WHY WE'RE FAT AND HOW TO LOSE WEIGHT NATURALLY
Have you noticed your waistline expanding in the past few years? If so, you are not alone. About two thirds of U.S adults are overweight, and the proportion of adults who are obese has nearly tripled since 1960 to about one third. This excess body fat not only affects our looks and physical abilities, but also increases risks of developing diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, high cholesterol, complications of pregnancy, menstrual irregularities, and cancers of the uterus, breast, colon, and kidney.
The obesity epidemic is not due to genetics. The gene pool cannot change appreciably over such a short period of time, and the epidemic is occurring in every racial group. Nor is it due to an aging population, as it is apparent in every age bracket, including children. Rather, it is primarily due to a sedentary (inactive) lifestyle and the fact that the average adult consumes 250 more calories per day than the average adult did three decades ago. More than 90% of these added calories are from carbohydrate-rich foods that digest quickly, such as sugars, refined flour, and white potatoes. We can blame this overeating on the temptations and unhealthful foods in our obesogenic (obesity-promoting) environment. Many of the foods we eat leave us dissatisfied and craving more, causing us to eat more than we would in a more natural environment.
Our bodies were designed for manual labor and long-distance walking. Most of us, in contrast, enjoy door-to-door motorized transportation to and from a desk job, followed by hours of television or other sedentary entertainment. Such a lifestyle not only burns few calories, but may also encourage us to eat more than we would if kept busy by physical activities. About an hour a day of moderate to intense physical activity is likely required to provide our bodies with the exercise needed for optimal health, but even 30 minutes of focused exercise a day can facilitate weight loss and produce substantial health benefits.
Our ancestors enjoyed a diet consisting mostly of minimally processed vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. Meats were unprocessed and lean. Such a diet, combined with an active lifestyle, promoted a strong, lean, healthy body. In contrast, foods available in the modern, obesogenic environment are often highly processed with added fat and sugar. Obtaining, preparing, and eating food in our modern society requires little effort, and we are frequently in situations that encourage us to overeat.
There are many aspects of our obesogenic environment that encourage overeating.
Foods that don’t satisfy
Food processing and the addition of sugars produce calorie-dense, low-nutrient, low-fiber foods that digest quickly, leaving the consumer with a load of calories, a soon-empty stomach, and cravings for more.
Highly palatable foods
Highly palatable is a term used by scientists for foods that provide so much pleasure that we are tempted to eat them even when we are full. Most are processed foods high in fat and sugar. Such foods have become more abundant and affordable in recent decades, resulting in greater temptations to overeat. We often eat such foods not because we are hungry, but for comfort or pleasure. Highly palatable foods affect the neurological pathways in the brain that are responsible for drug addiction and cravings. The authors of a recent scientific study of the neurological effects of eating highly palatable foods concluded that "overconsumption of palatable food triggers addiction-like neuroadaptive responses in brain reward circuits and drives the development of compulsive eating." In other words, junk food can be addictive.
Calorie-heavy foods
While the vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grains that our ancestors ate were high in nutrients and low in calories, the processed foods that fill our grocery store shelves are just the opposite – high in calories and low in nutrients. This means that a typical meal of modern processed foods has more calories than we need, and often too few nutrients. Calorie-heavy foods are believed to be a major factor in the obesity epidemic.
Food that is conspicuous, inexpensive, and convenient
Food is in full view and at our fingertips almost everywhere we go. With relatively low prices and conveniently packaged foods ready to eat, it is all too easy to consume too much. We see candy jars at work, cookie jars at home, and vending machines as we run errands. We stock our refrigerators with soft drinks and our pantries with packaged snacks. Merely seeing enticingly presented food can make us hungry, and food within convenient reach is harder to resist than food that requires a little more effort to obtain.
Large portions
In the U.S., portion sizes of many foods have increased two- to five-fold since the 1970s [12]. We tend to keep eating until the portion in front of us is gone, no matter what its size. Similarly, we tend to eat more when eating directly out of a package (such as a bag of potato chips) than when faced with individual portions.
Sedentary entertainment
Television, video games, movies, and reading burn very few calories. They also encourage needless eating. If we eat meals or snack during such activities, the distraction of the entertainment can cause us to continue eating past the point at which we would otherwise be satisfied.
Convenient substitutes for water
Sweetened and alcoholic beverages such as soft drinks, sports drinks, fruit drinks, juices, and beer are readily available in our homes and elsewhere. These drinks quickly add calories without lasting satisfaction, and their consumption is believed to be another major factor in the obesity epidemic.
Deceptive labels and advertising
A picture of a slender athlete on a package of broccoli might make sense. The same picture on an “energy bar” consisting mostly of corn syrup and puffed rice does not. Advertisements often give inaccurate perceptions of the health benefits of foods they are promoting.
Unhealthful snack foods
Foods eaten as snacks provide a disproportionate number of calories for their nutrient value when compared to the kinds of foods more often eaten during meals. Most popular snacks such as sweetened beverages and grain-based salty snacks are high in refined carbohydrates and low in fiber and other nutrients. They are quick to add calories but slow to satisfy.
Restaurants
We eat out more than we did 30 years ago. Restaurant food tends to be higher calorie and served in larger portions than food cooked at home. As a result, restaurant meals often leave us with enough calories for an entire day.
Think of fat as a collection of bad habits. Lose the habits, and you will lose the fat. Each time you give up a bad habit or develop a good one (all other things being equal), you will lose weight until your body settles at a new, leaner equilibrium. At that point you will need to give up another bad habit or develop another good one in order to permanently lose more weight.
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