I heard an PSA the other day with Stephen Hawking. In case you were wondering who Stephen Hawking is, he is a physicist who is confined to a wheel char due to an illness (ALS) that renders him a quadriplegic. He talks via a computer and he needs assistance 24 hours a day. Although his physical movement is limited his mind is not. The subject of the PSA was world obesity and the illnesses that come about because of it. He stated that we are in control of this condition and that he could not figure out why we could not stop this from occurring. This PSA really makes me feel like a dork.
The sad matter is that he is totally right. There is no reason why we should be the way that we are. Our country is obese. I live in Austin and one of the fattest cities in the country is 90 minutes away, San Antonio. We should be in shape and healthy, this would save our country our world tons of money and make our world a better place. So why is it??? Why are we like this? Is it because we are too lazy, is it because we have too much stuff to keep us occupied? What is it?
I think it is because we have issues that prevent us from doing the stuff that we want to do. For example, most of us do jobs that we do not want to do, so we try to compensate by watching more TV, eating food that is not good for us, stuff that gives us a short spell of Dr Feelgood. And that is a pattern that continues and continues and continues. In general this lifestyle does not become a problem until we get a little older. And as we get older we suddenly have to start taking medicines to combat diabetes, high blood pressure, depression and all those other diseases that are a result of us being obese.
I think we really have to look deep inside of ourselves to get out of these patterns of self-destruction. Why do we do the things that we do and why do we continue to do these things when we know the outcome. Those are the questions that we must ask ourselves. It is hard. It is difficult. But we can do it with help from professionals like therapists and counselors. In most cases we can stop from being obese.
Here is the PSA:
Here is the transcript if you do not want to watch it:
At the moment, humanity faces a major challenge and millions of lives are in danger. As a cosmologist I see the world as a whole and I’m here to address one of the most serious public health problems of the 21st century. Today, too many people die from complications related to overweight and obesity. We eat too much and move too little. Fortunately, the solution is simple. More physical activity and change in diet. It’s not rocket science. And for what it’s worth, how being sedentary has become a major health problem, is beyond my understanding.