He had some fascinating (and disturbing) things to say about the state of our health and what it is doing to our ability to function as individuals and as a society. Our tendency to over eat, under exercise and smoke has helped create our current health care woes.
The average weight of Americans has increased 1 pound per year for the last 40 years, having gone from 140 pounds in 1960 to 180 pounds in 2000.
Not only does being a nation of fatties constitute a major competitive disadvantage; due to the increasing cost of health care to treat all the avoidable health problems associated with obesity and lack of exercise, but also by the simple fact that fat people don't have the energy (or just generally feel so bad) that they can't work an 8 hour day.
We spend about 16% of our gross domestic product on health care which is about 2 times what the next closest country spends.
Type II diabetes used to be called "adult onset diabetes". That's not a good name for it anymore since it's afflicting younger people at an alarming rate. The increase is associated with poor diets and lack of exercise.
Our increasing girth and weight has caused challenges for other people as well. For example architects - since stairways and emergency exits are designed assuming an average person is so wide and can climb or descend stairs at a certain rate, as well as boat builders, boat designers - a six person boat in 1960 would be a 4.6 person boat today (four 180 pounders plus one 120 pound stick person). I'm sure elevator manufacturers, airplane builders, bungee jump designers all have to take into account the popularity in America of being bigger and beefier.
Mike Huckabee suggests we can fight the battle on obesity and lack of exercise using the lessons from other social changes made in the U.S. He mentioned the "Beautify America" campaign started by Lady Bird Johnson, the use of seat belts and the declining popularity of smoking. All of these things started as cultural changes, thanks to the media and concerned citizens; and only after the cultural shift were laws enacted to enforce the cultural norms (fines for littering, mandating seat belts in cars, limitations on smoking in public places).
The point being that legislating people to lose weight, exercise and practice preventative (rather than curative) health will not work, e.g. the idea that we can force kids to lose weight by taking sugared pop out of machines in school or that we would reduce heart disease by banning trans-fats in NYC.
He suggests that we reward people who take care of themselves by providing well days, or personal days - rather than sick days, and that health insurance pay for nutritional counseling, exercise coaching - rather than waiting until someone is sick and paying for hundred thousand dollar triple bypass surgeries. He mentioned that we provide smoke breaks for people - why not walking breaks?
Mike Huckabee is pretty interesting. He was a chubby (maybe fat) non-athletic kid who lost weight as an adult and ran his first marathon in his late 40's. He must of been doing something right. By the way he has written a book - Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork: A 12-Stop Program to End Bad Habits and Begin a Healthy Lifestyle
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After that I think I need something less serious. The New Yorker has a funny article on being thin (or is it fat?) this week by Ian Frazier, called "Thin Enough".
