Childhood Obesity =

Increased

Heart Conditions

Based on an article posted at http://www.natural-holistic-health.com

(Healingtalks) Regrettably, obesity is a substantial problem in our times.

Being fat increases the danger for heart conditions throughout a person’s life.  As a matter of fact, obesity in kids has been called a warning sign of heart disease.

Obesity and Related Illness Statistics & Data

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), sixteen percent of kids between the ages of two and nineteen meet the criteria for obesity.

And while brand-new cases of fat kids aren’t necessarily rising, the number of kids with diabetes is rising. This might well be a repercussion of the childhood obesity epidemic.

In one report, artery wall thickness in fat kids and teenagers was observed to be as thick as the artery walls of a 45-year-old grownup. This signifies that childhood obesity may have a sort of quickening effect on heart disease.

While the study wasn’t conclusive and the number of participants was modest, it does erect a sure red flag of concern. Likewise, the arteries of fat kids might be in the beginning stages of coronary artery disease, which is the artery-hardening process that leads to stroke and heart attack. A report in Austria discovered that many fat kids have enlarged hearts.

Pediatricians and other experts are worried about the fact that these obesity-specific troubles are happening in such young folks, who are still going through growth and development. Their systems are still being “calibrated,” and experiencing heart and obesity troubles at such an early age implies there’s additional time for the fat to do its destructive work. Put differently, heart disease acquires a head start on its destructive effects in the body.

Elevated blood pressure is a different worry in fat kids, particularly those children who have a family history of elevated blood pressure.

Another vexation about childhood obesity is the number of fat cells in the body. Once you become a grownup, the amount of fat cells you possess in your body doesn’t change; they merely become larger or smaller as you slim down. The number of fat cells is still being determined in childhood, thus a fat kid is being set up to experience weight troubles for the remainder of his or her lifetime.

What to Do About Childhood Obesity

Thankfully, there are plenty of things you are able to do to forestall and treat obesity in your kid.

1st, lower the saturated fat your kid consumes.

Hot dogs, processed lunch meats, butter, and other animal fats (including full-fat dairy merchandises) had better be sharply limited.

Avoid empty calories such as those encountered in packaged cakes, cookies, and other sugar-rich and nutrient-deficient foods.

Fast foods had better be entirely ruled out from the kid’s diet.

Encourage your kid to consume a lot of whole foods – brown rice, whole grain bread (preferably homemade), and fresh produce of all varieties. Nuts, while high in fat, establish healthy snacks that help your kid feel full. Let your youngster have treats in the form of home-baked desserts that don’t bear a lot of sugar or fat (such as natural fruit leather).

Do not forget exercise!

Children should run around in the invigorating air. Promote outdoor play, sports, biking, hiking, or other activity……and get the whole family in on the program as well.

Keywords: What is Child Obesity, Obesity Statistics, Fat Kids, Why Children Are Obese, Obesity Rates, Fat Children, Obesity and Health

Top Obesity

Causing Foods

(Healingtalks) What are the absolute worst foods out there for staying thin and healthy and thus the most obesity-causing foods that you need to eliminate from your diet.

Here are the top ten obesity causing foods:

1) White Bread

It comes from plain white flour that has been nutrient depleted and bleached. It will cause your blood sugar to spike, especially when refined sugars are added. These are empty calories. So cut out white bread, including hamburger buns, in favor of whole wheat or sprouted grain bread. You have then taken a major step in the direction of better health and losing rather than gaining wait.

2) Processed Cereals

Often they are made of empty calorie foods, like processed corn flakes and they are further packed with sugar coatings. This causes us to become hungry sooner. Cut them out in the morning, in favor of fruits and/or whole grain cereals like oatmeal.

3) So-called “Diet Low-Fat” No-Sugar Foods

They generally contain chemical additives, including artificial sweeteners, that make us hungrier later and actually contribute more to obesity.

