SubscribeThis Country’s Government Put a Mandate on Waistlines
Big Brother is now watching your waistline. It’s come to this, where individual health and well being is now dictated by the chain smoking, overweight members of the government.
...Well maybe not for you quite yet. This story is from Japan, where the government has put a mandate on all the workers over 40 to be a certain weight or size. If the workers do not meet the requirements within five years starting April 1st, the company’s who employ them will be penalized by having to pay more of the $95 billion private-sector payments that essentially support and run the national health care insurance for the 75 and older population.
This their way of cutting down on the nation’s estimated annual $285 billion medical care costs. With the older generation growing, the government has taken an initiative to try and cut the increasing medical costs and prevent premature onset of diseases such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, adult onset diabetes, obesity, etc.
So how are companies dealing with it?
Many companies have implemented lunch time aerobics, low fat / low calories lunches, to try and help the workers lose weight. All in an effort to prevent the growing numbers of premature diseases or also known as “metabolic syndrome” caused by weight gain.
But it’s not just in Japan.
If you haven’t been affected by new rules and laws yet, look out because more bans and laws may be coming to a country near you. Britain has banned some TV ads about eggs on the grounds that it was promoting an unhealthy lifestyle. Germany has initiated an aggressive campaign to promote healthy diets and exercises in work places and schools. They’ve even taken it one step further and have branded those that aren’t willing to follow suite as “anti-social”. In New Zealand, they refused an individual from coming into the country until he lost weight, in fear that he would put strain on their medical system. He was let in to the country after he lost weight, but his wife was not because she didn’t lose enough!
Can you imagine the U.S. government telling us what we can eat and can’t eat? This goes completely against what U.S. stands for… right? Well the truth is things have been slowly changing and our rights have been affected, in the name of our “health”. For instance, in California smoking is prohibited in all work places, bars, restaurants - pretty much anywhere indoors. Many cities in the U.S. have banned restaurants from selling foods with trans fat. California has banned all after school “baked goods sales” as a zero tolerance ban on selling any sugar products on campus. N.Y. Gov. David Patterson has proposed an 18% tax on all soda and drinks high in sugar content. And some states are contemplating adding additional taxes to fatty foods like cheese burgers and fries.
So, even though we don’t have universal health care like some of the countries mentioned above, various states have already implemented their own mandates to cut costs in an effort to control their ballooning medical budgets.
But is this really necessary? Are they overreacting?
Let’s take a look at some numbers. According to some stats, being overweight and obese costs the nation upwards in the $100 billion range and this number is rapidly growing. According to an article in Newsweek, John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health came up with some other staggering stats. They concluded that if Americans don’t change their eating and exercise habits, 86% of the population will be overweight or obese by 2030. 86%!
The CDC (Center For Disease Control) reported that in 2005 - 2006, over 1/3 of our population (72 million) were obese. That means according to the predicted stats, in the next 25 years approximately another 260 million people will become overweight or obese. That’s over 10 million people per year. These number aren’t that surprising, when you think about our ever growing population.
The apple never falls far from the tree, so kids are much likelier to become overweight or obese if their parents are. Recently, scientists have even found genes linked to obesity. Which adds an entire new twist to this complicated issue. If people have a genetic predisposition to be overweight, are exercises and diet enough to stop them from becoming overweight?
The issue of obesity isn’t as simple as it may sound. I do feel for the people that workout incessantly and eat a good diet, yet they just have a real difficult time losing their weight. But on the flip side there’s a much larger population of people with no genetic predispositions that have simply let themselves go and have become overweight as a result of an accumulation of bad choices.
The problem with stats is that they generalizes all overweight and obese people into one category and I don’t think that’s fair. But we can’t just ignore the statistics…the waistlines of the people of our nation are expanding and there doesn’t seem to be a viable solution.
Who’s to blame and how do we stop this?
If there is an “obese” gene how did it come about? Was it the years of poor lifestyle choices that enabled such genes to be expressed so readily? And really… who’s to blame but ourselves? We are responsible for creating our own destiny, our lives and our future, thanks to our forefathers. The problems we are facing now are the result of all the choices made by us.
So, are the choices made endangering the health of our nation? Should we be punished for our poor choices and poor decisions by losing our right to choose? For the health of our nation, do we really need Big Brother to intervene? These are some loaded questions and I frankly don’t have an answer. What’s your opinion?
About The Author
Shin Ohtake is a widely recognized strength coach and fitness & fat-loss expert. His unconventional, no-nonsense approach to getting fit has made him the go-to source for fitness enthusiasts and trainers alike. Shin is also the author of the world famous, MAX Workouts book, which has transformed and reshaped the bodies of thousands of people across the globe - without requiring hours in the gym. To learn more about how MAX Workouts can help you achieve your fitness goals, visit maxworkouts.com.
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I’m 55, a retired Marine who works out five days a week and spent three weeks last fall hiking in WY and MT up around 10,000 feet. I’ve got a stocky build, have always struggled to maintain weight and am 30 pounds over my fighting weight. You know what - I don’t care anymore. These people really get under my skin. Nobody ever talks about Don the Eagle Scout or Don the black belt or Don the paratrooper or Don the Teacher of the Year. All I’ve ever heard from my parents, coaches, commanding officers and doctors is “You need to lose weight.” Now the government is in on it. I know what’s coming down the road. We’re all going to be expected to be lithe and supple like Comrade Obama. My standard response to anyone who mentions it anymore is Kiss My A$$.