You Are What You Eat

Take a glance at the New York Times bestselling non-fiction list and a handful of titles relating to food, fat, diabetes, dieting and exercise will jump off the page. But delve a layer deeper than the bestsellers on exercise fads and diet trends, and a different story of America’s obesity epidemic is being told about the health of our nation.

According to the most recent national data available to the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), more than one-third of U.S. adults (34.9 percent) are obese and almost 17 percent of children and adolescents are overweight. And, as those overweight and obese children become adults, the chronic diseases associated with obesity – such as heart disease, hypertension, cancer and diabetes – will surge, making the cost of health care for this nation unmanageable.

In the United States, three quarters of health care dollars already go to the treatment of chronic diseases. In addition to a diminished quality of life these chronic conditions bring about, they are the leading causes of death and disability. According to the CDC, “Seven out of 10 deaths among Americans each year are from chronic diseases. Heart disease, cancer and stroke account for more than 50 percent of all deaths each year.”

The saddest part of these statistics is that while chronic diseases are the most common health problems facing the nation, they are also preventable. There are four modifiable health behaviors that impact the rampant spread of chronic disease: lack of physical activity, poor nutrition, tobacco use and excessive alcohol consumption.

While Healthy Door County 2020’s efforts at helping area consumers identify healthy menu choices is only one small step in addressing one of these modifiable health behaviors, it’s with the intention that people will start associating the healthy choice as the easy choice. Until Americans are able to make and maintain those healthy choices, there will always be another quick fix, trend, fad and bestselling idea that does little in the long run at eliminating the root cause of chronic disease.

This series of articles is brought to you by Healthy Door County 2020, a collaborative community organization with representatives from for-profit, nonprofit and government sectors, aiming to make Door County Wisconsin’s healthiest place to live, work, raise a family and retire. For more information visit their Facebook page at Facebook.com/HealthyDoorCounty2020 or call Allison Vroman at 920.868.3660.