Diabetes costs the United States $218 Billion annually according to a new study released today. The astronomical, bailout scale, figure includes medical care costs, insulin, amputations, hospitalization, and indirect costs like lost productivity, disability payments and early retirement. The costs to the American economy amount to an astounding 10% of all health care costs in the country.

What makes these already frightening numbers even scarier is that the total number of people suffering from diabetes in the United States has nearly doubled in the past decade, from 5 in 1000 ten years ago to 9 in 1000 today, and continues to grow. Plus diabetes disproportionately affects the least fortunate in our society, where access to healthy foods in poorer ares much more difficult to come by and harmful fast food joints are ubiquitous. Tragically these businesses who trumpet their low prices necessitate a much greater cost to the health of the nation in the long run.

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Not safe for children.

Obese children have arteries similar to those of 45-year-olds according to a study recently presented to the American Heart Association. The project made the disturbing finding that the arteries in many obese children and teenagers are as thick and stiff as those found in people 30+ years their senior. Such children stand a high chance of developing heart disease much earlier than their parents, in some cases as early as their 20’s and 30’s, unless their condition is reversed.

Making matters worse is the fact that the United States is currently experiencing an epidemic of childhood obesity. A study from the Centers for Disease Control from just this past May found that 16.3% of all American children and teenagers are obese, and an additional 15.6% are overweight. The staggering numbers have all the makings of a near future public health crisis unless present diet trends are drastically changed.

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As Danny mentioned, today is World Food Day- one of the few international holidays that I know of that affects everyone worldwide. With nearly one billion people undernourished worldwide, juxtaposed against an increasingly overweight population in the US, World Food Day is an opportunity to reflect on the sources of your food, how your food choices affect the world food crisis and the implications of our agriculture policies on domestic and international issues (such as the opposite forces of malnutrition and obesity competing for our resources).

According to the United Nations, this year’s holiday is an opportunity to recognize the relationship between global warming and food. As their site says, Food is Energy. The relationship between your food choices and global warming cannot be ignored food production, especially from livestock, is one of the largest contributor’s to greenhouse gases, the main global warming culprit. Learn what you can do to reduce your carbon footprint with eco-friendly food choices at Take A Bite Out of Climate Change. These include simple things such as skipping meat one day a week, buying reducing the amount of processed food you consume and not wasting food. Cumulatively, everyone’s actions will make a significant difference in reducing global warming, helping to develop a sound agriculture policy at home and addressing the international food crisis.

takepart with Take A Bite out of Climate Change

Related:

Maybe Wall-E was right?

According to a study published in the journal Obesity, all US adults could be overweight in 40 years. ALL? Is that even possible?

Researches say that even if we never actually reach 100% of the adult population, any upward is the cause for alarm. 2/3 of the US adult population are already overweight.

And waistlines aren’t the only thing getting bigger.   The cost of healthcare directly related to excess pounds will double each decade, reaching $957 billion in 2030 — that’s one of every six healthcare dollars spent in the US.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Before He Was Indicted, Ted Stevens Was “Tubed” by Blair Golson

Strawberry Fields Forever by Wendy Cohen

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Nicole Hughes:

Green Video of the Week: Crazy Alien Plants

Fat Princess Video Game: The Joke’s Not Really That Funny

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Andy Kondrat:

Alaska’s Northwest Passage to Open For Second Straight Year

Stephen Colbert Interview’s Brendan Koerner, Slate’s Green Lantern

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Jon Popham:

L.A. Bans New Fast Food Joints

Flint Michigan Seeks Sponsors…For Police Surveillance Cameras

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Gina Telaroli:

Veganism in Ohio: Update #2, Photo Diary

An Apology for Slavery and Jim Crow? We Shall See…

The Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted today to put a ban on new fast food restaurants in South Los Angeles. City Officials are hoping the ban will help slow the rapidly growing obesity rate in this impoverished area of the city. Thirty percent of South L.A. adults are obese compared with 19.1 percent of adults in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area and 14.1 percent on the more affluent west side of town. This comes as little surprise when you consider that 73 percent of all restaurants in South L.A. are fast food compared with 42 percent in West Los Angeles. The moratorium will last for one year and is intended to attract other types of restaurants to an area desperately in need of healthier choices. The bill requires the signature of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to become law. The California Restaurant Association is considering a legal challenge to the city ordinance.

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The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

Nicole Hughes:

U.S. Media Ignores Link Between Midwest Floods and Global Warming

Top 10 Houseplants for Removing Indoor Air Pollution

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Andy Kondrat:

Dubai to Build Rotating Positive Energy Tower

Bioethicist Peter Singer Tackles World Food Shortage

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Jon Popham:

Americacorps Workers Assist Flood Ravaged Town

Australians “Out-Fat” Americans

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Giulia Rozzi:

Progressive Book Club

Oprah Recommends “A New Earth”

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Gina Telaroli:

Human Rights Watch 2008 Film Festival Update

SilverDocs 2008 Update

Australians have surpassed Americans in obesity, decisively taking the title of Most Obese Country on Earth in a stunning blow to the national identity of the USA. If you thought the Land Down Under was all about buff, bronzed beach bods frolicking on sunny south Pacific beaches, think again. A new study done by the Baker Heart Institute reported that 70% of men and 60% of women aged 45-65 in Australia were obese, having body mass indices that exceeded 25.

Dr. Simon Stewart, head of preventative cardiology at the Baker Heart Institute told Agence France Press,”As we send our athletes off to the Olympics let’s reflect on the fact that we would win the gold medal problem now in the world fat Olympics if there was such a thing,”.

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FATWORLD is a video game using cute characters and bright colors to teach players the relationships between obesity, nutrition, and socioeconomics in the contemporary U.S.

As explained on FATWORLD.org: The game’s goal is not to tell people what to eat or how to exercise, but to demonstrate the complex, interwoven relationships between nutrition and factors like budgets, the physical world, subsidies, and regulations. Existing approaches to nutrition advocacy fail to communicate the aggregate effect of everyday health practices. It’s one thing to explain that daily exercise and nutrition are important, but people, young and old, have a very hard time wrapping their heads around outcomes five, 10, 50 years away. You can choose starting weights and health conditions, including predispositions towards ailments like diabetes, heart disease, or food allergies. You’ll have to construct menus and recipes, decide what to eat and what to avoid, exercise (or not), and run a restaurant business to serve the members of your community.

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Not to be outdone by Aqua Colbert, Bill Maher’s got his own hot concept for the bottled beverage business. From last Friday’s “New Rules”:

“As far as I’m concerned, Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr. Pepper still doesn’t have enough shit going on. I need Caffeine-Free Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr. Pepper”no, no, no, I need Cool Ranch Extreme Caffeine-Free Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr. Pepper. And baked. And, I want a sticker on it telling kids that drugs are bad.”

Maher’s mockery of marketing run amok raises a sticky issue: the fact that excess soda consumption’s doing more harm to our kids than drugs are, objectively speaking. And soda–even diet soda–is taking a toll on grown-ups, too.

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