Health is an Issue of Culture, Not Just Materials

Material causes, or factors, in problems are often easy to point out.  However, often, it is a deeper (and much more controversial) cultural aspect at work which is the root (or a root) of the problem.  What I'm calling cultural, some might call ethereal (in an attempt to dismiss it).  It is those non-material factors that come into play, whether we are talking about the culture around pain management, or the growing culture of obesity int he US.  Whatever the culture may be, it established baseline norms within its realm: standards and expectations.

As our mini-case study in this, let us look at some recent studies about the growing world-wide obesity epidemic. In the first part of 2011 a number surveys have shown that elsewhere in the world, mostly parts of the Middle East and the Pacific Islands, the US is being overtaken.  Unfortunately this does not seem to suggest that the rate of increase of our obese and overweight population has been stemmed:

Recent data show that about 34% of American adults and 17% of children are clinically obese.  About double that amount (for adults): 68%, are considered seriously overweight.  Of course these statistics are reached based upon the BMI (Body Mass Index) which is a very imperfect measure based on mass (in the US we just call it weight and treat it like the same thing) and height.  An athletic or muscle-bound individual can easily end up being grouped with the overweight or obese when they become a data-point under this system.  Body-fat measurement would be much preferable: but that's another topic.

What I really find interesting is this breakdown by state and then by county. Isn't it interesting how 'regional' the obesity rates appear to be?  When we look at the top ten counties for obesity, we see that 6/10 are in Mississippi and then 3/10 are from Alabama.  Then if we look at the top ten for the lowest rates we see 7/10 are in Colorado, with the remaining three in New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming: all in the Mountain West.

What does this tell us? Region to region in the US, we all have access to pretty much the same stores, the same food, the same health-products.  The differences are not even based in urban vs. rural (the best and worst counties all turn out to be relatively rural).  This argues against a material-cause being the root of the problem (however, I would be premise if I ignored that some of those counties in Mississippi are very poor, and some of those counties in Colorado are pretty wealthy).

I would like to suggest that the issue is largely a cultural issue.