What’s making Americans fat

My friend and fellow veteran Grier Martin pointed me to a story in the Army Times that warns that most American kids are too out of shape to serve in the military.

My wife Kelly thinks she knows why kids are getting fatter: the drink sizes offered with fast food have become supersized. The same sized soft drink that used to be considered a large is now the “small” size. It’s crazy.

What to do about it, though? Isn’t the restaurant just giving its customers what they want, regardless of whether or not it’s what they need? If everyone chooses to pig out, landing in the hospital with heart disease; diabetes; and other serious illnesses, the treatment of which will be paid for through my insurance premiums, is that simply free enterprise at work? Or should society try to set a better example?

There are efforts underway to educate the less-fortunate folks in my side of town on the importance of nutrition. It’s a serious problem for the folks in Southeast Raleigh. Last fall, I watched three young neighborhood kids walked back from the local convenience store, all of them sucking down 64 oz. soft drinks. They were already chubby and setting up bad eating habits that will threaten their health in their later years.

Many poor people have poor nutrition habits. Folks who rely on fast food for their nutrition are getting caught in a spiral that they may never escape. Not only does their health suffer, but the rest of us wind up picking up the tab.