Obesity is no "epidemic"

Do you think we ought to dump the word "epidemic" when commenting on our grotesquely high obesity rates?

In a state such as Kentucky with 63 percent of adults overweight or obese, excessive weight certainly is widespread, and it is a medical problem, but "epidemic" also usually carries the idea of "contagious." Obesity isn't something like the flu which we catch -- through no fault of our own. Overweight is self-caused in most cases, isn't it? We pack on the fat by over-eating and under-exercising. Also by over-buying and over-stockpiling.

Let's hope the "epidemic" label isn't just feeding excuse-and-denial, as in "Darn right it's epidemic, everybody's overweight, so Bubba, pass me another slab of ribs."

How about we get real and switch to a term that acknowledges overweight is a choice, or a long string of choices. Like the "cult of obesity" or the "lifestyle of obesity" or the "obesity orientation." Some verbiage that spells out it's not "fat chance." It's "fat choice."