Anybody who has even a passing interest in health and wellness knows the sobering fact that a large number of medical problems that plague society today are the result of unhealthy living habits.

Conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, which are reaching epidemic proportions, are directly linked to poor eating and inactivity. Official statistics show that around 70% of Americans are overweight or obese — and 67% of Australians.

We live on diets of junk food and the vast majority of us don’t meet minimum recommendations for weekly exercise (disappointingly, less than 25% of Americans do, according to this Time article).

Among physicians, the very people who should most be setting examples for healthy lifestyles, the US statistics are, sadly, hardly any better — with around 65% overweight or obese.