A big fat American problem....
Several months ago I was strolling down the aisle of the Albertson's supermarket when I spied a man in a wheelchair trying to retrieve an item from a frozen food case. He was hard to miss as he weighed in, I conjecture, at well over 350 lbs. As I approached I also noted that he was on an oxygen system attached to the wheelchair. My first thought was one of sympathy for him. It must be hard to be in a wheelchair and obviously in poor health. I was glad to see his wife walk up to assist him. She was hard to miss too. She must have tipped the scales at over 250 lbs. herself.
As I waited for them to finish and give me a chance to get into the display case, my attitude changed. They must have spent 4-5 minutes srcounging around the display case, the ice cream case, all the while loading sugar laden treats into their already crammed shopping cart. A cart I noted which contained super-sized bottles of old fashioned sugar sweetened sodas, "hungry man" extra portion fried chicken dinners, precooked "fat burgers" and a myriad of items that, if you were not in a wheelchair on oxygen.....would put you there.
Now this is America, land of bounty, and our constitution gives us the complete right to sample of this bounty each to our own desired consumption levels even if it means turning ourselves into fat gluttons. However what struck me about this couple was their clothing which had a rather familiar Salvation Army look to it. How could these people afford an overburdened shopping cart full of rich treats? And more importantly how were they paying for their obviously more than average medical care?
I didn't see them check out, so I don't know that they used food stamps or other government assistance, but I would bet a box of Krispie Kreme doughnuts that they weren't paying for their own medical care. And the article referenced below bears me out on this. Read it. You are paying for obesity....to the tune of about $39 billion a year -- or about $175 per person. I don't know about you.....but it sends me off the richter scale to be out $175 so a pair of obese slobs can be given wheelchairs so they can go and empty the ice cream case.
The Cost of Obesity
Several months ago I was strolling down the aisle of the Albertson's supermarket when I spied a man in a wheelchair trying to retrieve an item from a frozen food case. He was hard to miss as he weighed in, I conjecture, at well over 350 lbs. As I approached I also noted that he was on an oxygen system attached to the wheelchair. My first thought was one of sympathy for him. It must be hard to be in a wheelchair and obviously in poor health. I was glad to see his wife walk up to assist him. She was hard to miss too. She must have tipped the scales at over 250 lbs. herself.
As I waited for them to finish and give me a chance to get into the display case, my attitude changed. They must have spent 4-5 minutes srcounging around the display case, the ice cream case, all the while loading sugar laden treats into their already crammed shopping cart. A cart I noted which contained super-sized bottles of old fashioned sugar sweetened sodas, "hungry man" extra portion fried chicken dinners, precooked "fat burgers" and a myriad of items that, if you were not in a wheelchair on oxygen.....would put you there.
Now this is America, land of bounty, and our constitution gives us the complete right to sample of this bounty each to our own desired consumption levels even if it means turning ourselves into fat gluttons. However what struck me about this couple was their clothing which had a rather familiar Salvation Army look to it. How could these people afford an overburdened shopping cart full of rich treats? And more importantly how were they paying for their obviously more than average medical care?
I didn't see them check out, so I don't know that they used food stamps or other government assistance, but I would bet a box of Krispie Kreme doughnuts that they weren't paying for their own medical care. And the article referenced below bears me out on this. Read it. You are paying for obesity....to the tune of about $39 billion a year -- or about $175 per person. I don't know about you.....but it sends me off the richter scale to be out $175 so a pair of obese slobs can be given wheelchairs so they can go and empty the ice cream case.
The Cost of Obesity
