Obesity in Canada
>> Monday, January 3, 2011
There was interesting radio program on CBC today. The show was on obesity and has some great info.
In Canada there is a 3-5 year wait for any type of weight loss operation (gastric bypass, gastric sleeve--they remove 85% of your stomach, lap band etc...). At this moment over one million Canadians would qualify for any of these types of surgeries. Imagine you are 19 and morbidly obese you won't have anything done until your at least 21.
Canada is also lowering the required amount of physical activity required on a daily basis (now it is 60 mins a day for adults and 90 kind a day for children). They say that no one is following the requirements, so even if they lower the required number of minutes people will get healthier. This is sad that we are so large that we do not need 60 minutes a day to stay healthy.
There was also an interview with a Med School student who lost 90 pounds because he felt like a hypocrite being a doctor in training and standing 6 foot and 285 pounds with a 46 inch waist. His eyes were opened when he was doing rotations and saw that being obese effected every aspect in the hospital (patients whose necks were so fat that they could not breath). His id picture was a constant conversation piece with patients because as he lost weight his face looked so different from his real face.
Village On A Diet is a new 10 part Canadian mini series, where a group of health care professionals take one of the most obese Canadian towns and tries to slim them down.
