09 September 2010

Army of Carters


my first exposure to Nell Carter was in 1979, when I saw her in Milos Forman's Hair. i then remember her becoming a household name a few years later, in Gimme A Break. while certainly not the first overweight/obese TV performer, i do recall her weight being a frequent topic, and kind of a big deal.

i'm looking at NHANES weight statistics, that i found here.

now, i don't know Ms. Carter's weight in the early 80's, but after some googling I found reference to her admitting her doctors labeling her obese. at 4'11", which at 150 lbs. would put her BMI just north of 25.

at 200 lbs, she would have a BMI > 40, technically "extreme obesity".

back to the NHANES data (page 5, table 2)...

from the 1976-80 data, to the 2007-2008 data, the increase of extreme obesity is alarming, from 1.4% to 6% of the sampled population. percentage of overweight barely increased, from 32.1% to 33.6%. But look at obesity, more than doubling from 15% to 34.3%.

Sure, my memories of Ms. Carter were that of a large woman, and photos from the era confirm that. But looking around me now, she's actually somewhat modest in comparison to people i see on a daily basis.

i see nothing coming from federal agencies anytime soon that will address this. it's still a litany of eat-less/exercise-more, eat low-fat and prefer soy products and corn oil to meat and butter.

oh, and the giant sugar-filled coffee treats are huge in Chicago. it's almost a rule: the larger the container, the larger the person drinking it.

3 comments:

Ame said...

ummm... it's not just in Chicago. I think the weirdest thing for me is all the contractors from India who are coming into work and are size-able. I'm just use to Indian's being skinny. And, they are all quite fat now. It's a problem world wide.

pyker said...

What about Rerun?

JustJoeP said...

Phoenix is full over very very large latinos and latinas who LOVE their giant latte sugar delivery devices. SC has legions of enormous denizens as well.