by Marc Phillippe Babineau

Created on: December 19, 2011   Last Updated: December 21, 2011

America and many other industrialized countries are on a major upswing in the number of people that are considered fat or obese. The more unsettling statistic is that 18% of our youth are considered obese, not just overweight or `fat`. 39% of adults are considered obese, and 34% of adults are considered to be fat. That’s over two thirds of the American population over the age of 24 that is either fat or obese. These are some scary statistics. One of the more unsettling considerations is that the youth of America have never been fatter, lazier, less inclined to worry about their futures and more likely to drop out of school than at any other non-war time since America became a country. Could this be due to the prevalence of video games and computers in every home, or smart phones and texting taking the place of inter-personal communications?

Are there alternative explanations for America’s weight gain? Could it be due to the foods that have been introduced to them in the past 20 years? Foods, especially fast foods and those bought at schools have never been healthier, with some rather blatant exceptions like Taco Bell and McDonald’s. So, what is driving Americans to increasing their waist size every few months? America has been in a state of war for over a decade now, and anxiety levels haven’t been higher since the last world war. Food, from the types of food consumed to the amount consumed, can’t really be blamed because it’s a person’s activity level that is to blame for their being overweight.

If you were to eat 2,500 calories a day, but were only to exert 1,000 calories of energy a day there would be a constant gain in weight. With so many video game systems in people’s homes, sports are now being played while sitting on the couch, eating Ho-Ho’s and Ding Dongs, Cheetos and microwavable pizzas. When even the act of cooking a meal has been turned into a race, in order to get back to the couch to resume playing games, Americans have forsaken the outdoors for a simulation of the outdoors. They have replaced sports with simulated sports, and replaced exercise with exercise machines that usually act as clothes hangers.

Could the fact that America’s youth, those aged under 30, of which over 2/3rds are overweight be gaining weight at unheralded rates be blamed on the fact that they have little to look forward to in the form of a good career? Computers and automation have eliminated the need for many millions

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