It's because of that weird characteristic of the USAthat encourages excess. Excess food, excess materialism, excess fat, excess greed, excess meaness, excess ignorance..

Also
-) excess poison in our food, water and air
-) Profit driven medical care that is reactive, instead of pro-active.
-) Corporate America's insane greed that requires the workers to work longer and harder than workers in other countries - with more stress since many are underpaid, uninsured, and they know that if it doesn't work out, that they're just one step away from homelessness.

American, Empire of Shame!

-----------

In the empire of shame, controlled by organized scarcity [of food and essentials], war is not sporadic any more, it is permanent. It is not any more a crisis, a pathology, but normality. It does not any more imply the eclipse of reason--as Horkheimer expressed it--it is the very raison d'être of the empire. The lords of the financial war have put the planet under the scalpel of organized economic destruction. They attack the normative power of the States, challenge the sovereignty of the people, subvert democracy, wreak havoc on nature, destroy human beings and their freedoms. The liberalization of the economy, the "invisible hand" of the market, is their way of dealing with the universe; the maximalization of profit is the way it works. I call this practice and this cosmogony structural violence.

Jean Ziegler
http://www.counterpunch.org/accardo12202005.html

Newageartist said "Obesity does not come from eating too much food. It comes from eating unhealthy food."

I can't agree. It comes from neither healthy food nor good food. It comes from lack of exercise.

Exercise, however, is not nearly as profitable as diet books, quackery, weight loss surgery, et al. Everything that dominates US culture has got a corporate cartel promoting it. The diet industry is huge.

Also, has anyone noticed that the decline in life expectancy parallels the decline of health care in this country?

As all the recent indexes seem to suggest, you can never be too rich or too thin.

On the Global Peace Index, the US ranks 96th; 53rd on the World Press Freedom Index; and 42nd on the Life Expectancy Index — much of which is attributed to obesity. On the Eighth Annual Mother's Index (2007), which ranks the best and worst places in the world to be a mother, the US does not even place in the top 10. (Before you get too smug, Canadian readers, consider that Canada doesn't make it into the top 10 either.) Where the USA does score high is on the wealth index: there were 13 US billionaires in 1985; now there are more than 1,000.

Many of the comments above suggest that our food choices are the problem. I'm much more concerned about our non choices in food: The stuff we are force fed like GE foods, high fructose corn syrup, the seemingly endless list of additives to a product that would have had few ingredients just 50 years ago.

While it is true that anybody (theoretically, at least) can get good, wholesome food. It is also true that everybody can't. There is not enough to go around.

A bit off topic, but I've already had my say previously. Same figure 30 years, Siouxrose? You must have some good genes in your jeans. Of course I know some people who have been 5X5 forever, but I'm just kidding. The thing I find most attractive about you is above your shoulders and inside your chest, mind & heart. I, too, have been the same height & weight for, hmmm, over 40 years now. Just that good clean hippie living I guess LOL, or just the right balance of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll more likely.

If we put the same emphasis on positive freedom as we do on negative liberty in this country, we would be near the top of that list.

The answer is obvious: If we can guarantee a right FROM government restricting our speech, then we can also the right TO healthcare. If we can guarantee the right from government restricting our freedom of religion, then we can guarantee all Americans the right TO full education. ... (you see where I am going with this).

Let's emphasize TRUE freedom in this country: The right FROM government restriction of our basic liberties and the right TO the government providing basic human rights.

Edit?___ Okay, it edited.

Me too. And the girls love me. __Cause I love girls. Hi Paul,___ you lecher.

Just got an E-Mail from Linda Kroll in Hawaii, does anyone have an E-mail address for Greenpeace? She needs it to see if they will help with measuring DU on the Islands. I'll check back periodically and see. Thanks.

Our cars kill us. People in New York City live longer because they walk to the subway.

Our ozone kills us. 1/4 of kids in some urban neighborhoods are asthmatic.

Burger King kills us. Too many kids are fat and diabetic. We are awash in trans-fats. Our sugar substitutes cause brain lesions. We eat things called endocrine disruptors and mutagens. We put carcinogens on our lips, on our nails, on our skin. That gerimicidal soap in the lavatory is carcinogenic and the carcinogen soaks right through your skin.

