It's time we eat healthy for ourselves, our future

August 26, 2012
Opelika-Auburn News (Alabama)

We’ve been warned before, not that we cared.

For the second consecutive year, Alabama is ranked as the second-fattest state in America. According to the report “F as in Fat: How obesity is threatening America’s future,” a whopping 31.6 percent of Alabamians are obese. The annual report, sponsored by the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, also stated that two-thirds of Alabama adults are at least overweight, if not obese.

The major problem here is health. Obesity can lead to a myriad of health issues, including diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. Health issues are costly, and someone’s got to pay the bill. It certainly doesn’t help the ever-growing Medicare expense.

Why must Alabama be fat? We aren’t exactly the richest state in the Union. Low-cost foods aren’t always the healthiest, so we’re not exactly being helped out at the checkout counter when it comes to health-conscious items. The rising cost of produce — fruits and vegetables — aren’t appealing when you can buy a frozen dinner, can of lasagna or sugar-packed snack cakes for far cheaper.

We love our fast food restaurants, and we love to super-size our orders. Not a good idea, particularly when we choose to choke our arteries with even more grease than they had before.

We love our fried foods, too. Chicken. Catfish. French fries. Onion rings. Pork chops. Side of cholesterol. Country fried steak. Not good for the waistlines, though our taste buds aren’t complaining.

But it’s time we take a health-conscious stand, not just for the sake of our own health, but also for our children. Poor eating habits are observed by little ones and passed down to them. Make the right choice. Finding less-expensive healthy foods isn’t easy in this day and age, but perhaps we could make sacrifices in other areas, so we can eat baked chicken, baked fish, and fresh fruit and vegetables so we can live longer and more productive lives.

Isn’t that what’s most important?

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