Posts Tagged ‘health care system’

In a country that boasts the world’s highest obesity rate, highest incidence of heart ailments, and a growing diabetes problem, it seems logical that health care is an issue of abundant importance to many Americans. However, health care is a late stage solution to a deep rooted problem. All of the maladies listed above could more easily be combated from the front end with good exercise and eating habits than at the last minute with heart by-passes and insulin injections.

America has bred a generation of lazy unhealthy Americans. For example the average American eats 159 fast food meals each year. That’s about three hamburgers and four orders of fries each week. The average adolescent plays eleven hours of video games every week. Perhaps the most concerning statistics involve the television. Recent studies show that the average American watches 4.5 hours of television every day. This time adds up quickly. To put it in perspective, if you watch four hours of television every day, you spend just over 5 days every month watching TV. That means that based on the average life expectancy in the country, average Americans spend about 13 years of their life in front the television.

The above statistics demonstrate the upsetting state of America’s sense of personal responsibly. American’s continue to allow fast food companies produce advertisements targeted at children, purchase more television sets than there are people in their household, and McDonalds is still, by a wide margin, the most frequented restaurant in the country.

This trend of apathy towards personal health has led to a society that depends on a health care system to bale them out of medical problems fostered by poor habits and laziness. Imagine if health were placed higher on the agenda from the beginning. Image if half of your fast food meals were replaced with healthy alternatives, and half of your TV time was replaced by exercise. Over the course of a life time, this initiative would result in 5700 less hamburgers, and 6 years of exercise.

Health care can no longer be an excuse for bad habits. Health needs to be a higher priority from the start. It’s important to remember that a cigarette won’t kill you, but cancer can. A hamburger won’t kill you, but obesity and heart disease can. And laziness certainly won’t kill you, but it is a gateway for problems that a healthy lifestyle can prevent.

In a country that boasts the world’s highest obesity rate, highest incidence of heart ailments, and a growing diabetes problem, it seems logical that health care is an issue of abundant importance to many Americans. However, health care is a late stage solution to a deep rooted problem. All of the maladies listed above could more easily be combated from the front end with good exercise and eating habits than at the last minute with heart by-passes and insulin injections.

America has bred a generation of lazy unhealthy Americans. For example the average American eats 159 fast food meals each year. That’s about three hamburgers and four orders of fries each week. The average adolescent plays eleven hours of video games every week. Perhaps the most concerning statistics involve the television. Recent studies show that the average American watches 4.5 hours of television every day. This time adds up quickly. To put it in perspective, if you watch four hours of television every day, you spend just over 5 days every month watching TV. That means that based on the average life expectancy in the country, average Americans spend about 13 years of their life in front the television.

The above statistics demonstrate the upsetting state of America’s sense of personal responsibly. American’s continue to allow fast food companies produce advertisements targeted at children, purchase more television sets than there are people in their household, and McDonalds is still, by a wide margin, the most frequented restaurant in the country.

This trend of apathy towards personal health has led to a society that depends on a health care system to bale them out of medical problems fostered by poor habits and laziness. Imagine if health were placed higher on the agenda from the beginning. Image if half of your fast food meals were replaced with healthy alternatives, and half of your TV time was replaced by exercise. Over the course of a life time, this initiative would result in 5700 less hamburgers, and 6 years of exercise.

Health care can no longer be an excuse for bad habits. Health needs to be a higher priority from the start. It’s important to remember that a cigarette won’t kill you, but cancer can. A hamburger won’t kill you, but obesity and heart disease can. And laziness certainly won’t kill you, but it is a gateway for problems that a healthy lifestyle can prevent.