4) Fried Foods

There often contain rancid oils cooked at very high temperatures. They may be coated with refined flours, also  not good for you. Most commonly this includes french fries and fried battered chicken.Consider not adding the fries and going for backed or steamed foods instead.  Better yet, eat much more raw, whole, organic and living foods – the best of foods for a leaner diet.

5) Candy 

Most commercial candy is fun to eat but laced with oodles of sugar as well as chemical dies and other chemical additives that disrupt normal digestion. That too much candy add to obesity is a no brainer. Try to substitute some fruits and veggie treats. Again this is a huge step.

6) Coffee Drinks With Cream and Sugar Added

This provides too much excess calories which contributes to weight gain. Try coffee straight!

7) Donuts, Pastries, Cookies, Cakes and Other Confectionery Delights

They often contain a high amount of fructose and white flower – a double whammy for creating obesity. They are empty calories contributing to weight gain.

Potato Chips

These are deep fried with little nutrition. These are again empty calories which equate to creating weight gain. Try substituting fruits and veggies.

9) Soda Pop

This is the number one trigger of obesity because it is so popularly bought and drunk. This is usually full of corn syrup that is also genetically modified, leading to a long list of health problems. Again we have excess calories with little or no nutritional value and thus leading to weight gain. Try replacing these with water, teas, coffee and so on. Even diet soda pops are not a good idea.

10) Pancakes with Syrup

Again these are often made out of white flour and then covered with a highly sugary coating, guaranteeing a spike in blood sugar and the triggering of weight gains.

Keywords: Obesity causing foods, what causes obesity, weight gain diet foods, eating and diabetes, eating and heart disease, what causes weight gain

Excellent video on the most weight-causing foods by Nutritionist Corina. Remember the alternative is an organic, whole and unprocessed food diet.

Four Ways to

Shed Belly Fat

Based on article by Deborah Kotz  http://health.usnews.com

Studies on Belly Fat and Waist Size

(Healingtalks) A study published  in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure indicates that having a large waist siZe ups your risk of heart failure, a condition that’s often fatal. A second study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that exercise doesn’t harm those with heart failure and could actually provide some benefits.

The analysis of the belly fat research, based on data from two Swedish population studies, showed that being overweight or obese increased the risk of heart failure in men but didn’t in women—unless they had a large waist size.

A woman with a normal body mass index of 25 whose waist size increased by 4 inches over the years wound up with a 15 percent greater risk of heart failure than those whose waist sizes remained the same. (A 5-foot, 4-inch woman who weighs 146 pounds has a BMI of 25.) Medical experts recommend that women maintain a waist size of less than 35 inches to reduce their risk of chronic diseases. How to measure your waist size.

Where you carry your fat is largely determined by your genes.  But there are certain things you can do to help redistribute fat away from your belly. Remember excess belly fat is so dangerous

Here are the four ways to keep a fit belly:

1. Exercise to shed that belly fat

You can’t exercise to spot reduce, but it will help you shed excess pounds — and often, the fat your body sheds first comes from your belly. Abdominal crunches can help tone muscles to make your stomach look flatter, but to truly get rid of fat, you have to burn off abdominal fat through aerobic activity.

2. Be a mindful eater

Researchers are currently investigating whether really paying attention to what you eat can help redistribute body fat from your waist to your hips. Plenty of studies, though, have shown that mindful eating can help with weight loss efforts in general. We recommend.moving in the direction of eating mostly fruits and vegetables, thus a vegetarian/vegan diet with mostly whole, raw, living foods.

3. Get adequate amounts of sleep

Too little sleep (less than six hours) or too much (more than eight hours) results in an excess production of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol promotes the storage of fat in the belly.

4. Reduce stress

Penciling in 15 minutes a day for relaxation can also lower your cortisol levels, helping you shed belly fat. Deep breathing, a stroll outdoors under the blossoming trees, or a bubble bath can help you leave the world behind.