Many of us don't have a medical system. We are killed by high prices, deliberately inflated so that the hospital can overcharge other people's insurance companies, which are trying just as hard to shortchange the hospitals. Other people have lying insurance companies who cut them dead at the first sign of cancer. Why not? Sickos can't fight back. Unfortunately, this was my sister's fate.

What we don't have is an honest or fair government to keep dishonest companies in line. Actually, what we don't have is a courageous citizenry to create consistently honest and fair elections. It's not wrong that you will die early. It's only wrong that you will die for the ashes of promises.

Way to go America. Number 42 in life expectancy. Also Number 53 in world press freedom (source: Reporters Without Borders 2006).What's even creepier is that Nicaragua has a higher life expectancy than African-American men in the US. And what's all this about the USA being the greatest country in the world? Hmmmm.

"The Democratic contenders all promise universal health care."

It won't happen, the system is completely broken. Until we have public financing of elections, Corporate America will continue calling the shots.

This drop in longevity for Americans is no surprise. Certainly our dysfunctional (nonfunctional?) health care system and the greed driving it bears a large portion of the blame.

However, the causative roots of this problem are multi-factorial and deeply entwined in my opinion.

America is a culture on the run. We are racing faster and faster, trying to escape the truth of what we are doing to the planet, our children's futures, and our very own minds and bodies.

Is it any surprise that this acceleration energy which gets played out in our daily lives, coursing through our arteries and veins (i.e. hypertension) results in us winning the race to the grave?

Two things I have found to be very helpful in slowing down our automatic pilot, with its lead foot on the accelerator:
One, is acupuncture, an experience which not only facilitates healing from all manner of physical illness, but also is deeply healing to the mind. In fact, most progressive health educators will concede that the vast majority of illness in America is stress (i.e. mentally) induced.

As an acupuncturist myself, and member of the Community Acupuncture Network, http://www.communityacupuncturenetwork.org/index.php
I am pleased to be able to share that many members of our profession are actively engaged in improving access to quality health care to individuals amongst under-served populations (i.e. lower income, minorities, elderly, etc.

Acupuncture feeds into the second helpful tool in learning how to apply the brakes to our global-train-wreck-about-to-happen minds....learning to relax through meditation, spiritual inquiry, yoga, nature, family, turning off your computer now and then and listening to silence, the wonder and mystery of life. Give it a try.

blessings,
Jordan

Let's not forget. Obesity does not come from eating too much food. It comes from eating unhealthy food. Here in the US the general population has had their food "corporatized". Instead of consuming healthy, organic foods grown locally we are subjected to globalized agriculture with little or no standards imposed for our health. Think what's going into your stomach the next time you grab a Whopper and who's behind it.

Grow your own. Buy local. Defeat the corporatists. Live longer.

A vegetarian diet of organically grown foods together with exersize and positive intellectual activity make people healthy - IF they also shun all poisons like sugar, caffein alcohol, tobacco, prescription pain-killers and street drugs. More people are learning this from each other, and a decent Washington Administration could offer encouragement through the public school system, but the Bush Presidency is NOT a decent administration since it is so dominated by pharmaceutical corportions who profit from a disease-afflicted public.

Call it the walmartization of or thirdworldization of america...the race to the bottom continues.

I think the real problem with well-being in America today is MESMERISM. Too much sitting in front of TV, too much exposure to advertising based on fear of...whatever. Fear of death, illness, obesity, poverty, terrorism. All stoked by commercial and political interests.

I swear if people would just switch of their TVs, take a walk, meditate, get a life, read a book, think their own thoughts for a change - this can all be reversed. One by one we can envision and embrace a whole new way of being alive on Planet Earth.

Disagree with newageartist. Eating too much contributes to piling on the pounds. Yes eating garbage fast food - pizzas, burgers, deep fried everything, 12 ounce steaks and giant muffins will get you fat, but eating too much of everything adds to the lard. I now live in southern France where the size of servings averages less than half of what I regularly see on a plate in America.

