How Can People Be So Ignorant?

A little article on Canoe today had me shaking my head.

Alert going to waist - KENNETH JACKSON, SUN MED

When more than half of Ottawa residents are obese, it's not just a problem, it's an epidemic.

So says a local expert responding to a report card issued yesterday that found one in every two Ottawans are carrying around a spare tire -- for a pickup truck.

"It's pretty awful. I would see this as a legitimate survey," said Dr. Bob Dent, director and founder of the Weight Management Clinic at the Ottawa Hospital.

So half of us in Ottawa is overweight. I find that a little hard to believe, but possible. That's not the number that makes me shake my head.

It gets worse.

Local residents got a failing grades in six of 11 categories, two of which claimed residents "need improvement," especially regarding their knowledge, or lack of knowledge of obesity.

"The lack of awareness is a problem. The 55% aware that being overweight is a major risk factor for heart disease are very likely not the percentage of the population that is obese," said Dent.

Emphasis mine. The inverse of that statement is that 45% of the people surveyed were not aware that being overweight is a major factor for heart disease. Wow, do these people live under a rock or something?

How can we live in a society with so much knowledge and information at our fingertips through magazines, newspapers, internet, television, and still be so overwhelmingly ignorant?

It boggles the mind.