Or as we say in English: "Enjoy your meal." Well for Republican candidate Mike Huckabee it means: "Quit Digging your Grave with a Knife and Fork." This is the title of the book he wrote after he recovered from a food addiction and lost 110 pounds. Huckabee spoke to southern governors on Saturday about his concerns about obesity in this country. According to him, an obesity epidemic could cause serious concerns for the American economy and for national security.
700 000 Americans will die in a year because of unhealthy habits which also include smoking. Huckabee went so far that he has compared it with disasters like hurricane Katrina and 9/11, since the fatality rate is as high. Each day 2,000 Americans die to do poor health choices. 90% of all diabetes cases are considered Type 2, which is linked to obesity or lack of physical activity. The health care costs of a person with diabetes is five times higher then health care cost of a person without it. For more on these numbers see this link. The military is also affected by obesity. The percentage of overweight possible recruits rose from 27 percent to 32 percent from 1996 to 2005. However in order to get more recruits the army allows people to enlist if they reduce to weight standards within a year in their age group. Officials in the military are concerned about this problem for quite some time.
Huckabee is not only talking or writing about Obesity. He actually did something about it as Arkansas Governor. Students were tested for Body Mass and reports were send home to their parents. Arkansas State Employees were given a 15 minute exercise program in the morning and afternoon. And the state paid for preventive and primary health care costs for children of parents who had to high of an income to qualify for medicaid but to low of an income to afford their own private health insurance.
I honestly like what Huckabee has done and said against Obesity. But I do think more things can be done. I just received the school lunch calender yesterday. My kids will be eating Pizza, Fried Chicken and similar things. Sure they have other choices but will they choose the healthy choices if I can't barely make them eat their peas at home? I would suggest not giving them choices and just serve them the healthy menu in the school cafeteria. Huckabee also said that kids don't play outside no more as they used to because parents rather have them at home. I found that to be true. I rather have them save at home in my four walls. Also local lawmakers for example or Child Protective Services don't really like kids outside of their home alone unless they are twelve years old or on their way home from school. Those concerns were not so much there twenty years ago. It is getting more and more difficult to let them play outside due to safety concerns. I think parents who have to work two or three jobs outside of the home often don't have the time nor the money to enroll their children in sports outside from schools. The Daycare Centers often don't promote physical activity. Huckabee is on the way but in the end more can be done if more people see Obesity as a national security and economic threat.