Embarrassing but sadly true, people here can pick out a group of American tourists in a crowd simply by their collective size.

In the Languedoc people are much slimmer and live longer. They walk everywhere, eat fresh produce from the markets, eat smaller portions of meat, love fish and treat themselves to delicious deserts but in very small quantities. They unfortunately smoke too much and love their wine and espressos but despite this they are among the longest living people in the world.

Some of us need to cut the level of anger, and push through the 70 hour week with questionably productive agitation. So, access to the approved psycho pharmaceuticals is associated with wealth, but no conclusive study will clip the use of speed to treat ADHD, for example. In many ways, the lame corporate gig can generally require a numbed complacency, binge eating, keyboard drool or propulsive mania. Just keep your mouth shut and do what you're told, you'll get paid and we'll slowly kill you.

Let's keep in mind that many right wingers actually would smile and nod approvingly at this report. Anything that weeds out the undesirables without being a full-on Final Solution -- any back door Eugenics -- is great for many conservatives. In my conversations with conservatives, it takes very little prodding for support of Eugenics to come roaring out.

Bill Moyers said recently that modern American life breaks people down and tears families apart. We've gotten to the point that our way of life is killing us. This is not about eating the Super Size french fries.

James McMurtry put it well in his recent protest song, "We can't make it here anymore."

Health care is one part of the larger picture, which also includes debt, job security, retirement security, cost of energy, cost of child-care, etc. It's a comprehensive portfolio of constant stressors.

The cynic in me says this is a perfect set of conditions to keep the poor and the burgeois in check. Keep them out of politics, distracted, burdened and stressed.

I like Gravel's idea of the national initiative for democracy. If we can get something like that going, we can start with universal health care, socialized medicine, and go from there until we can all at least breathe.

This rating provides one more piece of evidence that the USA is seriously off-track in comparison with other industrialized nations. One can only hope that as the mountain of evidence accumulates that a critical mass of US citizens will recognize that the so-called "free market" is not utilitarian (i.e. providing the greatest good for the greatest number), which has always been the justification for its inegalitarian nature, and that corporate capitalism is a fundamentally flawed economic system that does poorly at providing for the common welfare.

As I've posted before, the only obese people I saw during one week in southern Africa were Americans.
I did get an extra ride at Disneyland's Matterhorn once because this guy ahead of us was so huge that he couldn't get out of the cart and backed up exiting rail traffic until emergency crew ran up with butter and a large shoehorn.

So I honestly admit that I have benefitted from another's obesity, yet I'm still against it.

re mirf59: 'Bill Moyers said recently that modern American life breaks people down and tears families apart'

Indeed. In this post-industrial age everyone has the opportunity (in theory, anyway) and even the expected obligation to earn their own way, unlike past historical eras. Extended families (the best in Kurt Vonnegut's view) cannot exist because most individual opportunities occur somewhere else.

You're on your own, the mantra of any conservative who already has his.

Everyone needs to get off their fat-asses, turn off the tv, and exercise. Stop circling the parking lot looking for a closer space, drive past the arches, ect. Has anyone noticed how much thinner people look in old movies?

I hate all these self satisfied comments by people blaming others solely for their individual choices that they think lead to those 'others' becoming too fat and/or too sick. Look in the mirror though, People. It is your own lack of compassion for others that leads to the US disintegrating in ALL standards of well being. We have become a hateful society where everybody wants to blame the 'other', when it fact it is the coldness and sterility of social life here that makes for depression, overeating, and lack of activity in mass.

My wife is from China and in 1997 my mother-in-law came to visit for a few months, having never been to the USA before. After seeing many of the so-called marvels of the modern capitalist post-industrial economy, my wife asked her what had the greatest impression on her. And she said it was that she had never even seen one extremely obese person in China in her entire life, but in the USA you could see half a dozen of them in one restaurant at the same time. She said her friends back in China would never believe her.

Americans get what they deserve. They wreak havoc on the world, and the world responds. USA going down in flames.

Don't forget stress! Grads trying to pay off their education, families struggling to pay the rising costs of healthcare bills, daycare, and housing which has all escalated in price! Stress will definitly hurt your heart as well as your mind.

