The face of Canada has changed in recent years. We may not realize it so much, but I bet our parents and grandparents do. The truth is: we are getting fatter!
But what has happened to change everything?
Here are some numbers to give you a better idea of how things have changed within the past thirty years. Back in 1978/79, the Canadian obesity rate was 13.8%; whereas, a 2004 survey found 23.1% of Canadian adults to be classified as obese (Tjepkema, 2008).
What is even scarier is that an on-going study of grade 9 students is finding that most already have at least one major risk factor for heart disease and stroke! We may have thought of heart disease as something we might face in our middle-age, but maybe we should reconsider that notion. Researchers found the rates of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obesity in this group of 14 and 15 year olds to be very troublesome, especially since these numbers are only likely to increase (Heart & Stroke Foundation, 2009).
So where does that leave everyone else? How is our health doing?
I guess this is proof that just because we are young, we do not need to worry about such problems. We do! This is definitely not something that we should ignore nor is it something that we should try to fix with some pills. What people may not realize or choose to ignore is that we can control and take charge of this problem and acutally do something about it. Will you?
