I Blame China

I recently had my weight measured by a professional. It turns out I'm obese, at least by the government's standards. I'm not saying that I couldn't stand to lose a couple pounds, or fifty, but there are some mitigating factors involved in the calculation of obesity. I could make this post about all the reasons that the government's standards are wrong (BMI calculation being inaccurate at heights above 6'; changing standards of the definition of obesity, etc.) but I'd rather talk about how I got here.

I put most of the blame on the Chinese. You heard me. It's all their fault. How many times were we told as kids to eat everything on our plate because there were children starving in China? I developed such compassion for the Chinese people growing up that I still can't even be rude to them. I ate every bite of every meal (except the onions) to somehow keep them from starving.

There was a recent news report here that the Chinese children are tired of our leftovers, and I don't blame them a bit.

To this day I still have a hard time leaving food on my plate. As restaurants have increased their portions, my waistline has increased with them because I've been conditioned since birth to lick my plate clean.

There's another reason for the obesity epidemic in this country: the Food Pyramid.

If you add up the total number of servings that are recommended and multiply it by the number of calories in each serving, I'm surprised we don't all look like Violet Beauregarde from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. You can see from this graph of obesity in America that since the food pyramid was introduced in 1992 there has been a steady increase in obesity rates.

I guess there's enough blame to go around: the government, China, the Egyptians (for the pyramid part), and even a little blame left for me for trying to adhere to the food pyramid.