Sunday 27th April 2008 - Are you wearing your "nutrition seatbelt" ??

I was having a conversation with a friend yesterday about how important it is to actually get the "health message" through and try to make it effective.

We both arrived at the conclusion that less and less people are actually taking notice due to the worldwide obesity problems getting worse. We also noted how many people we both know who are suffering from preventable diseases like obesity, diabetes and cancer.

During the few moments of clarity and "global solutions" (*smiles) that we came up with, I recall thinking how there are so many alarmist messages being given, yet no one seems to think it will happen to them. So this makes it irrelevant.

This made me a little sad.
Now those that have read my blog from the beginning will know that my father passed away over 15 years ago from an obesity related heart attack. Now my mission is to get through the clutter to resonate with YOU about personal responsibility.

So I did some research trying to come up with a way for YOU to say "wow" and get you motivated to change your life. So I found this comparison of deaths from obesity against death from road accidents quite interesting.

From the Australian Government ATSB website - Traffic)
In 2006, there were 1,601 persons killed in 1,456 road crashes.

(From the Australian Bureau of Statistics for 2006)
Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases (E00-E90) in 2006 accounted for 5,138 registered deaths.

Yet for the lesser total we have road laws and rules, not too mention the rigorous levels of education we apply for road safety to lower this terrible statistic. Yet no one seems to think it worth noting that MORE people die from a preventable disease than the road statistic.

Is it the horror of seeing someone killed in a traffic accident covered by the media that causes such visceral responses and demands for action from the public and government.

I guess that obesity deaths are normally when people are alone or in a hospital where there is no public viewing of their passing. Possibly if someone, or better yet a group of people "exploded" in a public place it might cause outrage at this alarming statistic !!

Now I am not trying to be funny here as this problem is a real and present threat to our future and the future of our children.

But wait there is more.
In Australia with a population of a little over 20.5 million people and with the growing number of overweight / obese reaching epidemic proportions we need to act with responsibility to create change again much like saving the planet.

Around seven million Australians are now overweight or obese. Estimates taken in the year 2000 suggest that, while more men are overweight than women (67 per cent compared to 52 per cent), obesity is more common among women (22 per cent) than men (18 per cent).

The rates of overweight and obesity are rapidly increasing and it is estimated that, at the current rate of increase, about 75 per cent of the Australian population will be overweight or obese by 2020.

At the current rate, it is predicted that 65 per cent of young Australians will be overweight or obese by 2020.

Yes this definitely is the lucky country.

Now if this doesn't yet resonate with you then how about this - Obesity costs Australian taxpayers an estimated $1.5 billion every year in direct health costs, not accounting for Diabetes and Cancer either.

So how can we change this ?

Well it will take YOU doing something for yourself and stop blaming TV advertising, and stop blaming fast food sellers, Hotels and bars for being open late, media companies for producing entertainment because NOT ONE of them is responsible for YOU putting that unhealthy food into your body. NOT ONE of them is responsible for YOU spending more time being inactive than being active.

This is a WAKE UP CALL that needs to ring loud and clear with YOU.

Before you strap yourself into your body each day - THINK - Have I put on my nutritional seatbelt ? If the answer is NO, then do it, If the answer is YES, then start moving.