Here’s a powerful exercise to try: wherever you are, wherever you go, simply look at the people around you. According to recent findings from the American Heart Association, one third of everyone you see has high blood pressure.

Hypertension is not just for grandfathers any longer. A whopping one in three Americans now have it. According to the Centers for Disease Control, hypertension is now common in everyone from toddlers to college students to grandpas (and grandmas.)

Scary, right?

More commonly known as high blood pressure, the disease occurs when blood pumps too forcefully through blood vessels. The great push of blood stretches veins and arteries out of shape. The vessels then tear and develop scar tissue as they try to heal. These scars act like burrs, on which cholesterol gets caught and builds up. Another scenario: vessels tear and rupture, sending fast-flowing blood everywhere.  

Who'd have thought an unreleased children's book could cause such media hysteria? Maggie Goes on a Diet by Paul Kramer has done just that, though, heaving news writers, bloggers, and parents everywhere into a frenzied state of indignation and protest.

The book, due out in October, follows the journey of a 14-year-old girl named Maggie. Maggie is overweight, unpopular, and a victim of verbal bullying by her classmates. Only when she goes on a diet, loses weight and joins the soccer team does she achieve "popularity and fame."

The highly disturbing messages of this children’s book have already been extensively covered by the media (LATimes, ABC, TIME, Huffington Post, to name a few). The internet is in uproar over the implication that children should diet, the association between weight and popularity, and (perhaps most horrifying) the body-dysmorphic cover image.

Paul Kramer defends the publication, claiming he is just trying to encourage children to adopt a healthier lifestyle. He sees Maggie's post-weight loss popularity as a product of her increased self-confidence and not as an endorsement of stigmatizing overweight children. "I’m not advocating, never did, that any child should go on a diet," said the author said in an interview with Fox News. "First of all, this is a change of lifestyle. This is not meant to be to go on a diet."

People around the world are hungry for American products—movies, television shows and cigarettes—and they love our food. American fast-food restaurants are sprouting up worldwide. In 2007, McDonald’s announced its plan to open about 400 new restaurants in Asia and 150 new restaurants in Europe.

As our eating habits become fashionable throughout the world, so do our health concerns. In November 2006, the European Commission reported that 38% of European women were obese. Food corporations spend millions of dollars influencing people in developing countries to consume more of these modern foods and abandon their traditional diets.

Overweight people now outnumber undernourished people in the world. The World Health Organization's estimates agree: globally, there are about 1 billion overweight adults, and 300 million of them are obese; in contrast, about 800 million do not have enough to eat. Even Africa, a continent previously thought of as being synonymous with hunger and food scarcity, is seeing a drastic rise in obesity and diabetes.

America is a great country. We have the security, freedom and lifestyle desired by many people around the world.

But Americans are overweight, unhappy and unhealthy. Every year healthcare costs increase while overall health decreases; people continue to eat poorly, gain weight and depend on medications and operations to maintain their health.

We are witnessing a health crisis in America today. In 2004, 66% of Americans were overweight or obese. That number has greatly increased in the past few years. The rates of diabetes in this country have more than doubled between 1980 and today.

Every day, 2,500 Americans die from cardiovascular disease, such as coronary heart disease, heart attacks and stroke. Why are Americans so unhealthy and overweight? Why do we suffer in increasing numbers from chronic health concerns, such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, reproductive issues and depression? Why do we need so much medical attention and medication?