Having just taken part in the American holiday based on food, I wondered if a country with a 65 percent obesity rate in adults and 13 percent obesity rate in children should still be celebrating Thanksgiving by feasting. A nationwide boycott of food purchasing would have proven to be more beneficial to our health.

Obesity is defined as a Body Mass Index of 65 percent and has trumped tobacco as the no. 1 cause of preventable death in America, due to its direct link to heart disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes.

How did we arrive at eating habits so unhealthy that food is literally killing us? Since shifting into a time of abundance, we have yet to evolve our instinct to eat any food available to us and our favor of sweet and fatty foods over natural, healthy foods.

This is an issue in need of addressing by not only each individual citizen but our government as well. Here is a conservative blaming the government for making us fat! You should listen.

Our government funds our agriculture. Their sponsorship of farmers is directly proportional to how much food is produced in the United States. For about the last 40 years, we have had a growing surplus. This is good because it makes food cheap and easy to come by. Death by starvation is quite rare in the United States.

The catch is that the kinds of food that government programs fund are not necessarily the kinds of food that we should be having much of, but they have become staples in our diet, mostly without our realization.

Corn, for example is the most subsidized crop in the United States. Corn has little to no nutritional value but is grown in mass amounts to be made into high-fructose corn syrup-a therefore cheap, calorie-dense, sweetener found in virtually every processed (read: junk) food and drink as a substitute for more expensive natural ingredients.

Potatoes are another big one. Consequently, saturated fat-laden French fries are the most-consumed vegetable in America. The health of our country could be improved significantly if our fast food chains would only beg us the question "Would you like fruit with that?"

Fast food empires know it, too. And given the health and weight-loss kick we're on, such an option would be a sure hit. Cancer rates could eventually decline thanks to fruit's cancer-fighting antioxidant Vitamin C. Our hearts would be healthier as well, for replacing fat-saturated fries with fruit's cholesterol-absorbing fiber.

Then why on earth are our only options still curly or home-style? Because fruit is funded like the government's stepchild, making its production low and prices high. Their political alliances don't lie with fruit farmers but instead with the more lucrative corn and potato growers. Health-conscious Chick-Fil-A recently added a petite fruit cup side-option to their menu. But most chains won't bother with comparatively expensive fruit when they can peddle dirt-cheap fried spuds to us for almost 100 percent profit. This is only one example of our government's misalignment between their healthy recommendations and the overall choices they give us.

Obviously, diet is an individual choice. However, the kind of food available to us and its cost is ultimately controlled by our government. Over the past 40 years America's adult obesity rate has increased 10-20 percent each decade. Of this we are fully aware-our booming diet and exercise industry is proof.

Our government needs to take some responsibility for our obesity epidemic. Let's give this dilemma the priority that it deserves and make it an issue of the 2008 election. Without our health, not much else matters.

Besides, it beats boycotting Thanksgiving.

-Meagan Stephens is a pre-nutritional sciences junior. Her column appears every other Friday. She can be reached at opinion@oudaily.com.
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