Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a pleasure for me to be here tonight and address such a great audience. The issue I would
like to bring up threatens the prosperity and welfare of the whole nation, however, the majority of
the population tends to ignore it and pretend as if it is not a problem at all. Namely, I would like to
talk about the risks of obesity.
First of all, it would be reasonable to present the statistics that some of you might find shocking.
To be more precise, in accordance with the data provided by the Office of Disease Prevention
and Health Promotion, the number of people suffering from obesity has already reached the point
of 35% of the whole US population. Just imagine, one-third of Americans is particularly limited in
their opportunities to have a happy, comprehensive, and productive life. Let me remind you, that
the right to health was considered by the United Nations to be an integral element of the human
rights and the individual dignity. I believe, that it is a high time to ask ourselves whether the
lifestyle patterns cultivated in the US are actually contributing to the concept of human dignity or
not. Unfortunately, the honest answer would rather disappoint us.
Obviously, the complaints and disappointment may hardly improve the recent state of affairs.
Subsequently, I believe, that the awareness and personal determination to change the trend are
the first steps towards the overall success. Some of you would definitely argue that it is an
entirely personal responsibility or, at most, the responsibility of the Department of Health. Let me
disagree and explain the essence the obesity spread. In particular, reducing the time and money
being spent on meal has become a generally accepted trend which, however, may hardly bring
the benefits to anyone except the fast-food companies’ bosses. Therefore, we should agree that
the recent economic model, which has made healthy eating a privilege of a few, is exceptionally
harmful.
So, what can be done to change the pattern? First of all, there are two aspects of the campaign
against the obesity spread. Namely, the first one implies the efforts of the official institutions and
includes informational campaigns conduction as well as providing the obese people with a proper
treatment. However, I would like to emphasize the importance of the other aspect which, I
believe, implies a key meaning in terms of changing the negative statistics. Namely, I would like
to talk about the determination and responsibility of each of us who are neither the medical
officials nor the obesity victims. In particular, each of us has a friend or colleague who is suffering
from obesity. There are also people, like our children, to whom our behavior may serve as a
model to follow. We are responsible for those people and should put our best efforts to raise their
awareness and convince them that it is better to lose some extra half-an-hour but keep our
health and welfare safe.
Ladies and Gentlemen, let me once again thank you for your patience. Being aware and
responsible, we are capable of overcoming the threats of obesity spread. Thank you!”