Wait, wait, don't tell me

In BlueSky, which is where I landed after Twitter was bought out by the South Africa-born racist, a few of the commentators that I follow were posting and reposting from Fareed Zakaria’s column in WaPo in which he wrote:

When the British left the European Union, they fantasized about forging a close relationship with the United States, almost becoming the 51st state. Were that to happen, it is surely sobering to Britons to realize that they would find themselves in the 51st poorest state in the union, with a per capita gross domestic product below that of Mississippi.

Now, that is about GDP. There is also another measure where the UK could equal or outrank Mississippi: Obesity. In the UK, 64% of the UK population aged 15 and over is overweight or obese.

Obesity is on the rise everywhere.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that, globally, obesity has tripled in the past 30 years. Around two billion adults are now above a healthy weight, of which 650 million live with obesity – that is, they have a body mass index (BMI) of 30 and above. Excess weight is now one of the most serious public health problems in the world.

Even France is no exception, though the rates there are far lower than in the UK or the US.

Between 1997 and 2020 the share of obese French adults doubled, to 17%, or 8m people.

France’s obesity rate is still well below that in America (40%), Mexico (33%) or Britain (26%).

Here in the US, the CDC has put together a highly informative set of maps and tables that help us understand the weight of the problem. “Three states (Louisiana, Oklahoma, and West Virginia) had an obesity prevalence of 40% or greater.”

All these are why it does not surprise me to read in the news a headline that says: Health panel urges interventions for children and teens with high BMI.

With obesity continuing to loom as a major public health threat, a leading panel of independent U.S. health experts released recommendations Tuesday urging doctors to refer children and teens with obesity to programs that can provide guidance on healthy eating, safe exercising and understanding food labels.

The guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force apply to children and teenagers 6 and older with a body mass index — known as a BMI — in the 95th percentile.

We have to get to this health issue when people are young. How many are we talking about?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention categorizes 14.7 million children and teenagers ages 2 to 19 as obese. The agency estimates that children with obesity cost the United States more than $1 billion in health spending annually.

What? 15 million kids?

Pediatricians say that adding an anti-obesity medication to a weight-loss program can improve a patient’s BMI significantly and that it’s a step taken if the benefits outweigh the harm.

“It’s a case-by-case decision based on the child, but we’re not talking about the teen who wants to lose a few pounds for the summer,” said Mona Sharifi, a pediatrician and researcher at Yale School of Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “We’re talking about the child who is severely affected, and they need to be presented with all their options.”

What a contrast to the days when I was a kid. The kids that we joked as குண்டு (fat) were not really fat, but merely had a few extra pounds on them compared to most of us who were a little more than stick figures.

Not that we didn’t eat, nor were we under-nourished. I bet the difference between contemporary life versus fifty years ago is this: Ultra-processed food, about which I have blogged in plenty.

Staying away from ultra-processed food, cooking and eating healthily, and having at least a little bit of regular physical activity are all behaviors that we could force ourselves to adapt even if they don’t come naturally to us. But, we all know that behavior modification is not easy, especially when the market tempts kids and adults alike with unhealthy options all the time.

This past weekend, we noticed nearly 15 vehicles waiting in the drive-through alley of a McDonald’s during lunch time. There couldn’t be anything healthy to eat or drink there, right? Why would people get food and drinks for themselves and their kids at that epitome of ultra-processed food instead of putting together a healthy lunch at home? How would you change that behavior?

Lifestyle behavior changes ain’t happening, which leads healthcare professionals to advocate for weight loss medication:

“Having the option of medication in the appropriate clinical scenario is very important,” said Susma Vaidya, an associate medical director at the IDEAL Clinic, the weight-loss program at Children’s National Hospital in D.C. “I am a big believer in medication, and I think that we have been advocating for lifestyle change for a long time and haven’t made a whole lot of progress.”

We have not made progress. Conditions have worsened, actually.

Consider the dinner that we had last night, for instance:

• A bunch of greens that cost $3, which we sauteed in oil with green onions.

• Meanwhile, we sauteed an onion, added tomato paste, and then emptied into this a can of spicy black beans ($1.50).

• These we served with rice, with yogurt on the side.

This home-cooked dinner, which took less than 30 minutes to make, perhaps cost altogether $7, or about $3.50 per person. Healthy and inexpensive, right? But, how do we spread such messages to people who need to hear them?