In the past three decades what has happened with our diet is quite disturbing. Food additives, Fast foods, frozen meals, and those ‘complete meal’ things that come out of cardboard boxes and along with crinkly bags of snacks are probably the worst things that has ever hit the American diet.
We now have an epidemic of type 2 diabetes in adults and obesity runs rampant through all age groups.
What is shocking is the amount of obesity in children. Children who are growing, who should be full of energy, running, playing and generally enjoying the fun of youth should be burning off calories as fast as they can shove them into their mouths. In all to many cases this is not happening. Even under the worse circumstances there should be only a small portion of this age group that ‘plump’ should be a problem; however, what we see is a majority of school age children who ore overweight to grossly obese.
So what is the problem? I suspect life style changes, lack of outdoor activities, and just plain poor eating habits. Add to that TV, video games, and computers all play a part in this national problem.
Add what we call food to the equation and we have a time bomb that is now exploding.
Fat, sugars, and food products that have to be rebuilt to be even acceptable in a loose nutritional point of view are the primary source of food for many people.
I have wandered the grocery stores taking a mental snapshot of what people are purchasing. Likely as not you will see people that are extremely heavy purchasing lots of soda (the regular kind that is full of sugar) another common item are bags snack items which are loaded with fat. White bread, macaroni products and potatoes as well as boxes of sugary cereals for the kids. Meats generally consist of hot dogs, hamburger, what one doesn’t see enough of is fruits, vegetables and whole grain products.
Poor eating habits are usually learned or have become the norm due to economics. If there is any hope that millions of overweight people live a healthy, productive and active life, there needs to be a change in habits and lifestyle. That is easier said than done as most people resist real change. With this attitude and the increasing acceptance of obesity many individuals will continue blithely eating their way to death or disability.
This article and all the information available on the health problems associated with being overweight will not change anything unless there is a personal desire to alter their activity level and eating habits.
This kind of lifestyle change requires physical work…above and beyond what has been the normal.
The truly sad thing about this whole overweight problem is many of people have tried dieting sometime during their lifetime. In many cases there has been a number of diets, some of which actually succeeded in weight loss. However, the weight is usually regained plus a few extra pounds. To be successful the ‘diet ‘ must become a way of life. No one likes feeling hungry or counting calories or feeling deprived…that is why dieting usually doesn’t work.
