Who wants to read anything else about how
fat we are? It seems like you can’t turn on the TV without someone on the news talking about how much we weigh, how
much we ought to weigh, and how weighing too much is bad, bad, bad. It’s almost enough to make you dig into that half
gallon of ice cream you have in the freezer.
It’s true that many of us do weigh more than we ought to and that weighing too much is related to certain health risks.
That’s just a fact of life, related to science. Our bodies need a certain amount of food to stay alive and work properly,
and extra food can make us gain weight.
Obesity, or being too heavy for your height, is a serious subject. It’s one of the worst chronic illnesses
we now face. Today only one third of Americans weigh a healthy amount. Two thirds of Americans are overweight, meaning they
weigh more than they should and are at risk for health problems, including obesity. Half of all overweight people—and
a third of all Americans—suffer from obesity, which can lead to serious health problems.
It doesn’t have to be that way, though.
We can learn why our bodies act the way they do—what they need to work and what they do with extra food we eat. We can
find out how to keep from gaining too much weight in the first place. We can learn how to change what we eat and how much
we exercise in order to lose weight. We can find out what health conditions we’re at risk for and be tested for them.
We can become healthier, no matter what we weigh.