____________________________________

The following is based on comment on weight loss from Dr. Mercola’s Website

Number One Way to Lose Body Fat – Exercise

If you’re looking for that six-pack physique, you need to expose the abdominal muscles underneath the fat. But can you really lose fat in just one specific area – the abdominals? It’s unlikely, although some strategies may be able to do so a little.

• Exercise is your number one ally in shedding unwanted body fat.
• It helps normalizing your insulin levels.
• It  also helps you sleep better – another important factor not only for optimal overall health but also, as it turns out, for avoiding packing pounds around your midsection.
• I alleviates stress, so that you have less of the hormone cortisol that is connected to producing stomach fat.

Best Exercises For Weightloss

When you’re exercising to achieve weight loss, you’ll want to focus on weight bearing exercises, as muscle burns calories quite efficiently. It has been my experience that non-weight bearing exercises, like swimming and bicycling, are not as efficient or effective for weight loss. You will typically need to exercise four times as long in these activities to receive the same benefit of running, using elliptical machine, or using weights.

Additionally, to really maximize your weight loss efforts, make sure you include high-intensity interval exercises and strength training in your program.

One recent study showed that interval training can significantly enhance your body’s ability to burn fat. In this study, eight women in their early 20s were told to cycle for 10 sets of four minutes of hard riding, followed by two minutes of rest. After two weeks, the amount of fat burned in an hour of continuous moderate cycling increased by 36 percent!

An added boon of interval exercises is that it can radically decrease the amount of time you need to spend exercising.

As far as individual exercises to target your tummy are concerned, sit-ups and abdominal exercises that are associated with breath control mechanisms, such as yoga exercises, can help tighten your abdominal muscles.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that there is no single abdominal exercise that challenges all your abdominal muscles. So you need to perform a variety of exercises that involve the full range of muscles.

Another factor that is often overlooked is your back muscles. Your back helps you hold yourself up and your stomach in, from behind. So having strong back muscles, as well as abs, is essential for a flatter stomach.

Exercise and Diet Go Hand in Hand

The other, equally important, factor in helping you shed excess weight is to consume the most appropriate foods for your specific genetic and biochemistry. Remember, the foods that may be healthy for others are not necessarily healthy for you, and vice-versa. Determining your specific nutritional type is the proven way to ascertain which foods work best for you.

It’s also important to realize that controlling your insulin levels is as important to optimizing your weight as it is to protecting you against diseases like diabetes.

Why?

Because when your insulin levels increase, you are telling your body to store carbohydrates as fat and to not release any of the stored fat. This makes it impossible for you to use your own stored body fat for energy.

So excess refined and processed carbohydrates in your diet (such as breads and pasta) not only make you gain weight, they make sure you keep that weight on. By cutting grains and sugars from your diet, you can significantly improve your chances of successful weight loss.

As far as nutrition to target belly fat specifically, certain dietary fats have actually been found to be helpful in reducing the accumulation of subcutaneous and visceral abdominal fat.

A study published in the journal Diabetes Care in July 2007 found that diets rich in monounsaturated fats prevented the accumulation of both types of belly fat, without additional exercise.

Foods high in monounsaturated fats include:

• Nuts, especially pecans
• Seeds
• Avocados

Dangerous Weightloss Options

Unfortunately, many people simply opt for what appears to be the easiest solution, and when it comes to excess weight around your middle, surgical options like liposuction or treatments such as Lipodissolve are popular alternatives.

However, you need to be aware that there are many risks involved in procedures like these, and they may not give you permanent results.

During a Lipodissolve treatment, a chemical found in lecithin (phosphatidylcholine deoxycholate) is injected into fatty areas such as “love handles” and “bra rolls,” where it dissolves fat cells. But the injectable compound is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and no long-term studies have been conducted on Lipodissolve’s safety.

Among the chief questions about the procedure is where the fat cells go once they are dissolved. Lipodissolve practitioners say the cells are excreted by your body naturally, but no one really knows for sure. According to the FDA, Lipodissolve is a “buyer-beware situation.”

