The Bad News

I've got bad news, my friends.  It's not genetics.  Never has been, never will be.  How do I know this?  I just reviewed the 2010 America's Health RankingsTM that lists the states in order of health.  America`s Health RankingsTM has tracked the health of the nation for over 20 years, providing a unique, comprehensive perspective on how the nation - and each state - measures up.

According to the latest report, "the average obesity rate for the United States is 26.9 percent of the adult population, up from 26.6 percent of the population in  the 2009 Edition, 23.2 percent in the 2005 Edition, 19.6 percent in the 2000 Edition and substantially more than double the rate of 11.6 percent of the population in the 1990 Edition. In the United States, this means that more than one-in-four are obese - that is about 60 million adults with a body mass index of 30.0 or higher. If the population of the United States could return to the weight status of 1990, there would be 26 million fewer obese individuals - more than the entire population of the second most populous U.S. state, Texas."

In my own state, Michigan, the obesity rate grew from 14.1% in 1990 to 29.5% in 2009 and to 30.3% in 2010.  In Mississippi, which ranked 50th, from 1990 to 2009 the obesity rate grew from 15.0% to 33.3% and increased to 35.3% in 2010.  The fact that obesity more than doubled in twenty years in not only these two states, but many others as well, has ZERO to do with genetics and everything to do with lifestyle.  There simply could not be enough change in the genetic makeup of the U.S. population in a short twenty years to account for this growing - and I do mean growing - epidemic.

I'm saying this fully aware that obesity often seems to "run" in families, but unless there is an underlying endocrine problem, which is rare,  familial obesity is all about lifestyle.  That's good news - really it is!  This means that even if every other person in your family is obese, you are NOT destined to be obese, too.  Our obesity is tied directly to our lifestyle and the choices we make.

It's easy to find other reasons for our struggle with weight, and blaming our genes is an often-used excuse.  We may have learned bad habits from our family of origin, but those bad habits aren't hard-wired into our genes.  If we are willing to make some fundamental changes, we can not only rewrite our own health future, but we can also help our children and grandchildren to rewrite theirs.  We can start a new family pattern, beginning with the choices we make today.  Choose wisely :-)