Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET by MARGARET DICKSON THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET And the War Is on! We Americans take a little while to absorb news, especially when we really do not want to hear it. Take smoking for example. For generations we smoked up a storm. First men smoked. Then it became an acceptable practice for women. Children sneaked smokes when their parents were not around. Then, in the 1960s, the U.S. Surgeon General informed us in no uncertain terms that smoking was not only bad for us, it was killing us. It took several decades, but we fi nally got the message, and smoking is no longer acceptable in increasingly large numbers of places. In fact, we have passed laws regulating it in public places and make people go outside to do it. The war on smoking is not over, but it is clear that "No Smoking" is winning. Now comes the war on fat. It is hardly news that the United States is the fattest country in the world, very likely in human history. Two thirds of North Carolinians now fall in the overweight or obese categories, and experts are saying that the children of the Baby Boomers may become the fi rst generation in history to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents, in part because of their weight and the problems it brings. If weight were merely a cosmetic issue — one of looking slim and trim, there would be no war, but our collective weight has ballooned so dramatically and threateningly that the soldiers against fat are massing for the charge. The enemy, fat, is complicated, though. Human beings fi nd ourselves overweight or obese for the simple reason that we eat more than we need to fuel our bodies and we eat too much that is not in the years since World War II. Think a bag of carrots versus a bag of potato chips and you get the picture. Getting our weight under control is to the early years of the 21st century what smoking was the the last years of the 20th. Much of the war now getting underway is focused on children and adolescents on the reasonable hope that heading off obesity is easier than fi xing them later. Schools are offering healthier options in cafeterias, although this sensible approach is more complicated than you might think because of the price of fresh foods. A new program operating in a handful of North Carolina schools offers students chilled water laced with low-cal vitamins that they can put into their own containers. Elsewhere, schools are experimenting with allowing students to take brisk walks while listening to their lessons using various technologies. Walking to school, often in the company of parental volunteers, is coming back in style in some communities, although it is clearly not an option in others. Adults are issuing fi tness challenges to each other in Two thirds of North Carolinians now fall in the overweight or obese categories. good for us, although some people suffer with their weight for mental or physical reasons. Couple our current eating habits with a our exercise habits — or lack of them, and it is easy to see how we have gotten into the shape we are in a relatively short time, really over the last two decades. There are other issues at play as well. For complex economic reasons, processed, non-nutritious foods are less expensive than fresh, unprocessed healthy options. In addition, many Americans lack mobility or access to grocery stores that offer fresh and healthy foods. And then, of course, fatty foods are tasty, and we have accustomed ourselves to them offi ces and as individuals, some even offering prizes like free vacations to the biggest losers. Doctors are being encouraged to consider a patient's Body Mass Index (BMI) a vital sign like heart rate and blood pressure. My own doctor mentions this one regularly and with good reason. Technology is a huge tool at all ages, offering tools to keep up with what we are eating and how much we are moving. The bottom line is this: insanity is to keep on doing what we are doing and getting the same result — in this case overweight and obesity, then we're there. What we have been doing over the last two decades or so is not working for us, and if the defi nition of No one thinks this is going to be easy or fast. It is going to be a long, hard slog for most of us, but it is an effort we cannot afford not to make. Just like smoking, our eating and sedentary lifestyles are killing some of us and compromising millions of others. I know I have a battle, and I also know I want to be around to meet the Precious Jewels' Precious Jewels. MARGARET DICKSON, Con- tributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Daily Specials Breakfast Lunch Dinner Fresh Seafood Hand Cut Steaks Homemade Desserts Italian & Greek Children's Menu Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! JULY 4-10, 2012 UCW 5 484-0261 4 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-3pm