The Star plays host to a community forum regarding Alabama’s obesity epidemic. The meeting, which is part of the newspaper’s Our Big Problem project, starts at 7 tonight at the Anniston City Meeting Center (1615 Noble St.).
We’ll begin by screening an installment of the new HBO documentary series The Weight of the Nation. Afterward, everyone is invited to take part in a community conversation about solutions.
We’ve got plenty to talk about. Seven-in-10 Americans are either overweight or obese, and Alabama is among the fattest states in the country. The toll is showing up in the growing number of cases of diabetes, heart disease and other ailments attributable to excess weight. “Almost every organ system in the body is adversely affected by having excess body fat,” Dr. Samuel Klein, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis, says in The Weight of the Nation.
The process of weight loss and gaining fitness is not complicated; burn more calories than you take in. However, Americans seeking a healthy lifestyle confront a jungle of barriers that makes reaching their goal difficult. Join us tonight and let’s start making a clear path to a healthier state and nation.
Related: #ourbigproblem