The combination of bad diet, poor health, and lack of access to healthcare will also do you in!

"Walk": good advice, to look after one's health, especially now, as the stress is really eating away at folks.
For those without any cash for this procedure, there's always ACUPRESSURE, which is so remarkable, it blows me away.
When my son was in a horrible catatonic state a couple of years ago, from needless chemical exposure while working at a local factory, after being blown off by the hospital (beyond inept ER doc), we just were frantic thinking he would die. I looked up info which led me to an acupressure site. An hour after this procedure (which requires only a fingertip, or pencil eraser end), my son sat up and asked what was going on! He was really out of it for a while, but every minute that went by he was more aware.
Since then, we have used it on every single ailment, with success, from kidney stones, neck and back pain- you name it. May as well make it apart of your library, link to a great booklet you can print:
http://www.geocities.com/jrh_iii/acupressure/acupoints.html

This article still uses corporo-framing. Lack of coverage, lack of insurance. Was it written by industry hoping to get onto the subsidy gravy train?

The REAL problem is lack of access to affordable care. And the solution is probably single-payer or something like that. Insurance is largely the problem, not the solution.

The U.S. life expectancy rate is down, wonder why?

The United States has expended far more depleted uranium ammo on our military firing ranges than any other country and we have done so, for a much longer period of time than any other country. The only locations on Earth where more DU ammunition has been used, is in the Mid-East. Wonder what the life expectancy rates for the people of Iraq and Afgansitan are now?

I realize many are likely fed up with my and some others continual harping on the issue of DU, but if we do not put a stop to the use of DU, we are going to be one very sad bunch of people in a very few years. You will all find out.

Cancer rates of ALL types have soared in the United States in the past twentyfive years and the rates cotinue to soar. Diabetes and autism and other once rather rare diseases have soared also, especially in children.

We began using DU in the 70s and have expended thousands of tons of that incredibely deadly poison across the entire country. Some areas such as Hawaii are heavily contaminated and we don't stop using it. It is insane, and even on Common Dreams, so few seem to care. There are thousands of websites to read on the subject, but I'd wager that not ten percent of the intelligent, progressive people who read here have bothered to even check, much less thoroughly check it out. Why? Probably because DU dust is invisible and we don't see it, so it ain't there; why be concered is a human reaction. A single speck of it inhaled, will over time kill anyone.

When an article is published here concerning DU__ or the enviroment, it is quickly buried in the archives, where very few ever see it. Health incurance is not the main issue, although it is a serious one. The most important issue for us should be DU use. We wouldn't need to use the health insurance we do have, if we weren't getting sick from radiation poisoning, a disease which is a very insidious attack of the body's immune system and difficult to diagnose. It is a slow death and causes all types of cancers, alters DNA and attacks the immune system and enters a fetus and causes birth defects and brain damage in babies.

Does anyone care besides the very few who address the problem here? Guess not, there is no major public outcry to end the insanity. Everyone is pissed because of the war in Iraq, and we are allowing our government to poison our enviroment and kill our kids.

"NO kidden, wow,__ well,__ time for supper'. Ho=hum.

Americans have lost their own minds.

1. Manipulated by pablum education that does not promote critical thinking;

2. Messaged by boob tube programs from toddlerhood that distract and put one in a trance [reading and imaginative play are active things that create intricate networks in the brain] and frequently promote violence even in cartoons;

3. Bombarded by colorful, clever tv ads that promote materialism and the devouring of chemically contaminated, fatty, sugary non-nutritious foods in pretty packages and burgers and fries and milk shakes for fast-food family outings;

4. Encouraged to totally forget about the fact that the majority of us are born with exquisitely tuned immune systems that get stronger and more effective as they battle, conquer, and eliminate mild infections and diseases from our bodies, but instead we are primed to run to the white-coated medicine men who give us green, purple, pink, orange, blue pills [with silky- voiced dangerous side effects], which screws up our immune systems that desperately work to regain balance, but eventually can't do the work they were designed to do;

