Shaun Lysen

The CDC posts a shocking timeline about obesity in this country. In just 12 short years we have gone from ZERO of the 50 states having 20% or more of its population obese to now 49 of the 50 states having 20% or more defined as obese (the lone exception being Colorado).  Obesity is defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or greater. Now the criticisms against the BMI are numerous (e.g. many professional athletes would be defined as overweight or obese, and see this for example). 

Even if we concede that the BMI is a shitty metric on an absolute scale, that doesn't mean it's a shitty metric on a relative scale.  For example, suppose I have a scale that systematically says I'm 20 lbs heavier than I really am.  It's terrible at measuring my absolute weight.  However, suppose over the next 2 months, I lose 10 lbs.  While the scale still sucks at measuring my absolute weight, it will accurately measure that I have lost 10 lbs -- a relative measurement. This is often how to deal with bias -- taking differences cancels the bias.

We're an increasingly fat nation.  I'm not breaking any ground by making that claim but I was shocked by magnitude of this trend.  We go from one extreme 0 out of 50 to the complete opposite extreme 49 out of 50.

I'm sure there are many causes like kids of the video game generation are increasingly lazy or the meteoric rise of corn syrup as a cheaper sugar replacement in our food, but the fact remains obesity is linked to some of our biggest health risks, and if you want to talk a way to decrease our health costs that Democrats and Republicans can agree with its this: Go out and get some exercise.  In fact, what are you doing reading this right now?  Get off your ass.