graph illustrates what’s happening to the children of ‘The True North Soft and Free’.
We all know the reasons.
- Children being driven to school
- Hours of screen time
- Insignificant, or non-existent, physical education in many grades
- Heavy promotion of junk food on children’s TV shows (Except in Quebec)
- Vending machines, which dispense mostly soft drinks and candy
- A safety-first mentality in parents, which restricts free play for their children
There are many more. Progress is being made in dealing with some of the above problems. Physical education is now creeping back into the curriculum; vending machines carry increasing amounts of nutritious snacks and drinks and in Canada there is now a modest tax break for fees paid for children’s sports participation. However, Silken Laumann of Silken’s Active Kids Movement notes that, “Children today are enrolled in twice as many sport activities as they were 20 years ago, and yet they are half as active and certainly not as healthy.”
Silken feels that children have lost the art of spontaneous active play. In a recent newspaper article she wrote, “In our efforts to keep our kids safe we’ve limited their freedom to explore their world, ride their bikes, play road hockey and even walk to school. Driven by fear – of injury, of abduction, of not keeping up with their peers – we’ve overscheduled and overprotected them to the point where they’ve lost the ability to play, both physically and creatively.”
The game was never worth a rap
For rational folks to play
In which no accident, no mishap,
Could ever find a way.
:: Adam Gordon, 1936
“Can Johnny come out to eat?”
Meanwhile many multi-national companies still pour billions of dollars into making it as difficult as possible for children to fulfill their genetic destiny by eating well and being physically active. Asked where he like to play a 10-year-old boy replied, “Indoors, where the plugs are.”
In response to the brain washing of children with TV advertising, the Office of Communications (OFCOM) in the UK has launched the following timetable to restrict advertisements for foods and drinks, which are high in fat, salt and sugar from children’s programming.
- 1 April 2007 – ads for foods high in fat, sugar and salt will be banned during or around programmes made specifically for children or those which would particularly appeal to children aged seven to nine,
- 1 January 2008 – junk food ads will be banned in and around programmes aimed at, or which appeal to, children aged four to 15,
- By December 2008 – Dedicated children’s channels will have to have phased out all junk food ads.
Part of the answer to childhood obesity might lie in legislation, part in education, but most of it must come from the home. Feeding children large quantities of empty calories and not expecting them to be physically active is a, not so subtle, form of child abuse. The headline on the CBC reporting on “Healthy Weight for Healthy Children” read, “Obese children will die younger than their parents”, which would probably be true were it not for the fact that many parents are obese and will probably beat their kids to the Grim Reaper. Whether the parent or child dies first is not the issue, what is at stake is being healthy enough to make the most of our time on the planet, and also help the planet to be healthy enough to support the generations to come.
Obesity in the Workplace
Obese employees cost seven times as much in medical claims as their non-obese colleagues
Obese employees lost many more workdays and filed twice as many workers' compensation claims, and those cases cost nearly seven times as much as those filed by their slimmer counterparts, according to a recent report.
The average workers' compensation medical claims cost per 100 employees was $51,019 for obese workers and $7,503 for non-obese workers, according to the study, conducted by Duke University researchers and published in an April edition of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The report comes as employers are grappling with rising health care and workers' compensation costs, and are focusing on wellness programs and other ways to create a healthier workforce and reduce medical expenses.
"We all know obesity is bad for the individual, but it isn't solely a personal medical problem — it spills over into the workplace and has concrete economic costs," Dr. Truls Ostbye, a study author and professor of community and family medicine, said in a statement.
Researchers examined the records of 11,728 Duke University employees who received medical appraisals between 1997 and 2004. They used the records to compare the relationship between body mass index and the rate of workers' compensation claims.
Duke employees with BMIs greater than 40 filed 11.65 claims per 100 workers, compared with 5.8 claims per 100 workers filed by those who weighed within the recommended range.
The study found the most obese workers lost 13 times as many days of work as their colleagues who weighed less. Obese workers lost an average of 183.63 days of work per 100 employees compared with 14.19 for non-obese workers.
The most common injuries experienced by obese workers affected the lower extremities, wrists or hands, and backs. Most injuries were caused by falls and lifting. These job-related medical costs wind up costing the worker more than the employer, said Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, assistant professor of medicine and health economist at Stanford University. Bhattacharya co-authored a 2005 study that showed employers compensate for anticipated higher medical costs of obese workers by paying them less than slimmer employees and passing them over for promotions.
Bhattacharya was surprised by the large difference in sick days shown in the Duke study but said existing research supported similar increased medical costs.
Duke researchers said the study results highlighted the need to target both obesity and ways to reduce the risks of injury in the workplace.
retreat
