Obesity, The New Epidemic, Let's Break Free Of This Monster

Let's battle against obesity; let's choose a healthy diet and let's choose healthy weight loss over fad diets. I have a new passion, and that is to help stamp out obesity and promote a healthy diet and healthy weight loss. I just wrote a short article on this subject in one of my forums.

I watch very little TV but I listen to the radio almost all day long. Lately I have noticed that there are quite a few news stories about obesity. They say obesity has become an epidemic. There are more obese persons on earth today than there are malnutritioned people. And, there is a tremendous increase in the number of obese children.

Think about that a moment. Why are these people not chosing a healthy diet for their lifestyle? Instead, they gain weight, go on some fad diet, lose weight, and then gain it back. The key is to lose weight with a healthy diet, and then keep eating a healthy diet.

There are four reasons I can think of for obesity:

1 People eat all the wrong foods. People eat junk food, such as frozen foods and fast food restaurant foods.

2 People eat the right foods, but way too much. Portion control is not in their vocabulary.

3 There is a tremendous lack of exercise, and fitness activities.

4 Eating all the wrong foods at all the wrong times.

So, lets take these points one at a time.

People are making the choice to eat the wrong foods. Why? Why not choose a healthy diet? A lack of education, perhaps the parents did not teach their kids to make wise choices. Well, I doubt that. I think what happened is the parents did teach the kids about nutrition, and along came the television and with it promotion. And what was promoted? All the wrong foods. Along came trans fats, sugars that supposedly were not sugars. A lot of false information was spread through advertisings.

And, go into any institution, such as hospitals, schools, health care centers, what will you find there? Junk food vending machines along with fast food restaurants; this is what you will find.

In hospitals, the food is not high quality nutritious food, rather, most of it is empty calories laden with fats and sugars.

On the other hand, some people do eat all the right foods. But look at their plates; they are stacked so full, almost as if it is their last meal. We all know whatever the body cannot use gets stored as fat.

And what do kids and parents do today for exercise? Most kids and even parents play video games in their spare time. Outside activities are almost not engaged in anymore. How many kids, parents or families go out walking, hiking, biking, running, or kite flying anymore? And if they do, is it daily, weekly, or monthly?

It used to be that mealtimes and snack times were structured. We know with todays scheduling issue that is not always possible. BUT, try for some type of consistency. If you eat the right foods at all the wrong times it will not help you to maintain your weight.

So try to choose right, control your portions, try to eat at the same times in the day, and then get out and do something.

I have two more issues to address here. Issue one: Many doctors are now prescribing adult medicines for children. I have just read that many kids have been put on statin pills. Statin pills are used for cholesterol management. They are strong pills with some serious possible side effects. How can we give them to children? (Exceptions can happen, but I am addressing what seems to be the rule.) Why do doctors not teach the parents how to feed their kids in a healthy way?

Also, I know of one child who was suffering from heart burn and came away from the doctor with adult stomach medication. No questions were asked about her diet. Just hand over the medication and everything will feel better. Come on doctors, whats going on? If everyone had my doctor the world would be a healthier and happier place to be in.

I know we see the heart burn advertisings from the drug companies. The stomach pills are getting better and much more effective these days. Just take them once a day and you can continue to eat all the junk food you want. Thats even how they are advertised. You see the people take the pill and then stuff themselves with French fries, hamburgers and pizza.

What message are we sending to the kids? These children will grow up, get sick; they will die younger, become unhealthy and a burden to society, themselves and their families.

Wake up world. Wake up parents. Wake up doctors. And, mostly wake up government. Stop promoting health in pamphlets and then continue to serve junk food in the institutions.

Lets put a stop to this for the sake of our next generation. The baby boomers are actually living healthier and longer now then our children will in the future.

Ruth is actively involved in internet marketing and she finds it very exciting. She is a wife, a stepmom a dog owner and a business person. She is married for almost 30 years to Chris who has been, and still is, battling the monster MS. Two of her dogs are Certified Therapy Dogs. Her passions are people health and pet health. She is currently working from her home. Her Blog http://www.mimfreedom.com/blog Her Articles http://www.mimfreedom.com/2006 Her Pet Blog http://www.happypetstop.com/blog

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