And when it comes to liposuction, a survey of plastic surgeons found that more people die during liposuction than during most other kinds of operations: 19 deaths per 100,000 procedures. Meanwhile the generally accepted death rate for any kind of elective surgery is 1 in 100,000. The most common reported cause of death was pulmonary thromboembolism, or blood clots.

There simply are no better alternatives to a healthy lifestyle if you want a strong and shapely body.

Can You Wake Up to a Flatter Belly?

So, what does proper sleep have to do with a flatter stomach? Researchers have found that all body fat is not created equal, and that holds especially true for belly fat. Abdominal fat has a very rich blood supply and has four times more cortisol receptors than other body fat.

Cortisol is a stress hormone, produced by your adrenal glands in response to stress, but sleeping too little (less than six hours) or too much (more than eight hours) also results in an excess production of cortisol.

The cortisol belly fat connection comes into play when you are under chronic stress, as cortisol tends to store unused fat that has been released by your body in the stress response. Since your belly fat contains large amounts of cortisol receptors, you may tend to gain fat in the abdominal region when you’re chronically stressed or have trouble sleeping properly.

For helpful tips to help you sleep well, please review my 33 secrets to a good night’s sleep. And, to help combat stress — and address any underlying emotional issues that may cause you to lose precious sleep — I highly recommend the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). It’s a simple psychological acupressure technique that is routinely used in my practice that can help you optimize your emotional health.

Keyword tags: living foods, studies of belly fat and waist size, shed belly fat, lose weight, shed pounds, exercise and eat for weight loss, how to lose weight and fat, interval training

DEFINING OBESITY

To say you are obese means you have too much body fat for your own good. The degree of fat can lead to having diabetes, various forms of cardiovascular disease, and sleep apnea. This makes it important to lose weight and otherwise change lifestyle habits to accomplish that. This requires commitment and a plan.

DETERMINING OBESITY

—BMI
You can determine if you are obese by using what is called the body mass index, or BMI.  The BMI is a combination of your height and weight. A BMI of 30 or higher puts your health at risk. If you are Asian, the BMI threshold is 27.5 or higher.

–Waist Size
Where you carry your body fat is also important. People who carry too much fat around the middle, rather than around the hips, are more likely to have health problems. In women, a waist size of 35 in. (88 cm) or more raises the chance for disease; in men, 40 in. (101 cm) or more . In Asian women, a waist size of 32 in. (80 cm) or more raises the chance for disease; in Asian men, 36 in. (90 cm) or more.

CAUSE FOR OBESITY

The immediate and superficial cause for obesity is the one most commonly cited. It puts the blame on you. Essentially when you take in more calories than you burn, you gain fat! That’s pretty simple to fathom. Therefore how active you decide to be and how much and what you eat will affect how you use calories to gain weight.

If your family members are obese, you may have inherited tendencies as your family helps form eating and lifestyle habits. This puts the blame on your genes.

Also, our busy lives make it harder to plan and cook healthy meals. For many of us, it’s easier to reach for prepared fast foods – often high in fat and calories. Portions may be excessive. Work schedules, long commutes, and other commitments also cut into the time we have for physical activity. This puts the blame on your life circumstances.

Ultimately we are told there is no quick fix to being overweight. To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you take in. All of the above is not entirely true. For hundreds of years people were the were they were without an epidemic of obesity. What’s changed?

Since the middle of the 20th century, we have developed a highly commercial culture that has been buttressed by new powerful media such as TV advertising. It has sold us on ways of eating that are highly processed, appetite stimulating and addictive. To break out of these patterns means that we need to go up against highly powerful influences in our culture – Big Food and Big Pharma who won’t give us a straight story. They will blame us for the epidemic of obesity.

OBESITY SOLUTIONS

Here is the conventional advice to overcome obesity. Focus on overall lifestyle changes, not just diet changes alone, that will improve your health – to burn more calories than you take in on an ongoing basis.

