I recently had the pleasure of attending the screening of an HBO documentary entitled, The Weight Of The Nation. It’s about the obesity epidemic that our nation is facing today. It is a realistic representation of a multifaceted problem.
More than two-thirds of U.S. adults age 20 and over are overweight or obese, while nearly one-third of the nation’s children and adolescents age 2 to 19 are overweight or obese. Obesity contributes to five of the ten leading causes of death in America, including heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, and kidney disease. We are clearly in crisis.
Made in partnership with the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and Kaiser Permanente, this series is comprised of 4 films that will debut on HBO on May 14th and May 15th beginning at 7:00 pm Central. The portion presented at the screening was Children In Crisis. We are facing, for the first time in our nation’s history, a shorter life expectancy for our next generation of children. That, by itself, should be enough to motivate us to action.
Obesity is a preventable disease; it’s not a condition that we have to accept like a natural disaster. We must begin to make the necessary changes in our culture to ensure a healthy life for ourselves and our children. After all, our lives depend on it.
For more information about weight management and weight loss surgery, please give us a call at St. David’s Bariatric Center, 512-544-LIFE (5433) or visit us online at www.stdavidsweightloss.com.
