What Is The Government Doing About Our National Weight Crisis?

By Jenny Williams

Americans are getting fatter every year, simple as that. We are packing on the pounds at an ever increasing rate and each year it gets worse. Many of us are sacrificing our health because of our addiction to super-sized meals at fast food restaurants according to obesity experts.

Each year the number of people that are considered overweight increases and currently more than 60 percent of all U.S. adults and 15 percent of children aged 6 to 19 fall into that category according to the CDC.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention also says that poor diet and the lack of exercise takes it's toll with more than 400,000 premature deaths attributed to these factors.

Overweight people are also likely to develop any number of preventable diseases such as gallbladder disease, stroke, diabetes, heart disease or high blood pressure.

Obesity can also cause sleep apnea which affects quality sleep that our bodies need and our joints can also literally wear away due to osteoarthritis. Being overweight also increases our risk for some cancers like breast, prostate, endometrial and colon cancer.

In March 2004 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a national campaign to educate Americans to help reverse the growing obesity problem. This campaign promotes small easily achievable steps we can take to lose weight and improve our health.

Along with this announcement the FDA's Obesity Working Group issued its Calories Count report which highlights actions that they are taking to help consumers make better choices about their diet.

Some of these actions include encouraging restaurants to provide calorie and nutrition information, strengthening food labeling and educating consumers about maintaining a healthy diet and weight.

Enforcement of food labeling was also stepped up to make sure that portion sizes were realistic and additional research was started to produce healthier, lower calorie foods to help reduce obesity in Americans. - 20765

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