Plan & Commit - It is hard to change such habits. You have to be psychologically committed to a plan Are you ready to do so and stay with it? Have you gathered the support of your family, friends and advisors? Do you know what first steps to take? So it is recommended to do the following:

Small changes - Start with small lifestyle changes you can manage to give yourself a feeling of success. Most people have such success when they first make small changes, one tiny step at a time. For example, you might just eat one extra piece of fruit, walk just 10 minutes more, or add a little more vegetables to your meals.

Note Book & Calorie Counter – Studies show that people who keep written track of whatever they eat are more successful at losing weight. In the notebook write down everything you eat and drink each day. You may be surprised to see how much you are eating. Use a calorie counter to add up your calories.

Track Calories - As you keep track of calories, look at whether you skip meals or do meal replacements. Keep track of when and where you eat, what and how often you eat, and how many fruits and vegetables are included. This will help you see patterns that need to be addressed.

Track Physical Activity - Next write down the amount of physical activity you’ve had each day and compare the calories you burned to those you took in.

The truth is that going on weight loosing diets and making such minor changes tends to fail in most instances. See thus our prescription for the obesity epidemic.

Related Articles:

Alternative Solutions to Obesity

Childhood Obesity – How To Overcome

Determining If You Are Overweight Or Obese?

Obesity – Bias, Stigma, Discrimination

Obesity Further On The Rise

Ten Key School/Home Strategies For Childhood Obesity

Adult obesity appears further on the rise in the US. The rise has been relentless according to government statistics.  The decade-old rise continued in 28 states. The report showing these statistics was put out by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust for America’s Heath. The new report also makes recommendations for a response.

TWO-THIRDS OF AMERICANS OVERWEIGHT OR OBESE
Two thirds of Americans now appear either overweight or obese as defined by a body mass index of 25 or higher.

RISE IN OBESITY HAS BEEN STUNNING
The rise in obesity has been stunningly rapid. Just in 1980, 15% of adults were heavy enough to be considered obese. In 2008 the rate of obesity hit over 25% in 38 States. Only Colorado had a rate less than 20%. While just 10% of health care costs are linked directly to obesity, no one disputes that it is a precursor for more serious problems like diabetes and as well as a national health crisis.

FUELED BY POVERTY AND LOW EDUCATION
Statistics seem to rise in areas of greater poverty and lower levels of education. This is true for Mississippi with the highest obesity rate for adults in the nation – 34%.

ONLY HOPEFUL SIGNS – YOUNG CHILDREN
The only hopeful signs are for young adults whose rates of obesity had either quadrupled (6-11 year olds) or tripled
(teens) since 1970. Their rates have now stabilized since 1999, though they are still exceedingly high at 17%.
The rates for some 2-5 year olds have even declined.

Related Articles:

Alternative Solutions to Obesity

Childhood Obesity – How To Overcome

Determining If You Are Overweight Or Obese?

Obesity – Bias, Stigma, Discrimination

Overview: The Mass Epidemic Of Obesity

Ten Key School/Home Strategies For Childhood Obesity

Worldwide approximately 15% or 1 billion out of 6.8 billion people (as of 2010) are officially overweight. At least 300 million worldwide are obese, posing an international health crisis. The majority suffering from obesity are in the wealthier western countries.

For example, in the US a whopping 67% of  adult Americans (or 2/3rds) are either overweight or obese – about 1/3rd each!

This means that close to 100 million Americans may have a serious weight problem affecting their health!

To first step in dealing with this vast problem is to apply some conscious awareness. How can we determine if we are overweight or obese? We use what is called a Body Mass Index and it is calculated as follows:

In general, if the BMI is over 25 you are considered overweight; if the BMI is over 30 you are considered obese. For Asians the latter obesity threshold is slightly lower or 27.5 BMI

Related Articles:

Alternative Solutions to Obesity

Childhood Obesity – How To Overcome

Obesity – Bias, Stigma, Discrimination

Overview: The Mass Epidemic Of Obesity

Obesity Further On The Rise

Ten Key School/Home Strategies For Childhood Obesity

There are not only health but social consequences to widespread obesity. Overweight and obese persons are often vulnerable targets of bias and stigma – and  at places of work, education, medical care and entertainment.  Bias and stigma can be verbal (being the subject of derogatory language) or physical (being the subject of negative behavior. Obesity can trigger outright discrimination or exclusion.