5. Encouraged to eat pills if we have a bad day or feel gloomy for three hours; encouraged to accept new emotional and physical conditions that are discovered by the week and given dire-sounding names;

6. Conditioned to buy and CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME and not think, not do, not laugh and sing and play and work together except maybe watch a movie on the couch ...;

7. Sold on the ideas of a brand new car every year and must have home-depot eclectic MacMansions and to work harder for WHAT IS OUR RIGHT!!!! even though we use up/take 25 to 30 per cent of all the earth's resources per annum as compared to the total of other nations use/taking;

8. Manipulated with notions of terrorists and enemies coming out of every corner ... hey, guys, read the compiled evidence on 9lltruth.org for who did what and when ...;

9. Denied compassionate health care for all the people and for those who really need medicine and medical procedures;

10. and I'll stop. Get a grip. Check out all the belief systems that have been pumped into us, that have conditioned us to where we are a nation going down the tubes.

And maybe, if you've bought into much of this nonsense, change your mind and change your life and life style, and help your family members and friends do the same.

This is ORWELL time ... and it's been going on for decades.

As someone once said: The Truth will set you free. What is true and what is Truth? And that's the individual journey through the webs of conditioning and indoctrination everyone of us is subjected to from the day we draw our first breath.

And we won't find it in a pill or Chem-lawn or Jello pudding with everything chemical except the milk we add.

The symptoms of our fall are now on a list that puts our life expectancy at #47.

Obviously, something needs to change. Maybe the way we think and do.

The use of DU is why our life expectancy rate has fallen. We are killing our kids with it.

It's no wonder the US is lagging behind the most developed countries in the world. We work more hours and are allowed less vacation than most developed countries. Even so, our work doesn't pay off. The neocons ensure the middle class is kept in its place by burying us in taxes to pay for "defense" and the increasing costs of the goods/services Corporate America produces. Middle class workers (those not replaced by outsourcing) receive little or no pay increases, while corporate management has never had it so good. The cycle continues so that the gap between the rich and the poor widens.

Still, Americans are swallowing this neocon plan hook, line, and sinker. Perhaps it is because of our money-starved and deteriorating public schools that so many Americans can't figure out what they are doing to themselves.

It's the use of DU.

Live fast, die young, leave a bloated corpse....

To paraphrase Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol," what's wrong with reducing the surplus population? The main reason resources such as health care are so stretched is that there are just too many people. We need population control first, then we can work on weight control. It will never happen, because the KKK (Kooky Kristian Konservatives) need "more souls for Jesus."

So y'all, smoke 'em if ya got 'em!

(seriously, I'm only partly joking)

The war profiteers that run the country will happily continue to spend our tax dollars to enrich themselves even more -- on wars instead of health care, education, and anything else that will improve our lives.

IMPORTANT words in the title of the article are, U.S. life expentcy TUMBLES.

When something is TUMBLING, it gains speed, and if you desire to stop it from going over a cliff, what do you do? You find what set off the tumble. This tumble began just a few short years ago and it will steadily roll a hell of a lot faster if we don't stop it.

The PRIMARY reason is very simple. If you have children you love, and you don't have fits about the use of DU, and harrange your congress people to put an immediate stop to it ___then you are not very smart. Any who don't like that comment, are even less smart.

Here are a couple of websites to read about the absolute dangers of DU for all of us. If you are not aware of the DU issue and you don't take the time to read them, you are stupid.

http://www.xs4all.nL/~stgvisie/ud_main.ltml

www.protecthawaii.ws/page2.html

If these sites won't open for you, there are thousands of other websites about DU.

That first website I posted is not always available for some reason. There are thousands of other websites available on the internet that tell us about the dangers of DU. Some are written by denyers who have either political or monetay reasons for confusing the issue.___ Weapon sales are very profitable for the neo-cons.

Let me take a bite of this, USA is on 42nd street and slipping ...truth is that is an average only an average. It has always been bad for poor here. Always been as bad as it gets anywhere. If no health care then there is no health care. Some workers get some health care... guess who gets good coverage ?
Let me make this multi-guess for you...
A. da rich
B. prisoners
C. the politicans
D. all of the above
correct answer is D.
signed dr Noshit

I got this from a friend over a year ago, and I followed up on it for a while. You want to get chilled to the marrow, read this. Not only Pianka's talk, but the reaction of the scientists at the symposium.

