Project Overview
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
PROJECT 3E focuses on the simple concept of the balance between foods we eat and the amount of exercise we get. We call it the 3 E’s approach; Eating Healthy, Exercise and Examination. By focusing attention on the 3 E’s and offering incentives to encourage good habits we believe behavioral change will occur, producing more healthy individuals as shown by health indicators.
FACTORS DRIVING OBESITY
Two factors seem to drive unhealthy people in the United States, poverty and obesity. These are not exclusive of each other. Impoverished people tend to eat low cost fatty foods high in processed sugars and sodium. This diet along with minimal exercise is the recipe for obesity.
The surgeon general has said that ‘America’s Obesity epidemic will dwarf the threat of terrorism if the nation does not reduce the number of people who are severely overweight’. Obesity also brings a high rate of cardiovascular disease and Type 2 Diabetes.
HERE IN SOUTHEASTERN KY
Whitley County ranks 100th in terms of health of Kentucky’s 120 counties. If that is not bad enough, Kentucky’s health ranks 44th among the 50 states. Additionally, Kentucky ranks 2nd in the Nation in Obesity with 67.4% of its adults being obese or overweight, and Kentucky ranks first in terms of cancer occurrences and tobacco use.The cost of obesity to the health care system is estimated at $147 billion per year. Kentucky spends more than $1 billion on obesity related illness every year. This is not new information. Most likely we have all heard this and if not it’s not hard to understand and believe.
|
|
|||
 |
|
||