America's Health Report Card

 

 

Nutrition Action recently published its report card on the health of Americans, and we're probably not eagerly waiting for dad to get home. They offer the following snapshot of our nation's health at a time when people with chronic conditions such as obesity, heart disease and diabetes are at greatly increased risk of the most serious outcomes of a COVID-19 virus infection. Grades are based on the percentage of Americans with normal/healthy results.

High Blood Pressure: F

Only 54% of all Americans have a blood pressure in the normal range (120/80 or lower). For those of us over 65 years old, the percentage is 22%.

Diabetes/Prediabetes: F

For Americans under 65 years of age, 52% of us are either not diabetic or do not have pre-diabetes. About 13% of all adults are diabetic (Type 2) but if you are older than 65 it is 27% - almost 1 in 3. Roughly half of adults 65 and older are pre-diabetic.

High LDL Cholesterol: C-

It is not your total cholesterol that really matters in predicting your chances of developing cardiovascular diseases but your LDL (bad) level. About 71% of us have normal LDL cholesterol levels.

Overweight: F

About 28% of adult Americans have a normal body weight. Of the 72% of us who are overweight, 40% are obese. Children fare a little better, with 61% in the normal range (a solid D-).

Bone Loss (Osteoporosis): F

Here we see a large difference between men and women. Women 50 years of age or older earn an F, with only 30% having a normal bone density. At 59%, men still earn an F+ but are closing in on a D-. Under age 50, the normal percentage increases quickly and is higher the younger you are.

Loss of Muscle Mass: B+

The good news here is that under age 60, muscle loss is about 10% and declines rapidly the younger you are. The bad news is that from age 60 to age 80 it rises to about 50%.

I leave it up to you to decide if these are grades that you would be proud to bring home to your parents. The reality is that all of these conditions are strongly influenced by what you eat and how active a life you live. A charitable interpretation of these results is that a majority of Americans still eat garbage and live like slugs. Its hard to imagine that people do not realize this, they just don;t seem to care. Both of these factors are 100% under your own control. So we can fairly say that most of our chronic health problems are self-inflicted.