What Is the Most Critical Medical Issue Americans Face?

The elements that concern me in America today, start with obesity, which is not only the number one problem facing the nation, in terms of our health but it's also our number one financial challenge, in the health field. Two thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, it drives a gigantic amount of the health care budget, depending on how you calculate it, it could be half of all the money we spend, because it drives so many other ailments, like cancer, which mostly we don't know, and drives of course, heart disease, and because it changes not just your blood pressure, but your cholesterol levels.

It also drives early dementia, it drives orthopedic problems, it drive kidney failure, and I can go on and on with the list of things it causes. But the reality is that obesity which is increasingly growing as a problem for this nation especially among the young is going to strip our nation of its vitality, and we are mortgaging our country's future on the back of the obesity epidermic that's raging among the younger kids in this country.

So as I look at obesity, I look at solutions I see them, but they're system solutions, they're not just one person eating a little less pepperoni pizza. It's a broader appreciation that if we don't make it easier to do the right thing, then we're not going to be able to move in the right direction.

That includes changing the way we think about our cultural policy, it means changing how we envisioned the treating of our young, which is how we train them to eat. It also means being pretty clear about the addictive nature of salt and sugar in the American diet and appreciating the important roles that we all have in our homes in winning this battle.