Dear Mr. President:

People die all the time. They die from battle. They die from old age. They die from heart attacks – or at least that’s what’s stated in the obituary. These deaths are often caused by a different, unwritten cause: obesity. Obesity is the number two cause of preventable death in America, leading to ailments like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, poor joint health, and sleep apnea; if you are to lead a better America, you need to make our people not only financially stable, but physically healthy as well.

Obesity is not only affecting our population, but our wallets. The United States government – the division of our country of which you are now in charge – recently approved a $700 billion bailout of our economy. However, according to the Surgeon General, obesity cost the United States about $117 billion in 2000. That price has only risen as our population has become more overweight for the past eight years. Over 14% of what the government is spending to insure stability in the failing economy is currently being spent on America’s widening waistband. People are pulling their money out of the economy in a desperate attempt to save their family’s financial health. When money is so precious, why are we spending so much to fix our physical health?

Obesity does not only affect our physical health, but our mental health as well. For as long as I can remember, my father has been my best friend and role model. When I was a child, I used to try to give him the biggest hug I could; my arms were never big enough to reach around him. To this day ten years later, my arms are barely long enough to give him a proper hug. The Surgeon General also states that parents are a child’s biggest influence on character and habits; since my dad was always eating when I was younger, I now can’t control my binge eating. When I was about ten years old, I noticed that I was a lot bigger than my friends. This realization led to a downward spiral of crash diets, diet pills, and long, taxing days at the gym. Nothing worked until I started exercising on a regular basis; now, I have dropped to my healthy weight. I do not look like a model, but I look like a healthy teenage girl.

Perhaps I was the victim of too-nice parents: they never told me to stop eating, and they always reassured me, calling me beautiful. I don’t blame them for my problem, as I see other people like me. One of my best friends, Mary, was a victim of a similar issue. However, she did not find her solution in the healthy way I did; she resorted to over-exercising and under-eating. In one month, she lost about fourteen pounds. After three, her doctor told her she was borderline anorexic. Mary’s battle to save her appearance worked; as an awful result, she almost paid with her life. Both of these scenarios led to not only physical health problems, but psychological problems as well. That’s another fee we don’t need to be paying – mental treatment for eating disorders is a preventable price as well. It cost about thirty thousand dollars per month per patient in an eating disorder treatment facility. Many insurance companies don’t cover the cost of this treatment; as a result, many people leave before they are fully “treated” and often relapse – or die. Mary and I were lucky – our parents found out before it was too late for us. Other Americans aren’t so lucky. We don’t need to be paying the price for obesity. We don’t need to be paying for eating disorder treatments. Most of all, Mr. President, we don’t need to be paying for gravestones.

I’ve heard that the media puts too much pressure on us; I disagree. I don’t think the media puts enough pressure on us in the right way. We are encouraged to be skinny; however, many magazines offer fashion guides for the plus-sized person. We’re told to eat the right foods, but we’re seldom told what the real “right” foods are. Perhaps we need to be awakened with the truth: death is not only likely for the severely obese, but it is inevitable. Perhaps if we could connect the truth to our every day lives we would become healthier. I love my father. I refuse to cry over his casket, veiled in the black lace of regret. I love Mary. I refuse to watch her look in the mirror and second-guess whether she “won” her battle. I love myself. I refuse to be a statistic. I will not die from a preventable death.

Mr. President, I’m begging you to help America. You have been elected because we the people of the United States chose you to lead us. It is your priveledge and duty to ensure the well-being of all Americans. We spend millions of dollars each year sending financial aid to Africa to battle their health problems; why not start here, on our own homeland? We need change. This change does not have to be costly: enforcing school children to take physical education once per year in middle schools and high schools would not cost us anything close to $117 billion dollars. Encouraging America’s restaurants to provide healthier menus would take a mere letter. Proposing corporate exercise functions might actually be fun. Our financial crisis is not the only problem we have, Mr. President. We need to think about our health crisis as well. We trust you as a leader. We trust you as a role model. We trust you to do the right thing. There is a problem we have been faced with; it is your job to help solve it. You are the leader of three-hundred million people. Will you let us become statistics? Or will your presidency stop preventable deaths? I cannot choose for you, Mr. President, but I pray that you will help our situation. Now is the time for change.

Sincerely,

Meg O.