Being average…
What comes to your mind when you see or hear that phrase? Maybe something along the lines of normal or ordinary. Average means that you’re just like everyone else and that’s good right? Maybe it was in the 1900’s, but it definitely isn’t now. What people have a hard time understanding is that the averages these days definitely shouldn’t be the norm.
The average weight for a 10-year-old boy in 1963 was about 75 pounds. That’s pretty healthy with a BMI of 17.1. But, by 2002 the average weight went up about 10 pounds to reach 85 pounds. This weight has a BMI of 19.4, which is overweight. So if you’re average weight for your height and age chances are, you’re overweight.
If you think that’s scary, here’s something to think about. About 1 in every 3 children from the ages 6-19 are either overweight or obese. Over 1/6 of all children from the ages 6-19 are considered obese. In the 1950’s about 10% of all american adults were obese or extremely overweight. 
That’s pretty bad right? Well by 2012 more than 33% of adults in the U.S. were obese. That’s more than one-third of our adult population. Which means 80,823,606 adults were obese in 2012!
What causes Obesity?
As people grow so do their habits. So naturally over the years our eating habits have changed as well. You don’t see many people eating a 7 course meal daily anymore. That used to be a very common diet in the 1800’s.
One of the biggest factors that lead to obesity is soft drinks. The first carbonated soft drink was made in 1807, but soft drinks didn’t start becoming popular until the 1830’s. Now, almost 200 years later people all over the world are enjoying soft drinks. But how much is too much?
Soft drinks soon became the most consumed beverage, that’s no surprise to many people. The average american drinks 50 gallons of soda every year! That’s more than half of a standard sized bath tub. If that doesn’t shock you than hopefully this will.
One 12oz coke-can has 39 grams of sugar in it. There is more than 39 pounds of sugar in 50 gallons of soda! So every year an average american consumes 39 pounds of sugar every year just from drinking soda. Now I wonder how much sugar americans consume in total. The average american consumes 150-170 pounds of refined sugars in one year!
You don’t need to cut sugar from your diet completely. But you shouldn’t have too much sugar either. A good way to limit your sugar intake is to set certain days and times for treats. Maybe you cannot eat sugary sweets for an entire week, and then have one brownie every Saturday. It’s always better safe than sorry!
