At a recent weeklong International Congress on Obesity held in Sydney, Australia, experts warned that an obesity pandemic is threatening to overwhelm health systems worldwide with obesity related health problems such as heart disease and diabetes.
Paul Zimmel, a diabetes expert at Australia’s Monash University, said that statistics compiled by the World Health Organization indicate that overweight people – more than 1 billion adults – now outnumber the undernourished – about 600 million (almost 2 to 1).
Among the most troubling aspects of the obesity epidemic is the skyrocketing rate of overweight and obesity among children. According to Kate Steinbeck, an expert in children’s health at Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the children in this generation may be the first in history to die younger than their parents because of health problems and disorders related to weight!
A fact that is a bright ray of hope and on the other hand sad & troubling, is that the whole situation of overweight and obesity is almost 100% reversible. It all boils down to taking some personal responsibility and learning to substitute good habits for bad habits (we’re all creatures of habit) in matters of proper nutrition and proper exercise.
Kids learn by example. If they are used to being whisked through the fast food pickup lane and getting a bag of fat burgers and greasy French fries and sugary soft drinks, that’s what they’ll tend do on their own later in life. If they’re used to being served sugary cereals for breakfast, or skipping breakfast altogether, that’s what they’ll tend to do later on. If their parents and older siblings are the proverbial couch potatoes whose main form of exercise is clicking the TV remote or manning the controls of video games, the chances of the kids following suit are high.
But as we noted before, the solution is simple. Maybe not easy, apparently not easy judging by the sad shape the majority of Americans, young and old, are in, but the guidelines are simple: Nourish the body with ample amounts of high quality protein foods, good complex carbohydrates, and ‘good’ fats, avoid junk (there is no such thing in our opinion as junk ‘food’…if it’s junk it’s not food), and move the body…walk, jog, bicycle, swim, play tennis or basketball, get into martial arts, do strength training with weights…you don’t need a lot of equipment or a fancy gym, you don’t need a special chef…you just need to do it!
It’s up to the adults to lead the way for our children. We can help forge a nation of overweight children who will not live to be older adults – or we can help forge a nation of young Natural Champions.
At a recent weeklong International Congress on Obesity held in Sydney, Australia, experts warned that an obesity pandemic is threatening to overwhelm health systems worldwide with obesity related health problems such as heart disease and diabetes.
