Hannah K Today: We're Fat Americans

Are Americans the laughing stock of the rest of the world? As each day passes this question rears its ugly head more and more. We have a dysfunctional family called the Khardashians whose rise to fame was due the matriarch allowing her family's daily lives to be put on TV and the viewing public eating this "reality TV" up. We watch this TV show over the National news. I guarantee you most Americans can tell you what the decathlete formerly known as Bruce Jenner's new transgender name is over knowing a soldier's name from their hometown. Most of us only speak one language, myself included, while the rest of the world is usually bilingual at a minimum. And boy are we fat. Not just a a couple of us with a little extra weight, we're F-A-T, fat. Fat like Randy from "A Christmas Story" whose mom bundles him up with so many layers, when he falls over he can't get back up fat. And what's worse than adults being fat, go to the beach or a swimming pool and look at the kids, they're fat too. It breaks my heart. When I was growing up, there might have been one, maybe two overweight kids in class and they were tormented. "Fatty, fatty two-by-four couldn't fit through the kitchen door" and countless other vicious rhymes. Now it's the skinny kids that get picked on because they're atypical. Since when did it become wrong to be a healthy, normal sized kid? Since we became The FAT Americans, that's when.

I think most of us know that the obesity epidemic is due to our horrific diet of processed, refined and sugar-filled crap, laden with GMOs and artificial colors and chemicals whose names I can't even begin to pronounce. I'm guilt of ingesting what is being passed-off as "food" but the ingredients, even when I try and sound them out, make me sound like I'm Penny trying to talk to Sheldon about theoretical physics. How do I know that a lot of "foods" have big, grown-up words on the labels? Because for about a year I've been diligently reading them and making a conscious choice about what I eat, albeit not always the best choice. The conclusion I've come to is this epidemic is going to be one of the hardest to overcome. Sugar is in almost everything that's processed, even if it's not needed. Why would soup need sugar? Bread? Juice? And many Americans don't know any better, don't know why white flour, white bread, white rice are unhealthy for themselves and their families. They don't understand the pre-cursors to diabetes and what the lasting effects of this disease are. They think soda is an ok beverage to drink everyday. Yes, I said ok to drink everyday and they let their kids drink it, everyday. Soda in my house is a treat, like candy. It's one of the worst offenders of overall health and wellness in America today.

Here are some facts about soda, pop, cola, coke and all the other names it goes by:

- Causes obesity

- Causes diabetes

- Linked to high blood pressure

- Increased chance of stroke

- Higher rate of osteoporosis

- Tooth decay

You may think I'm just out to slam soda makers, that they are evil. If that's what you think, please do your own research, see for yourself that soda is one beverage that should be avoided except on occasion, it should be a treat, not what you drink for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and before bed. Opt for water with a hint of fruit juice, tea (hot or unsweetened with ice)...there are better choices. While it may be hard to go cold turkey, just know that once your body adapts, and it will, you will feel more energy, your skin will look better and most people lose weight.