I was reading something about Charles Lindbergh when I saw something that really shocked me.
No, it didn’t have anything to do with hs flight or the controversies surrounding his later life. It was two facts that were only shocking in conjunction with each other.
Lindbergh was 6 feet 3 inches tall and weighed just 110 pounds.
One of his nicknames was Slim.
Ya think?
I mention this only because times were so different then, and there is one primary reason.
Sugar.
I remember reading some years back then in the year 1800, Americans consumed only a trace of refined sugar in their annual diet. By 1900, that trace had become 1-2 pounds a year.
By the 1990s, the average American was consuming a hundred pounds a year, and in the most recent numbers available, sugar consumption is up to 152 pounds yearly.
Think about that. The average American is eating nearly half a pound of sugar a day. So it shouldn’t be any surprise that as of 2020, 42.4 percent of Americans were obese.
Not just overweight. Obese, which means a Body Mass Index of 30 or higher.
Sorry to keep picking on Lindy, but at 6-3, 110 pounds, his BMI was 13.7. Anything less than 18.5 is considered underweight, not a problem many Americans have.
My own BMI was 41.0 in mid-July. Losing 58 pounds as of today has lowered my BMI to 32.2, but to get to a point where I was not even considered overweight, I would have to lose another 49 pounds.
At my age, there’s no way that’s going to happen. But if I can drop 17 more and get down to 195, I will no longer be considered obese. That’s a reasonable goal and it would mean losing a total of 75 pounds.
If you want to know your own BMI, here’s a link to a calculator.
Of course the saddest part of it all is that so many children are overweight. It’s been 55-60 years since my own childhood, but I was never overweight as a kid and I didn’t even know any kids who were seriously porky.
Of course we played outdoors nearly every day, most of the time exercising our bodies in various sports. A big part of my afternoons in fall and winter was playing one-on-one basketball.
That was wonderful at 17, when I was 5-11 and weighed 165 pounds.
On the flip side of life at 71, I’m three inches shorter and exercise is just walking in the mornings. When I started four months ago, I couldn’t walk much more than half a mile before my back started aching. Yesterday I walked nearly 4 1/2 miles and finished without much pain. I’m even hopeful I can start playing golf again.
Sugar is a major enemy, especially since I have been dealing with Type 2 Diabetes. Three months ago, when I had lost 22 pounds, my a(1)c level was down to 6.5, meaning it was acceptable at less than 7.0. Next week I see the doctor and find out how much good the last three months have done me.
I’m never going to be as skinny as Lindy, but it would be nice to not be part of the 42.4 percent.
Real nice.