Portion Balance…The New Term in Town

Portion Balance is the new term in town. What does it mean? A food ecosystem where at every eating occasion, everyone desires and is able to choose and enjoy balanced food portions in support of a healthy lifestyle. Admittedly this is idealistic but it does describe the perfect food environment we all want and should be supported in achieving.

It is a world of balanced meals of just right portions served up on perfectly sized dishes in a room designed to help you sit down, slow down, and enjoy your meal. Honestly, in order for us to live healthier lives we will need to change our food environment. Nothing else has worked because until we right size the food we eat we will not be able to move the needle on the obesity epidemic.

The shocking statistics present us with some grim facts. Since 2000 the overall obesity rate for adults has increased from 30.5% to 42.4% in 2018. For those considered severely obese the rate has more than doubled in the same time frame from 4.7% to 9.2%, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Now with the global pandemic most scientists are predicting even higher increases of obesity for adults and children. Obesity directly affects our health and fuels health issues like diabetes, heart disease, multiple forms of cancer, as well as other diseases, which are all the leading causes of death. It is evident we have to find better ways to help people succeed in living a healthier life. We have to find a better solution than those we have tried and that have clearly failed.

There is a group that has been created called the Portion Balance Coalition that is made up of large corporations and organizations producing our foods and beverages as well as monitoring them for the public good. It is a group that is broad and diverse that has come together to tackle the issue of obesity through portion control. It includes Nestlé, PepsiCo, the American Beverage Association, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), the American Heart Association, and several others. These businesses have the power to move the needle for better health.

We as individuals also have an important role to play. We can work on creating a healthier food environment in our own home using the tools and information available to help us. We can also reach out to corporations and organizations to ask them to help change the quality of food and obscene quantities of food that are marketed to us through ads, packaged goods, restaurants and schools. Until we demand a change we will be faced with battling obesity and its health consequences in our lives and the lives of the ones we care about.

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Why A Healthy Lifestyle...more proof in the US reality

The heavy price of obesity in America: By the numbers 

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Nationally, nearly 36 percent of adults are obese, and businesses are spending billions to make everything from bathrooms to sports stadiums easier for them to navigate.

 

The U.S. spends an extra $4 billion in gasoline every year to drive overweight passengers on the road. 

The obesity rate in America is skyrocketing, and according to new statistics from the Campaign to End Obesity, along with increased health risks and health care costs for those struggling to control their weight comes a huge economic toll on the U.S. With hospitals widening bathroom stalls for severely overweight patients, and the Federal Transit Administration testing new steering and breaks on mass transit systems because of an increase in the number of heavyset riders, the estimated national cost of accommodating obese citizens is approaching $190 billion a year. Here's a look at some unexpected financial costs of obesity, by the numbers:

$190 billion
Estimated economic cost of obesity in America, or twice the amount previously estimated, taking into account everything from "wider stadiums seats to sturdier, floor-mounted toilets," says CBS News. The calculations were published in the Journal of Health Economics.

400
The new minimum seat threshold, in pounds, for commuter subway trains in New York

1 to 2
Additional inches added to seats installed at venues like Yankee Stadium

35.7
Percentage of U.S. adults considered obese

17
Percentage of U.S. children aged 2 to 19 considered obese

3
Factor by which the number of obese Americans has increased in the past 50 years

5.9
Extra sick days obese men take every year compared to their coworkers

9.4
Extra sick days obese women take every year compared to their coworkers

$3,792
Annual cost to workplaces due to lost productivity for every obese male worker

$3,037
Annual cost to workplaces due to lost productivity for every obese female worker

$1,152
Extra medical expenditures every year for an obese male

$3,613
Extra medical expenditures every year for an obese female

20
Percentage of extra medical costs, roughly, that obesity adds to the U.S. total each year

938 million
Extra gallons of gasoline required to transport overweight passengers in the U.S. "Some costs of obesity reflect basic physics," says Reuters. "It requires twice as much energy to move 250 pounds than 125 pounds. As a result, a vehicle burns more gasoline."

$4 billion
Extra cost of gasoline required to drive overweight passengers on the road every year

$5 billion
Extra cost of gasoline required to fly overweight passengers on airplanes every year


Sources: BlissTree, CBS News, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fox News, Reuters

 

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