Obesity out-of-control?

As part of leading weekly women's fitness classes, we talk about nutrition and how what we eat affects our bodies. It's not easy for any of us to continually do what it takes to keep our bodies in good condition (thanks to the 2nd law of thermodynamics and our own human tendency to seek the easy way out most of the time and ignore what we know is best). Now, I'm not a crazy health nut, but I do know that I have just one body for life, so I need to learn to take good care of it in order to live a full and purposeful life on this earth...something I wish I had learned sooner - before running into long-term health issues from extreme overwork and lack of adequate rest!

Since our bodies are the temple of God, shouldn't we be striving to be better stewards of the body God has given us - eating wisely and exercising regularly to enable our bodies to function the way they were designed to? And why do most agree that it's not good for us to smoke or do drugs, but we think it's perfectly okay to be an uncontrolled glutton and let food (and our pleasure in it) become our god - who cares about the health consequences, self-discipline, and other issues, let's just eat and eat some more (and I'm not talking here about those who have weight issues due to serious illness or injury, but excess weight due to overeating, poor food choices, and/or lack of regular activity)?!

Recently, I was surprised to hear that health experts predict that by 2030, 100% of Americans will be clinically obese. Currently, 1 in 3 Americans and 1 in 4 Brits are already clinically obese, and more than 2 out of 3 Americans are overweight (more about obesity here)... Additionally, according to WHO, global obesity has more than doubled since 1980 and kills more people than being underweight. If governments really wanted to economize and save themselves loads and loads of money in healthcare costs for treating obesity-related diseases (which arguably constitute a majority of current healthcare costs), wouldn't it make more sense to invest in prevention and helping people to change their lifestyles and unhealthy food habits (and don't even get me started on the sad plethora of processed foods everywhere in the US and UK nowadays which makes it hard to avoid them - even canned veggies are often chock-full of junk instead of just veggies, salt, and water)?

There are several things which are concerning about the way the waistlines in the West are spiraling out of control:

• School lunches. These can no longer be controlled or cooked locally, and from what I've learned, usually consist of "foods" like pizza, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, tater-tots, french fries, chips, sugar-laden fruit cups, etc. (notice - all yellow or brown!). Sure, there may be a few healthy choices, but what ordinary kid is going to pick the healthy choice when you can have pizza and fries every day? Add to that the easy availability of vending machines stocked with candy bars, processed snacks, chips, and sugary, carbonated soft drinks, and it's no wonder that many kids are struggling to stay within a healthy weight nowadays. (Find out more about the history of school lunches in the US and UK here, and more about current school lunch issues in the US here)

• Cutting physical education classes due to budget constraints, despite the rise of childhood obesity. Yep, if we're not already feeding them waist-expanding, processed junk food at school, let's make sure they don't have to exercise every day! Add to this the trend for a more sedentary, computer-based lifestyle amongst young people and it's a recipe for obesity. The last time I visited the US, I was intrigued to see a billboard encouraging kids to get out and play in the dirt (when I was little you couldn't drag us back inside with wild horses)! (Read more about it here)

• Processed and chemically-altered foods. Living in a country where most foods are thankfully still fresh, natural, chemical-free, and mostly organic, and having grown up eating our own home-grown food, it's always a bit of a shock to visit countries like the US and UK, where most foods are no longer natural. The taste difference alone is quite amazing. Recently, a visitor remarked on how much better even simple things like bread or butter tasted here compared to the West. In my experience, this has to do with the overwhelmingly processed array of foods in the developed world - with chemical, anti-biotic, genetic, ground-up dead animal feed, and other not-so-good processes affecting literally every part of the food chain, not just the end-point processing before it hits the shelves. (Read more about the link between processed foods and expanding waistlines here, about the potential health hazards of processed foods here and here, and about addiction to and metabolism wrecking of processed foods here)

• Increased plate and portion sizes! The increase in the US dinner plate size corresponding to increased waistlines is an interesting historical study - in the 1960s the average dinner plate size was about 9" inches (when fewer than 1 in 11 Americans were obese), and now it's about 12" (when 1 in 3 are obese, and 2 out of 3 are overweight) - almost a 2.5 times increase in the amount of calories on the plate! Somewhere along the way, we've stopped listening to our bodies (e.g., stop eating when you feel full) and started listening to the plate (e.g., cleaning the plate every time, despite unnecessarily large portions). The truth of the matter is: "the more you're served, the more you'll eat" (Carolyn Dunn, PhD). If you're struggling with excess weight, try taking the small plate challenge - eat off a 10" plate for your largest meal of the day for a month. (Read more about the history of plate sizes here, about portion size increases here, and about how something as simple as changing your plates, bowls, and tablecloths can help you eat more reasonable food portions here)

