Fat City – Obesity in Houston

Last night on the Trio network on digital cable I watched a documentary Trio called “Fat City – Obesity in Houston.” This is a video clip which uses the RealPlayer from the program Fat City – Obesity in Houston. The program said Houston was the fattest city in America from 2000-2003. Two-thirds of Texans are overweight and one-third fall into the obese category. One of the reasons for the problem is the abundance of restaurants in the city that serve cheap food. Many serve all you can eat for one set price. Although the program covered obesity in Houston the material applies equally well to Beaumont.

In addition to the abundance of food the program also covered the climate and the spread out nature of the city which causes the over reliance on the automobile. Residential neighborhoods do not have sidewalks. The climate is very hot and humid. People stay indoors in their air-conditioned homes and do not walk. It showed people who drive fifty feet to their mailboxes. I live in an area where we have cluster mailboxes. It is one tenth of a mile from my house to my mailbox. I always walk to the mailbox, but the majority of my neighbors drive to the mailboxes.

The program also mentioned a body mass index. It told how to calculate the number. I did not catch the formula so I did a Google search and found a website Body Mass Index calculator. I calculated my BMI and found I was in the proper range for my height. I read through the information and found I was one pound under the ideal weight for my age and height. If you read my blog yesterday, you know that I recently lost weight. I was only a couple of pounds above my ideal weight range when I started the diet, but I feel that I had a close brush with the fat culture in Texas. I do not plan to become a victim of fat.