WHERE WEIGHT STIGMA OCCURS

The most common places are employment setting. Studies have shown when a resume is accompanied by a picture of an overweight person they are less likely to be hired. The obese person may be ascribed some stereotypes such a being sloppy or less capable. If hired they may suffer wage discrimination as they tend to be paid less. In school settings students who are overweight may face entrance bias and if accepted, can be more subject to harassment and ridicule. In medical facilities, bias toward obese patients has been documented by physicians and caretakers.

CONSEQUENCES

Among the consequences of weight bias and stigma are higher rates of depression, anxiety, isolation and other forms of psychological adjustment. Avoiding medical care services due to stigmatization or not keeping to a weight-loss program due to depression may complicate recovery.

EFFECTS ON CHILDREN

Bias and stigma can affect the emotional development of obese children. Research shows that children who are targets may internalize negative attitudes, losing self-esteem and becoming depressed and isolated. There is also a positive correlation between obesity and a higher rate of suicidal attempts.

STEPS THAT CAN BE TAKEN BY CARETAKERS

–GROUP SUPPORT
Foster psychological support groups to help the obese in the process.

–PHYSICAL SUPPORT
Offer also supportive physical environments – adequate-size chairs, medical equipment and reading materials in waiting rooms

–PERSONAL SUPPORT
Complement and encourage even small gains. Don’t fall into the trap of blaming just the patent’s behavior as the sole cause for obesity. Acknowledge there are powerful cultural, social and economic influences  – and great difficulties thus to be overcome. Approach patients with personal sensitivity, considering they may have experienced bias from other health care providers, family and friends.

–SET TARGETS
Set concrete achievement targets and complement small weight losses or other accomplishments toward those aims.

–SELF-EXAMINATION
In addition to evaluating one’s effectiveness in setting the above, it is useful to evaluate and eliminate the service provider’s  own bias, considering any preconceptions about a patient’s character, intelligence, behavior, likelihood for success, health condition, and so on.

REFERENCE BOOK
Puhrl R. Brownell and Rudd L. Schwartz, Weight Bias: Nature, Consequences and Remedies.

Related Articles:

Alternative Solutions to Obesity

Childhood Obesity – How To Overcome

Determining If You Are Overweight Or Obese

Overview: The Mass Epidemic Of Obesity

Obesity Further On The Rise

Ten Key School/Home Strategies For Childhood Obesity

SCHOOL STRATEGIES
Over the past decades, local schools have been inundated by commercial influences, lowering standards. For example, they have brought in junk and fast food vending machines. To counter this, here are ten basic strategies that address the core problem and epidemic of childhood obesity:

1) “CSHP” - Develop a Coordinated School Health Program ( CSHP) to address both the amount of physical activity and the quality of school nutrition as it affects school obesity.

2) SCHOOL HEALTH COUNCIL – Designate a school health coordinator to maintain an active school health council.

3&4) POLICIES - First access the school’s health policies. Then develop both an enhanced school nutrition and physical activities policy to reduce obesity.

5) STAFF PROGRAMS - Implement and promote staff health programs so they can be a better example to those they teach.

6&7) COURSES - Develop a high-quality course in health education (one that puts a spotlight on the obesity crisis). Develop also a course in physical education.

8)PHYSICAL ACTIVITY – Increase opportunities and time for students and staff in engage in physical activities.

9) MEALS PROGRAM - Implement a high-quality school mean program with more raw-living, low-calorie, high-nutrition fruits and vegetables.

