Dear Fort Fisher Neighbor,

We've found a new enemy: obesity and I've declared war! Two years ago, the government discovered that the targets of previous crusades—booze, sex, guns, and cigarettes—were killing a smaller percentage of Americans than they used to. The one thing you're not allowed to do in a culture war is win it, so the government searched the mortality data for the next big menace. The answer was as plain as the other chin on your face. Obesity, federal officials have told us, will soon surpass tobacco as the chief cause of preventable death. They compared it to the Black Death and the Asian tsunami. They sent a team of "disease detectives" to West Virginia to investigate an obesity outbreak. In March 2006, the surgeon general called obesity "the terror within" and said it would "dwarf 9-11."

But somehow, "the food industry" doesn't sound quite as evil as "the tobacco industry." Something about food—the fact that it keeps us alive, perhaps—makes its purveyors hard to hate. For that matter, the rationale for recent bans on smoking is the injustice of secondhand smoke, and there's no such thing as secondhand obesity. In 2005, a Pew Research poll found that 74 percent of Americans viewed tobacco companies unfavorably, but only 39 percent viewed fast-food companies unfavorably. This week, a Pew survey found that more Americans blame obesity, especially their own, on lack of exercise and willpower than on "the kinds of foods marketed at restaurants and grocery stores."

These obstacles don't make the assault on junk food futile. But they do clarify how it will unfold. It will rely on three arguments: First, we should protect kids. Second, fat people are burdening the rest of us. Third, junk food isn't really food.

Targeting kids is a familiar way to impose morals without threatening liberties. You can have a beer or an abortion, but your daughter can't. The conservative aspect of this argument is that you're entitled, as a parent, to decide what your kids can do or buy. That's the pitch Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, made in a bill to crack down on junk food in schools. The liberal half of the argument is that kids are too young to make informed choices. In this case, it's true. Studies show that little kids ask for products they see on television; fail to distinguish ads from programs; and are heavily targeted by companies peddling candy, fast food, and sugared cereal.

This stage of the fat war will be a rout. In schools, the audience is young and captive, and the facts are appalling. According to a government report, 75 percent of high schools, 65 percent of middle schools, and 30 percent of elementary schools have contracts with "beverage"—i.e., soda—companies. The sodas are commonly sold through vending machines. The contracts stipulate how many thousands of cases each district has to buy, and they offer schools a bigger cut of the profits from soda than from juice or water. Soda companies, realizing they're going to lose this fight, are fleeing elementary schools and arguing that high-schoolers are old enough to choose. But health advocates refuse to draw such a line. They're not going to stop with kids.

To keep junk food away from adults, fat-fighters will have to explain why obesity is the government's business. Some say the government created the problem by subsidizing pork, sugar, cream, high-fructose corn syrup, and other crap contained in processed foods that make up such a large portion of the American diet. Sen. Harkin reasoned that the government pays for school lunches and must protect this "investment." But their main argument is that obesity inflates health-care costs and hurts the economy through disability and lost productivity. Former President Clinton, a confessed overeater, told the nation's governors that obesity has caused more than a quarter of the rise in health-care costs since 1987 and threatens our economic competitiveness. It's not our dependence on foreign oil that's killing us. It's our dependence on vegetable oil.

If the fat-fighters win that argument, they'll reach the final obstacle: the sanctity of food. Food is a basic need and a human right. Marlboros won't keep you alive on a desert island, but Fritos will. To lower junk food to the level of cigarettes, its opponents must persuade you that it isn't really food. They're certainly trying. Soda isn't sustenance, they argue; it's "liquid candy." Crackers aren't baked; they're "engineered," like illegal drugs, to addict people. New York City's health commissioner asked restaurants to stop using trans fats, which he likened to asbestos. But he ignored saturated fats, which are equally bad and more pervasive. Why are trans fats an easier target? Because they're mostly artificial.

This, I suspect, is where the war will end. Ban all the creepy-soft processed cookies you want to, but respect nature and nutrition.

Knowing how the synergystic combination foundational nutrition, weight training, and moderate cariovascular exercise unlocks the rapid release of fat, and you're well on your way to winning the war on fat and achieving your best body ever. Empowering you with this life changing information and educating you on how to implement it is the mission of my team of personal trainers. If you're really looking for incredible results and are ready to commit to making positive changes in your life then our Fort Fisher , NC personal fitness training program could be just what you're looking for. I do have to let you know that our personal trainers can't train anybody that walks in, we do have criteria, the first of which is personal motivation to achieve the body you want!

Call Today

(910) 458-9950

To see if you meet the requirements to train with one of our Fort Fisher , NC area personal fitness trainers or find out more information, call (910) 458-9950.

About Fort Fisher

Fort Fisher was a Confederate fort during the American Civil War. It protected the vital trading routes of the port at Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1861 until its capture by the Union in 1865. The fort was located on one of Cape Fear River's two outlets to the Atlantic Ocean on what is today known as Pleasure Island. Because of the roughness of the seas there, it was known as the Southern Gibraltar.

The first artillery batteries were placed in the spring of 1861, one mile (1,600 m) from the New Inlet. Maj. Charles Pattison Bolles supervised the works. The regional command was conformed by Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes and Maj. William H. C. Whiting (Bolles' brother-in-law), as chief inspector of North Carolina's defenses. Over time, Fort Fisher was further overhauled with more powerful artillery which had been provided from Charleston. So armed, the fortress could force the Union blockade to remain well offshore, which also ensured that the Union ships could not shell the shoreline.

After the fall of Fort Fisher, the trading route toward Wilmington was cut. On February 22, the Union occupied Wilmington definitively. The war officially ended three months later.

Because of natural sea attrition, just few of the original sand mounts have survived. Nevertheless, a part of the original Front-Side fence has been reconstructed.

The site has been declared national historic landmark and a state recreation area which features the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher, a museum and a visitor center. Undersea archaeology is also practiced around the site.

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Muscleworx Fitness

“Fort Fisher Personal Trainer Declares

War On Fat!"

Many people lose the battle with fat everyday. Don’t let yourself be one of them!

Call Today

(910) 458-9950

To see if you meet the requirements to train with one of our Fort Fisher , NC area personal fitness trainers or find out more information, call (910) 458-9950.