Super sized dilemma

From the sublime to the outright ridiculous it may seem that I am banging at the gates of the obesity high horse once more; and indeed this article entitled `Obesity crisis calls for more heavy-duty ambulances' from the Sydney Morning Herald seems to show this but let me say one thing. If this were not actuality and nor such a serious matter it would be farcical to the extreme.

Congratulations Australia you have now earned yourself the title of being the 2nd fattest nation on the planet next to the U.S.

Take a look at these stats, are these to be proud of?

• The 1999-2000 Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study indicated over seven million adult Australians aged 25 years and over (60%) were overweight.
  Of these, over two million (21%) were obese.
  Men were more likely than women to be overweight, with 67% of men compared with 52% of women (aged 25 years and over) being overweight.
  
• There have been significant increases in the proportions of overweight and obese Australians over the last 20 years. From 1980 to 1999-2000, for people aged 25-64 years, the proportion of overweight women increased from 27% to 47%, and the proportion of overweight men increased from 47% to 66%.
  
• On average, women in 1999 weighed 4.8 kg more than their counterparts in 1980, and men 3.6 kg more.

Statistics from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

The latest figures published in the NSW Health Annual Report 2006/07 don't get any more promising either as shown in the article `Half NSW adults overweight or obese: report'.

Boy is this ever a wake up call, should this trend continue society will eventually restructure itself to cater for this escalation and this will bring about disastrous results bringing forth a pending meltdown in our health care system or whats left of it anyhow.