• Making junk food and sodas part of regular meals. This seems to be largely a US phenomenon, but it's slowly spreading... I'm often stymied by overweight people complaining about not losing any weight when I see them eating chips, crackers, and cookies and drinking large amounts of carbonated beverages every day as part of their regular meals. These are empty, USELESS calories! Many think that diet soft-drinks are completely calorie-free, but in reality they are NOT good for you - besides depleting your bones of calcium (something that becomes more and more important as we age), according to most studies, they also are processed by your body similarly to their sugar-laden counterparts, triggering an insulin spike/drop cycle and subsequent fat storage, which leads to obesity - “What was surprising was when we looked at people only drinking diet soft drinks; their risk of obesity was even higher” [than that of those drinking regular soft drinks]. In fact, for each can of diet soft drink consumed per day, the risk of obesity went up by 41% (Sharon Fowler, MPH). So do yourself a favor and go for water or tea instead! It's also easy to think that a small handful of chips or a few cookies isn't adding many calories to an otherwise healthy meal, but little does one realize that adding a mere extra 50 calories a day (the equivalent of 2 Hershey's kisses) is said to result in a 5 pound weight gain over the course of a year!! Add to that, the metabolism's natural tendency to slow down as we age and the general increase in sedentary lifestyles, and it's no wonder so many in the West are struggling to stay fit nowadays. Also, many are adding extra, processed calories to food by adding cheese to many meals - another way to expand the waistline without realizing it. (Read more about the myth of artificial sweeteners and weight-loss here, and about the link between diabetes, cardiovascular disease, pre-term delivery and diet soft-drinks here, about the dangers of soft-drink consumption here, and about the negative, obesity-related effects of diet soft-drinks here and here)

• Skipping breakfast and other meals. A common misconception is that skipping meals helps one lose weight. This is actually the opposite of true - weight gain is not just about calories, but also about metabolism. Did you know that people who skip breakfast are 4.5 times more likely to be obese than those who eat breakfast? The key is your metabolism. Breakfast sets your metabolic rate and eating more frequently (every 3-5) hours throughout the day keeps it revved up and burning calories even when you're not working out. When you go more than 4-5 hours without eating, your body goes into starvation mode which triggers fat storage (to prevent your death from starvation). So, do yourself a favor and eat smaller, more frequent meals to lose weight - take your daily caloric max (usually about 2000 for females and 2500 for males) and divide it into 4 or 5 meals each day. Every time you eat, eat healthy, balanced meals - mostly non-processed veggies & fruit with lean protein and some good fat (like olive oil, coconut oil, or nuts). A good rule of thumb is about 1/2 your plate should be green/red/purple veggies/fruit (which contain fiber, which can increase your fat-burning by up to 30%), about 1/3 should be lean protein (about the size of your palm) (which can increase calorie-burning by up to 35%), and less than 1/4 should be a garnish like brown rice, potatoes, etc. This will help keep your metabolism running hot and not store extra fat. (Read more about the dangers of skipping meals here and here, and how it can mess up your metabolism here)

•  Increased prices of healthy foods like fruits and vegetables relative to less healthy foods. In the US, thanks to the US Farm bill, the sources of processed food: corn, soy, wheat, and rice are subsidized by the government, which makes their cost less than fruits and vegetables. Way back when, meat was the expensive thing to buy, nowadays it seems that greens and fruits are the most expensive. So is it any wonder that people on a tight budget have a harder time eating healthy now than 30 years ago? Add to this the fact that fast food eating has more than tripled since 1977 and calorie consumption has also increased, with most of these extra calories coming from carbohydrates, particularly sweetened beverages (which according to Dr. Benjamin Caballero, make up almost 25% of daily caloric intake for US teens). (Read more about government subsidization here, and more about increased caloric intake here)
  

• Lack of regular, challenging exercise. Gone are the days when kids played on the streets from the minute school was out until well past dark. Gone are the days when people walked to the grocery store, bank, library, doctor, etc. Part of this is a result of the car-centered change in lifestyles due to subsidization of the highway system in the 1950s (where people are often inclined to drive their car across the street rather than walk), part of this is the pull of computers and social-networking which keep more people sitting rather than moving, and if we're honest with ourselves, part of this is our human tendency to laziness and our hurried lifestyles. It's definitely not as easy to get regular exercise in the West as it is in other areas of the world where walking quite a few miles a day is a regular way of life; however, this does not mean that it can't be done. Even something as simple as parking at the far edge of the parking lot when shopping, getting up from your computer every hour and walking around a bit helps get you moving more. And it definitely helps to have an exercise buddy, someone to keep you accountable. If you want a fast way to get in a good workout in about 10-15 minutes, try high intensity interval training (more beneficial than an hour of running) - after a 2-3 minute warm-up (brisk walking with swinging arms is simple) do something intensely for 30 seconds (like jump-roping w/o a jump rope, jumping-jacks, vigorously running in place with knees high and arms pumping, etc.) followed by 30 seconds of moderately paced activity. Repeat this for 10 minutes and follow up with a 2-3 minute cool-down. In 15 minutes, you've gotten in an intense, sweat-inducing, calorie-burning workout (if you've pushed yourself and done it correctly). The other interesting thing about exercise is that it is cumulative. In other words, you can take a workout and break it up into smaller 5-10 minute portions throughout the day and it has the same benefit as doing it in one large chunk. So, no more excuses - get moving! :) 
  (And, if you want to join us for weekly Fitness class via Skype, let me know!)

For other ways to keep your body running the way it was designed to, check out these tips to maximize your metabolism: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41721690/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/t/ways-max-your-metabolism/#.UBPDVaAZcgc, and if you live in the USA, consider joining the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award to help you get fit and stay fit as a family (Read more about it here).

With God's help and a lot of hard work and self-discipline it is definitely possible to achieve and maintain a healthy body weight. It's not easy and not always fun, but the results are well-worth the effort it takes to get there! In the famous words of Winston Churchill, "Never give up! Never surrender!"