Posts Tagged ‘Obesity’

Childhood obesity is taking away the future of both the parents and child. Should obese children’s parents have their children removed from the home, or should the food companies CEO go to jail. I’ll leave this challenge to the public. Our government is reckless with our health and funds. They have spend millions to research shrimp on a treadmill, a salamander crossing in Vermont and 3.4 million to build a tunnel near Tallahassee so turtles could crawl under a Highway and 1.5 million for a robot to fold clothes. It took the robot 25 minutes to fold one towel.

Why do I bring that up?  I don’t trust a government for solutions to a problem. The obesity of our children is a systemic problem that is a cultural challenge. The destiny of the next generation should not be in the government’s hands. We don’t belong in a police state. If they want to safe the children’s life, than come up with a plan that doesn’t mask a symptom of today’s lifestyles.

The Obesity Problem

The obesity problem in the young isn’t just putting a child in a high-risk environment, it’s about creating the environment. The parents are themselves many times the victim of the environment.  What’s going around is an incomprehensible corporate profit plan, that is making us sick. By identifying the culprits which are the food sweeteners, artificial flavors and colors, along with a denatured food supply we may know who is at fault.

Removing Children From the Family

Should we take children out of home that are said to have ADHD or are hyperactive. Why not the parents are feeding them. Medical experts say that parents can prevent extreme obesity. The answer is yes if they don’t mind moving to another country.

How To Handle the Problem

Most parents haven’t even had a beginner’s guide to how to handle the food supply. They can’t make informed decisions for many reasons. They are not involved in the engineering of the food. They are preoccupied with trying to make ends meet. They are an undeserved group that now may have personalized intervention, children taken away from them. Blending in to society may become easier as the CEO’s of major food manufacturing plants expand their product line. In that case there will be too many obese children to deal with.

What they did in the military is cut out the sit ups for the overweight soldiers and offer them yoga exercises instead. We should do something productive for the obese children of today. Compassion and caring can mean taking the food commercials off the airway that cater to children, We can offer the parents courses on food preparation, and send in nutritionally trained cooks, with the fruits, vegetables and good quality protein for healthy meals.

Where would we get the money? It would come from selling off the shrimp treadmills, retiring the towel folding robots, and sell the tunnel to a group that wants to see the turtles cross the road. Better yet, fine the CEO’s of the companies enough to cover the costs.

Junk food leaves an indelible mark on your appearance and health status. The Halloween candy you hid from the kids has been gone for at least 2 months. The pies and buttered mashed potatoes are no longer a regular staple at your dinner table. The assorted chocolates, candy canes and tasty beverages are just a fond memory. The bubbles from the New Year’s champagne are something you are already dreaming about for next year.

Why do they have to be gone so soon? Oh, but wait! They are not permanently gone. As we look in the mirror we see where their new home is.

Junk Food, the Tangible Results

Uh oh! Now what? Many people find themselves a couple to a few pounds heavier after the first of the year. It’s tempting to go on a crash diet or take a quick fix pill to help shed those pesky pounds. While you may lose weight at first, it’s likely those homesick pounds will find their way back to you like a needy relative. They may even bring a few friends! The best diet is no diet at all. At least not in the sense of the word we have grown accustomed to hearing.

Your eating habits define who you are. You eat junk food, you feel and look like junk. You eat mood altering foods and you are moody. When you drink high sugar, high caffeine drinks, your energy will rise and fall. This sounds like a crazy way to fuel our marvelous bodies, but for so many; this has become a normal way of life. After eating like this, the next step is often going on medication for diabetes or high blood pressure. These are the tangible results of junk food.

Finding the Fix

Finding the fix means thinking healthy and taking action. You have control! When you eat the way nature intended us to with vibrant fruits and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds fish, healthy proteins and plenty of fresh water; you become vibrant and healthy. Your body naturally stops craving too much food because it is satisfied from the fiber and correct balance of proteins, carbs and healthy fats. Instead of envying the people who look like they are healthy and full of life, you will be that person! But wait! What about when the holiday season comes back around? Consider the 80/20 rule. Eat right 80% of the time so if you slip up 20% of the time, you can use your new found energy to work off the extra calories. Start this minute with positive thoughts and a determination to improve your life!

I don’t count calories. Calorie counting I find to be both counter productive and an impediment to a healthy diet. It has taken some years to come to this conclusion. It’s not that calorie counting is not only useless it can be dangerous. Personally I have no intention of drinking Diet Coke or using artificial sweeteners. The question is do I want to poison myself to cut calories. Neither will I opt for a low fat variety of a whole food product. When calorie count mentality is out for the count health will win out.

Main Stream Diets

This is what I have against most main stream diet plans. They go with the flow and use  America’s perception of what getting slim is about. We would be a slim nation if we just ate whole unadulterated food.

What I find is that the popular diets get repeat business, by using the wrong guidelines, calories in and calories out. Weight management in this country is counter intuitive. It is becoming more and more desperate as people balloon off the charts.

Calorie Counting isn’t a Promising Solution

Bariatric sugery, and gastric bypass are drastic attempts to fix a problem that is so out of control. Part of the reason things have gotten to this point is we are relying on the calorie content of foods. Some of the heavily looked up terms are calories in strawberries, calories in apples and fruit calories. These terms get anywhere from 75,000 to 240,000 of look ups per month. Look where this information has taken us. We now can eat less fruit and vegetables and substitute them with 100 calorie snack packs of cookies.

Count Nutrients

Instead of counting daily calories a far better approach would be to count the nutritional content of the day’s food. Weight management should be about much more than calories. It shouldn’t be about how slim we can get, but on how healthy we can become. With that as a goal we will be able to maintain our idea weight. What we should want is a incredible body that functions incredibility.   

This is another way to look at what we do to ourselves, that no other species does.

 Can you give me the calorie count, before I indulge in some nutrient dense food?