10) OFFER ADDITIONAL FOOD CHOICES OUTSIDE OF REG. MEALS – Give students more appealing health choices for foods and beverages, outside the official school meals program.

HOME STRATEGIES

1) EVALUATE & ASSESS- Measure your children’s BMI or body mass index as well as waist size to determine whether your kids have an overweight or obesity problem.

2) WRITTEN STRATEGY & KEEP FEEDBACK NOTES – Develop a strategy of a) adding more fresh fruits and vegetables to the home diet, to the packed school snacks and b) increasing home physical activities.

3) ENCOURAGE HEALTHY SCHOOL CHOICES – Provide home support for children making healthy meal choices at school.

4) ENCOURAGE PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES - Provide support and transportation for kids to engage in more physical activities and sports.

5) MONITOR - Keep track of and further encourage BMI and waist measurement improvements.

Your children’s future health critically depends on YOUR ACTIVE PARTICIPATION in their lifestyle well-being!

Related Articles:

Alternative Solutions to Obesity

Childhood Obesity – How To Overcome

Determining If You Are Overweight Or Obese

Obesity – Bias, Stigma, Discrimination

Overview: The Mass Epidemic Of Obesity

Obesity Further On The Rise

“A low-fat plant-based diet would not only lower the heart attack rate about 85% but would lower the cancer rate 60%.”

William Castelli MD, Medical Director
Framingham  Cardiovascular Institute.

Obesity will very soon be considered the  leading cause of preventable death in the US. An obvious question is why don’t Americans reverse something so preventable and in order to stop the consequences from happening?

Apparently obesity is not really something easy to overcome.  In fact, the actual incidences of obesity have kept rising over and over again for a full five decades or two generations! Unlike tobacco smoking, obesity is increasingly entrenched in our culture with no end in sight… but how and why?

DEPTH OF THE PROBLEM

According to the Obesity Society, “obesity is the most prevalent, fatal, chronic, relapsing disorder of the 21st century….a leading cause of United States mortality, morbidity, disability, health care utilization and health care costs. It is likely that the increase in obesity will strain our health care system with millions of additional cases of diabetes, heart disease and disability.” They add that obesity is “defined as excess adipose [fat] tissue” and that obesity is a disease affecting about 1/3rd of the American population with increases since the 1960′s that show no signs of abating. Interesting statistics they cite include:

INCREASES SINCE 1960′s – Adult Americans have increased average heights by 1 inch and average weights by 25 lbs.
WORLDWIDE PROBLEM – Obesity now ranks with major global health pandemics such as high blood pressure, malnutrition na unsafe sex in the total burden of diseases.
MASSIVE DEATHS- Obesity, as well as being overweight, is said to cause over 100,000 deaths among men and women in the US.
ADDS TO HEALTH CARE FINANCIAL CRISIS – Health care costs mostly associated with adult-onset obesity are said to approximate $147 billion dollars.
DISCRIMINATION COMPONENT – Social discrimination and bias against those who are obese may often be socially accepted and adds another depth-dimension to the crisis.

APPROACH TO OBESITY SOLUTIONS – MOST DIETS

Despite the growing number of diets to lose weight which are touted throughout the country, Americans just keep getting fatter. A government survey shows that 2/3rds of dieters gain all of their weight back within one year! An even larger portion, 97 percent, gain it all back within 5 years! Something is obviously wrong with these “solution diets.” Rather than engaging in such a yo-yo effect (and the health strains this causes) most obese individuals would have been better off not to diet at all. Note not a single research study indicates high protein diets like Dr. Atkins’ really work for more than a year. In fact, two studies showed the weight loss on such  high-protein diets all but reversed or stalled after just 6 months. Atkins himself died of cardiovascular disease while weighing 258 lbs. I met Dr. Atkins at a health convention and can vouch for the fact that he did not look healthy to me.

WHY VEGETARIAN/VEGAN DIETS WORK

The truth is that, past commercial hype and vast amounts of misinformation, the vegetarian/vegan diets are the only research-proven ones to take and keep off weight long-term!

