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The figures are in, and the figures are that when six out of ten American adults look in full-length mirrors they see fat figures. Most people would consider that women would weigh in with higher percentages of fat, considering they are the so-called weaker, softer and more tender sex. Wrong! American men are at least five percent fatter, according to the National Institutes of Health. And, please don't tell Al Sharpton or Fat Albert I said it, but African American adults are the fattest in the land. Hey, don't shoot the messenger.

The basic real fact about obesity in American adults is because many of us start out in life as obese children. The era when Mom stayed at home and cooked all three nutritious meals for Dad and the 2.3 children in the typical family is lone gone. Mom now works full time, so that means breakfast for the adults is sugar-loaded cake and cream-loaded coffee. The kids get sugar-drenched cold cereal, with nutritional value negated by fancy names such as Sweety Pops, Honey Flakes. Of course, because of tight schedules, breakfast is a nervous, hasty grab and gobble for all.

Lunch for Mom and Dad is what they can grab during their busy work day, along with mid-morning and 4 pm snacks of sweet and/or fat food. Of course, if the label has the word bran on it, then the snack food has to be real healthy. Lunch must also include alcohol consumption to help digestion, as well as to add pounds to the body.

Lunch for the kids may be the most calculated meal to be healthy of the day if it is served by the school, if you can call mystery meat slopped out by fat ladies wearing snoods to be healthy. However, if they have access to snacks, you know the kids will opt for fat and sugar products.

The evening meal, if Mom or Dad, as usual, can't be bothered, will be pizza delivery or those lumpy frozen-food dinners that are loaded with salt and fat. It is usually followed by six hours of TV by the couch-bound adults and one hour of home work, followed by five hours of video games by the kids. I won't even go into the popcorn, chips, cake, ice cream, sodas, pretzels and other late night blubber adding products.

Along with poor nutrition, lack of regular exercise has become another factor in the bulking up of the American adult from childhood on. Not that the people who make money from fake exercise haven't tried. There are all kinds of machines that look like torture racks advertised on TV. Most use the sales pitch that they allow you to push, pull and perspire with the least amount of effort. Some even have built-in TV sets, so that you won't miss the umpteenth rerun of "I Love Lucy."

You don't need statistics to see what is happening. Just walk down any street, visit a McDonald's or watch any family schedule of inactivities between the hours of 7 pm and midnight. American adults are too fat because they eat too much fat and keep adding it on by not getting enough exercise.

Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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