Western students and faculty took time out of class Tuesday afternoon to fill the Mass Media and Technology Hall Auditorium to hear James Hill, a professor from the University of Colorado speak about the obesity epidemic in the United States.
The lecture was followed by a question and answer session. The College of Health and Human Services sponsored the event.
Hill, a master scholar and educator, has written more than 320 articles about obesity and wanted to present to Western the problem that keeps getting worse.
“It’s not that we’re getting to be an obese society,” he said, as he pointed out various trends on charts. “We’re getting to be a very obese society.”
Studies that classified individuals based on their body mass index showed a third of people at a healthy weight, a third overweight and at risk for obesity, and the remaining third obese, Hill said.
Hill is from Denver, which has the lowest obese population in the nation. Kentucky is close to the second worst group of states, with 25 to 30 percent of people facing obesity.
“We rest and eat,” Hill said. “And there lies the problem.”
He used pictures of fast food and video games to compare America’s culture with a community in Africa. The latter pictures depicted the African community working outdoors and eating healthier meals.
Louisville junior Kuol Deng is originally from Baidit, Sudan, where he said people are healthier.
“I’m from Africa and most people are on the move all the time,” Deng said. “They cultivate. That is important to health.”
Fad diets are successful in weight loss, but not in weight maintenance, Hill said. He emphasized not concentrating on weight loss, but on keeping weight off.
Small changes, such as choosing to walk the Hill rather than taking the shuttle, will decrease obesity, he said.
Jillian Bracewell, a senior from Brentwood, Tenn., said doing without the shuttle is a step in the right direction.
“It’s a very smart idea and would make a huge difference,” she said.
Students can also eat a little food in the morning, Hill said. Breakfast eaters tend to be successful in losing and maintaining a healthy weight.
People who have kept weight off for as long as three years are able to exercise longer, usually 60 to 90 minutes per day, he said.
Hill emphasized students taking small steps to pack more exercise into each day. He suggested buying a pedometer and using it daily. He compared the price of a $25 pedometer to an advance piece of work-out equipment that cost more than $14,000.
He recommended visiting the Web site: www.americaonthemove.org for those interested in forming a community of good health on Western’s campus. He challenged students to making Western the model of health and wellness.
Reach Katharine Greene at diversions@chherald.com.
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