Were your parents fat? Or your grandparents?
Why do we get fat?
Why are we going to become obese?
Genetics, environment, fear, guilt all have a role to play today.
They are the WHY it happens but the WHAT is the food.
And a lot.
And the wrong guys.
In the 1960s and 1970s, only 14% of the US was considered obese. But take a look at the numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta in 2007.
2007 obesity rates by percentage of each state
Alabama 30.3 Illinois 24.9 Montana 21.8 Rhode Island 21.4
Alaska 27.5 Indiana 26.8 Nebraska 26.0 South Carolina 28.4
Arizona 25.4 Iowa 26.9 Nevada 24.1 South Dakota 26
Arkansas 28.7 Kansas 26.9 New Hampshire 24
California 22.6 Kentucky 27.4 New Jersey 23.5 Texas 28.1
Colorado 18.7 Louisiana 29.8 New Mexico 24.0 Utah 21.8
Connecticut 21.2 Maine 24.8 New York 25.0 Vermont 21.3
Delaware 27.4 Maryland 25.4 North Carolina 28.0 Virginia 24
Washington DC 21 Massachusetts 21.3 North Dakota 26.5 Washington 25.3
Florida 23.6 Michigan 27.7 Ohio 27.5 West Virginia 29.5
Georgia 28.2 Minnesota 25.6 Oklahoma 28.1 Wisconsin 24.7
Hawaii 21.4 Mississippi 32.0 Oregon 25.5 Wyoming 23.7
Idaho 24.5 Missouri 27.5 Pennsylvania 27.1
What has gone wrong in the last 40 years?
Why are all these people now in the obese section of the statistics?
Not only the lifestyle, but the peculiar lifestyle of the United States and many Western countries.
The generations that lived as adults in 1960 had a different set of circumstances that hit them in daily life.
They or we used to start our active life by walking or cycling to school. Then there were all those vigorous outdoor games instead of the Playstation. Two families of cars were on the rise, but they were not the norm.
Of course, these days walking or cycling to school can be suicidal, so the very beginning of an active life starts off on the wrong foot.
Consider shopping 40 years ago.
Very few malls therefore very few or possibly no food courts.
None of the supermarkets filled aisle after aisle with pre-packaged microwaveable meals, nor piles of chocolate and cookies loaded around the cash register.
And when you went to fill up the car, they gave you gasoline, oil and water.
Also, the attendant took his money and came back with his change.
Today you have to go inside and go to a pay station that is as far away from the entrance as possible, so you pass a wide variety of sweets, hotdogs and anything greasy but tasty.
There is absolutely no way these things are going to change in the near future.
And if you’re in the obese area, and remember, that’s only 24% over your ideal weight, as shown by a BMI calculator, not someone with the build of a globe, you need to try something else.
His only hope, aside from starting to walk more frequently, is to stay as far away as possible from the sources of this excess food supply.
Order it at home.
No temptations, just what’s on your shopping list.
Most stores have a delivery service, often online.
If you need high-protein foods for an obesity diet or just returned from gastric weight loss surgery, consider Bariatric Choice.
Like we used to do 30 or 40 years ago, prepare more food at home.
It takes more time in the kitchen, but that will reduce the amount of food that accumulates in the cupboards.
Daniela