Eating Bliss

 So that's settled.  It's a big, bad, bloated us.  Have we no pride, no self control?  Evidently not, on the evidence.  And the evidence is there, in the statistics, for all who are interested, to scrutinize and - if one is included in the ranks of the overweight, and worse, the obese of the world - deny.  Denial, it appears, it something we do very well. 

Denial, for example, that we are the instruments of our own ill health.  That what we do with our bodies has a direct impact on our state of health.  That to remain indolent and unwilling to exercise bodies that thrive on testing muscles and sinews, and over-feeding our greedy appetites will spell disaster in the future.  It is the obese that are driving up the incidence of diabetes.

And diabetes is well enough known to lead to many other illnesses.  For example, neurological injuries to the body leading to amputation, heart and stroke, blindness, kidney damage.  Are those brief sensuous pleasures we revel in, eating sumptuously foods that are too heavily weighted in cholesterol, sugar, salt really worth it?  Do we really have to eat past the point of satiation?

Rationally, no.  But we do.  According to the World Health Organization, about 1.6-billion people worldwide are overweight.  What that means is that 25% of their body weight is comprised of fat.  What it also means is that 25% of the world's population is vastly overweight.  In a world where at least a like number of people are malnourished and underweight.

In Australia, the Royal Adelaide Hospital has refurbished itself with larger rooms equipped with ceiling-mounted lifting apparatus, reinforced wheelchairs and beds, and larger CT scanning machines to avoid hospital staff from incurring strain injuries attempting to move overweight patients.

In Brazil, where 51.7% of the population is overweight, fruits are commonly lathered with sugar, and tradition has it that a nice, full body is very much appreciated, particularly a woman's body for the Brazilian man "has always wanted something to grab on to."

In Britain it is estimated that obesity causes an estimated nine thousand premature deaths yearly.  If current trends continue 90% of British children will be held to be obese by 2050.  Britain's Health Secretary has called for the population to cut five billion calories from its collective diet.  Good luck.

In Canada, being overweight is considered the norm by age 36.  According to data collected in the Canadian Health Measures Survey, the average 12-year-old boy is 14 pounds heavier than in 1981, while girls are 11 pounds heavier.  It's estimated that 26% of children six to 11 are overweight or obese, a number that rises to 28% in the teens.

Over 70% of people in Finland exercise regularly with a government initiative that awards cash prizes to towns that lose the most weight.  The Finnish government encouraged shoe manufacturers to make non-slip soles so people would still go out in icy weather, to battle the 58% overweight dilemma the country faces.

Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig weight loss centres are busy signing up new members in France in numbers greater than other national markets.  In France, with a 50.7% overweight figure, people are exhorted to remember this simple rule: "have dessert or cheese, but not both".

In Jamaica, where 55.3% are overweight, a thin woman is not held to be attractive.  Heaviness is equated with happiness and social harmony.  Resulting in many women struggling to gain weight, and eating appetite-enhancing chicken feed laced with arsenic.  Which practise leads to side effects like diarrhea, dermatitis and eventually cancer.

The percentage of overweight/obese in Mexico has tripled to 68.1% since 1980, with diabetes the leading cause of death.  Soft drink consumption is readily available, where clean drinking water is not.  Mexicans drink the most Coca-Cola per capita in the world.

The Pacific island nation of Nauru has a 94.5% overweight population, qualifying it as the world's fattest nation, where life expectancy for men is 59, and for women 64.  Phosphate mining made the island wealthy but incapable of growing vegetables, so the islanders live on Western processed imports.

In Nigeria there are "fattening rooms", where women are encouraged to eat large amounts of food , especially before weddings.  In Saudi Arabia girls are banned from participating in sports because the Supreme Council of Religious Scholars forbids sports for girls, since it is felt activity can cause girls to tear their hymens, thus lose their virginity.

Tonga has a 90.8% overweight population resulting in poor overall health.  Obesity is blamed on imported food like Spam, corned beef and "turkey tails" which were banned but the ban lifted to allow membership into the World Trade Organization.

In the U.S. with its 70.8% overweight population, a U.S. retailer offers an extensive selection of extra-wide and reinforced chairs, along with high-capacity weigh scales and extra-large "Big John" toilet seats.  Police officers are becoming skilled in executing body searches of obese subjects "up in the folds".