Katie Lewis
Half of the people reading this column are too fat.
Wait a second. Before you get out your pen and start scribing a scathing letter, listen up for a second.
The World Health Organization estimates one billion people in the world are afflicted by “globesity.”
We know medically that being overweight is a serious health risk and the problem is getting worse. It is estimated that fifty per cent of the Canadian population is overweight.
It is no surprise that the business community is taking advantage of the chubby, ever-growing population. From plus-sized clothing to, alas, bigger coffins, making products for the overweight is an expanding market. However, in doing so, it’s helping promote unhealthy lifestyle habits.
There are several industries that partially contribute to the portly problem.
First, and foremost, is the food industry. Fast-food is cheap, fast and these restaurants dot every corner in Centretown.
The cycle begins: children start eating fast food, and in turn, as adults, continue to eat fast food. Many children’s fast food meals usually contain 700 – 900 calories, half of the daily recommended calorie intake.
The impact some businesses have on children’s dietary practices is worriesome.
Another problem is the clothing industry. By no means am I a tiny person at almost six-feet tall but it is now an ever increasing struggle to find clothes small enough to fit.
Department and big box stores have quickly moved away from anything that doesn’t fit my plump grandmother. What was a large 10 years ago now seems to be sized a small. One North American company, Amplestuff, sells plus-size versions of everyday products, from extra-large umbrellas, bigger towels, to scales that weigh up to 1,000 pounds.
Their target audience is overweight people, and they market to them accordingly. Car-seats for “Buddha” babies who weigh over 50 pounds have been developed.
There’s more: seatbelt extenders, gargantuan hospital gowns, and even a device that allows you to put on your socks without having to bend over.
Excuse me? People should not need to own a 1,000 pound scale, or some gadget that puts on your socks for you because you’re too fat.
In some ways, business is partially to blame. In developing products like these, business is stating that it is OK to be fat, making it seem much less of a health problem.
It is not OK on a health spectrum. Overweight people will probably die sooner, and they are more likely to suffer from heart disease and diabetes.
The problems are plentiful, the solutions, not as abundant.
There should be a fat tax put on fast food. If fast food becomes expensive, people are less likely to continue eating it.
Kids need to stay away from fast food as much as possible. And businesses need to stop targeting children in their advertising. Aim advertising at adults who can make up their own minds.
Portion sizes need to be reduced at restaurants. How many local restaurants serve massive plates of food that no one, aside from a 500 pound gorilla, could ever hope to finish?
If nothing changes, obesity rates will continue to rise. Look what has been done with successful anti-smoking campaigns. The business community, for the most part, has survived healthily from those actions. Smoking rates are now drastically down.
Is it better to design for obesity or against it? It’s a double-edged sword.
Products should exist; however, it’s growing to an obscene level, making the idea of being fat seem completely acceptable, almost healthy.
Guess what? It’s not healthy.
Don’t let businesses profit on you being overweight.
Businesses can change their habits. It isn’t over, as they say, until the fat lady sings.
Well, soon enough the fat lady could be dead, perhaps laid to rest in an extra-large coffin.