ReZoom

No better time than the present to get in shape and take action …

Global warming threatens the health of the planet, but the health of its population is also in peril. The world population follows America's lead in what they eat, so every day a McDonalds, Burger King or other fast food restaurant opens in countries whose populations previously ate only what they could grow locally.

Dr. Francine Kaufman noted earlier in this series that if current lifestyle trends continue, three quarters of all Americans will be overweight within 25 years. The fast and disastrous shift in the kind of food that Americans consume has already had a punishing effect in our own culture, and now we're beginning to see the results of the havoc it will wreak on other parts of the world. The population of other cultures could go from normal to obese in half a generation.

A critical portal for change

We have to do something about the health crisis, and we have to do it now.

We have to act before the burden on the health care system overshadows the potential for change. The problem is that this opportunity for change is nearly passing us by.

New thinking is in the air, but it's only a breeze. Morgan Spurlock's documentary "Super Size Me" got the ball rolling toward making us all more aware of how what we are eating impacts our overall health. As well, a few fast food restaurants now offer alternatives such as salads and milk. Other franchises are switching to healthier cooking oils, while many remain stubborn in their use of trans fat. McDonalds, in a 2002 press release, announced it would eliminate artificial trans fat in its food but has yet to live up to that promise. Only time will tell whether these small punctures in our collective consciousness will be enough to stave off a second kind of famine — a global diet devoid of nutrition spurred by corporations whose primary focus is on the bottom line and at the expense of those with little money and less knowledge.

Taking back the wheel

In this country, we already know what to do. The doctor has spoken, as have thousands of researchers. We have been bombarded from every sector of American life on how to get, and remain, healthy. Hundreds of websites are dedicated to it. Oprah talks about it and CNN covers it, but unfortunately the political powers that be ignore it. French fries are still classified as a "vegetable" in our public school system.

A shared responsibility

We need to push for change once again. As a 78-million strong cohort, we need to push for New Urbanism — neighborhoods where homes are within walking distance from small stores and farmers markets. We need to push for a change in how we treat our employees who work 45 to 50 hours a week and struggle to find time for exercise. The snack food industry should be held responsible and mandated to stop developing high-sugar, high-fat, calorie-packed junk foods and start looking for ways to combine taste and nutrition.

No Child Left Behind should also include a measurement of our children and grandchildren's health. We should lean on legislators until gym class is put back in school curriculum, and we should track the health of our children the same way we track their test scores. What good is science and math if the lives of our kids are riddled with disease?

 

Becoming one's own doctor

But all the policy change won't matter, nor will all health plans being offered by presidential hopefuls if we can't get ourselves onboard one by one to get healthy and to serve as role models for the prevention of diabetes and other disease. It is not up to doctors. It never was. It's time we took responsibility for the condition of our own bodies and to take stands on the conditions we leave for our children. The press has called the march of baby boomers towards Social Security and Medicare a "medical tsunami." They talk as if a human wall of crippled, defenseless lemmings will burden the rest of Americans until the entire health care system collapses.

Let's prove them wrong.

For more information, or to get involved, visit the following websites:

• bantransfats.com
• Harvard School of Public Health
• American Diabetes Association
• http://www.smallstep.gov
• US Senate Committee on Health

Diabetes Series:

Previously: How diabetes became a silent epidemic, why the cavemen knew better and how ignorance isn't bliss.