FOR the first time in modern history, the current young generation will have a shorter lifespan than that of its parents.
Wait, what? Shorter? But how can this be? Aren’t we making giant steps forward in the field of medicine and are well on our way to conquering disease? So if this is true, how then are today’s young people supposed to be having a shorter life than their elders? Is something not quite right here? According to The New York Times:
“For the first time in two centuries, the current generation of children in America may have shorter life expectancies than their parents, according to a new report, which contends that the rapid rise in childhood obesity, if left unchecked, could shorten life spans by as much as five years.
“The report, to be published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, says the prevalence and severity of obesity is so great, especially in children, that the associated diseases and complications—Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure, cancer—are likely to strike people at younger and younger ages.
“The report, which wades into several controversial aspects of public health, is likely to stir debate on both scientific and political grounds. The health effects of being obese depend on many factors, like one’s fitness level. And estimating these effects could alter the expected cost of medical care and the size of pension payouts.
“The report says the average life expectancy of today’s adults, roughly 77 years, is at least four to nine months shorter than it would be if there were no obesity. That means that obesity is already shortening average life spans by a greater rate than accidents, homicides and suicides combined, the authors say.
“And they say that because of obesity, the children of today could wind up living two to five years less than they otherwise would, a negative effect on life span that could be greater than that caused by cancer or coronary heart disease.” (Children’s Life Expectancy Being Cut Short by Obesity, by Pam Belluck, NY Times, March 17, 2005)
Our changing diets
The culprit, it now seems, is the well-travelled “American diet,” represented well by is greatest ambassadors like McDonald’s, KFC, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Pizza Hut and others of their kind. Because of changes in people’s lifestyles—especially the advent of “fast-food” as a convenient and quick way to eat for a generation that is working practically round-the-clock, everything it seems that people put into their food these days is “processed” food, prepared industrial-style, and laden with ingredients that are, well, not really that good for us.
In particular, debate now seems to zero in on two major criminals responsible for the obesity epidemic: sugar and a diet laden in animal fat. There is still some controversy going on about which of the two is the greater offender, but consensus seems to be converging on both as the food groups to avoid.
The findings are American and Western-centric, admittedly.
However, the rest of the world—our country included—is also now a victim of the “bulging waistline” epidemic.
Not surprisingly, this has coincided with the American diet becoming ubiquitous in our lives, replacing the traditional Filipino fare that is rich in plant-based food, and moderate in meat consumption. Add to this our particular penchant for all things sweet (remember, we like our spaghetti sweet), and our risk for falling to the same diseases that are now crippling America is just as great.
Disturbing as it may be, however, it is a problem with an easy answer.
One merely has to remember what the father of medicine famously proclaimed millennia ago—“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
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