Here in America, we have built a thriving industry trying to control our weight and treat consequences of over-indulgence. The cost of weight loss and obesity related health care treatments is staggering...Americans alone spend around $114 billion every year! And even with all this interest in losing weight, we continue to pack on pounds like never before...

- A whopping 64 percent of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese...up about eight percent from earlier estimates.

- Among children and teens ages 6-19, 15 percent or almost nine million are overweight...triple rate in 1980!

- Nearly one-third of all adults are now classified as obese.

For Americans, modern life may be getting TOO easy. Our cushy lifestyle means we expend less energy and consequently need fewer calories to sustain our normal body weight.

Think about it for a moment...

Entertainment no longer requires energy expenditure. In fact, it's usually quite opposite. We now entertain ourselves in comfort of our own home while watching TV and munching on our favorite snack. Whether it's television, computers, remote controls, or automobiles, we are moving less and burning fewer calories. Common activities that were once a part of our normal routine have disappeared...activities like climbing stairs, pushing a lawn mower or walking to get somewhere.

And please do not misunderstand me...I appreciate comfortable living just as much as next person. But, here is problem...

With all of our modern day conveniences and "cushy" style of living we have not adjusted our caloric intake to compensate for our decreased caloric expenditure. We consume more calorie rich and nutrient deficient foods than ever before. Consider a few of following examples comparing what we eat "today" vs 1970's (U.S. Department of Agriculture survey):

- We are currently eating more grain products, but almost all of them are refined grains (white bread, etc.). Grain consumption has jumped 45 percent since 1970's, from 138 pounds of grains per person per year to 200 pounds! Only 2 percent of wheat flour is consumed as whole wheat.

About 200 recent studies have shown reading difficulty of most health related materials FAR exceeds average reading abilities of American adult. One of biggest silent health problems today is gap between health materials and reading skills.

In United States, average reading level is eighth grade. In 1992, Educational Testing Service determined that half U.S. adults read at between first and eight grade level. That is about 148 million people. It gets worse. One quarter of Americans read BELOW FOURTH GRADE level, meaning 74 million people would struggle with even simplest, most well written health materials.

Does it matter? Do you remember anthrax scare, when someone was putting deadly white powder into our mail system?

During that terrorist scare, U.S. post office mailed millions of post cards to Americans. The post cards told people how to protect themselves from deadly infection. They gave instructions on how to handle and report suspicious mail. These post cards were written at between ninth and eleventh grade reading level.

More than half people who got that mailing could not read it well enough to protect themselves and others. Does it matter? Do 148 million people matter? Will it matter next time terrorists strike?

Do you remember mailing Surgeon General sent out explaining how to avoid contracting HIV? He made every effort to see that it was written in clear, simple language. He got criticism for just how plain talking it was in places. A later evaluation of that document showed that it was written at between seventh and ninth grade level. Half people receiving it read at a level BELOW what was required to read it. No wonder infection keeps spreading.