A Socioeconomic Status Symbol

Watching the movie Super Size Me six years ago reinforced my feelings about how disgusting and unhealthy fast food is, which was actually something that took me some time to learn on my own. One point Morgan Spurlock brought out in the movie was the increasing obesity rates in America.

Now we have a new report on how obesity threatens America's future from Trust For America's Health.

Nationally, two-thirds of adults and nearly one- third of children and teens are currently obese or overweight. Since 1980, the number of obese adults has doubled. Since 1970, the number of obese children ages 6-11 has quadrupled, and the number of obese adolescents ages 12-19 has tripled. The alarming increases in obesity rates over the past several decades indicate that much has changed in American society that makes it harder for children and families to eat healthy foods and be physically active.

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Obesity is related to more than 20 major chronic diseases. Currently, one in three adults has some form of heart disease, more than 80 million Americans have type 2 diabetes or are pre-diabetic, and obese children are more than twice as likely to die prematurely before the age of 55 compared with healthy-weight children.