Why do such diets work? Vegan dishes are naturally low-in-fat so that calorie restriction strategies are less pressing.  In other words you can eat as much of a low-fat vegan diet as you like without gaining weight. It is not necessary to count calories. According to Dr. Dean Ornish, the vegetarian approach allows one the very best of all worlds, as the title of on of his books indicates: “Eat More, Weigh Less.” Slim people consume about the same number of calories as fat individuals but develop more adipose or fat tissues because animal flesh foods contain more fat! Thus meat eaters have 3x the obesity rate as vegetarians and 9x that of vegans! While there are relatively rare adult vegans who are obese, adult – on average they are at least 10-20 lbs lighter.

Furthermore, and according to Dr. Colin Campbell of Cornell University, switching to a vegan diet will dramatically reduce the incidences of heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and cancer. He states, “quite simply, the more you substitute plant foods for animal foods, the healthier you are likely to be. I now consider veganism to be the ideal diet. A vegan diet – particularly one that is low in fat – will substantially reduce disease risks. Plus we’ve seen no disadvantages from veganism. In every respect, vegans appear to enjoy equal or better health in comparison to both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

54% INCREASE MEAT CONSUMPTION = 3X THE OBESITY

Then why for God’s sakes isn’t every dietitian and physician, representing modern and objective science, on this powerful bandwagon? What is really going on here?

TREATMENT APPROACHES BASED ON VIEW OF CAUSES

- CONVENTIONAL - Conventional approaches to treating obesity include conventional diets (with no abandonment of animal-based protein diets, plus gene and drug therapies. The assumption is that our culture’s core dietary approaches are fine but that the key problem is far more internal (lack of willpower, excess personal appetite,with gene-driven cravings) – or internally biological and psychological.

-ALTERNATIVE - Our alternative approach for treating obesity has the opposite view. It sees a need for substantial alteration and improvement of the quality of nutrition in our culture. The assumption thus is that the key problem is far more external (diets that are missing nutrient-dense foods and intrinsically and artificially stimulate appetite for devitalized foods) via a massive external promoting of a) low-quality, mechanized food production and b) high-profit animal protein products. The benefits are channeled toward corporate profits rather than individual optimal health. The latter is further empowered by false nutritional claims, deceptively buttressed by efforts of media conglomerates (modern TV/print/radio ads). These have gained really unprecedented power over us ever since the 1960′s.

TRUTH BE TOLD

The unspoken truth is that the American Dietetic Association has been dominantly influenced by Big Food/AG & Big Pharma – and the way doctors used to be influenced by the tobacco industry. The companies producing the most devitalized foods with up to 10,000 chemicals used in food production and storage (those most causative of the obesity as well as cancer epidemic) – fast foods, hospital foods, and school vending machine foods – are also the primary sponsors and opinion-influencing agents of dietitians, school officials and doctors – and our regulators.

So the problem of obesity has entrenched socio-political-cultural roots. When these are not addressed and confronted, the problem tends to ever expand.

SOLUTIONS

The key solution is to look for really alternative sources of information, worldviews and advice. Ultimately we need to step quite far outside the mechanical/commercially or culturally-corrupting approaches to both nature and our bodies so as to find the raw/naked wisdom that reliably can re-establishes our bearings in the world we live in.

REFERENCES

1) Michele Simon, Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back

2) Randall Fitzgerald, The Hundred Year Lie – How Food and Medicine Are Destroying Your Health

3) Carol Simontacchi, The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children

4) Russell L. Blaylock, Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills

5)  Christine Hoza Farlow, Food Additives: A Shopper’s Guide to What’s Safe & What’s Not

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Childhood Obesity – How To Overcome

Determining If You Are Overweight Or Obese

Obesity – Bias, Stigma, Discrimination

Overview: The Mass Epidemic Of Obesity

Obesity Further On The Rise

Ten Key School/Home Strategies For Childhood Obesity