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=49555

If you follow the links, you'll get more of what he advocates, which is, in short, to perfect the Ebola virus, perhaps crossing it with bird flu virus so it will transmit easier, then turn it loose on the populace. The calculation is that it would kill 90% of the human race.

Granted, we are overpopulated, but Ebola? Pianka has been with the lizards too long.

He got a standing ovation from the assembled scientists, for advocating genocide in the cruelest possible way.

I saw a report last week saying that the USA lagged behind Cuba in the important categories of average life expectancy and infant mortality.
The irony is delicious for us non-Americans however the solution is obvious, for the vast majority of Americans who are honest, peace loving and compassionate: get off your butts and dispatch that bunch of neo-con warmongers, murderers, liars and deceivers to history's garbage bin.

No one ever talks about how over the last 20 years more and more of us have had to take sedentary office jobs. Not only that, but most of us have to commute. Why do we work 40 hours a week anyway? What would happen if we worked 32 hours and took our cars off the roads for a day a week? What if whoever could telecommute would be encouraged to do so (I could do my work in my pajama's and avoid the drama queens in my office!). What I'm getting at is -Cut the commute to save gas and free up time for EXERCISE. Between a 45 hour work week and having to come home and cook dinner and attend to household admin, I don't have much time left over for exercise. I make time but it's not enough. GIVE PEOPLE MORE CONTROL OVER THEIR OWN LIVES!! To make sure they use the extra time to exercise give them incentives. I get an extra $15 a paycheck for not being a smoker for instance. So that's my opinion - office work is killing us! Commuting is killing us!

Would Mister Depleted Uranium shut the hell up, already?

NO MYCROFT___ NOT UNTIL THE WEBMASTER SHUTS ME UP. If you have a mouse and know how to scroll on by, use it ALREADY. You from Philly or New y-o-u-k?

IBERTUS FUGIT, Good post, that is incedible. I have a question for you? That proposed use of Ebola virus bothered you, as it should, even tough it has never been done.

Does the use of DU, which WE ARE spreading all over the world bother you? DU is doing the same thing the Ebola virus would do, only it will take longer to kill everyone.

Kem,

Obviously you haven't been following my posts on DU. Here is a link that will answer your question.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=OSB20060314&articleId=2093

I'm afraid we may have already let the genie out of the bottle.

Many of the regular bloggers have a number after their name, like billy__4y. I notice that MOST of the trolls use a number after ther name like. (Tech2). Wonder if that is some sort of a protective shield or a signal to other trolls.

I think the message is that we in the US are NOT #1. We're not #1 by almost any criteria that measures the well-being of the population. So, tell me again why America is the best place in the world to live? Why do our politicians, TV talking heads and every other rah-rah boob with a microphone and a video camera tell us we're "the best in the world?" It's delusional. And the fact that so many Americans accept that declaration without question is further indication of how far sub par we are.

Really JH, I think the message IS exactly what it reads. We have a lot of people, including babies and children, dying before they should be dying.

Cuba isn't number one either. But they haven't been testing DU weapons for over thirty years on their military firing ranges.

We have American citizens being treated for radiation poisoning in Cuba, free of charge. They had no health insurance, or the insurance company's they do have refused to pay for their treatment. What is wrong with that picture?

IBERTAS, Thank you very much for the posts.

I am sorry, I read so many blogs, I often forget all of the names. A senior moment. I am delighted that you replied too. You are right, we may have done it, but I'm sure you will agree, we should stop doing it.

I apologize, Kem. I by no means meant to imply that depleted uranium was not a serious problem. I agree entirely that it is harmful and that its use should be brought to an immediate end.

I was merely suggesting that your opinion that its use is responsible for the decline in American life expectancy is dubious at best, and that your harping on the issue makes you sound like a bit of a nutcase.

I do not understand your references to Philadelphia and New York.