I have read that something like 67% of Americans are overweight with about 50% of those being obese. Also the number of kids that are overweight is about 30% with again about 50% of those being obese. The numbers are staggering, but are they real. If the numbers are real, then the real question is why?
If you look at the food we eat in today’s America it is nothing like what we use to eat. The food industry strips all the nutrition out then graciously adds artificial nutrients back in as though the two are equivalent. Or the food industry has modified the natural product to the point where it no longer represents the original. We also eat tons of processed food because it is cheaper than natural products. We eat out way more now than in the past and this food is super high in salt and fat, and may be processed as well. Furthermore, we are eating later and later and not giving our bodies a chance to digest the food we have eaten before we are in bed. We eat fewer fruits and vegetables and a lot more simple carbohydrates. We drink stuff that is laced with chemicals that cause more harm than good. Finally, we eat more in one meal now than ever in the past.
Besides the food, we exercise very little sitting at our desks working or playing games, sitting on the couch eating and watching tv, sitting in chairs again eating or playing, or laying down to sleep. We are so inactive these days that not only is our external appearance affected, our internal health is deteriorating.
Then we have a faulty system, the BMI, that is treated as though it is the gold standard. Yet this system is based on a person that is 5’8″ and then is extrapolated to other heights. A person who weighs 225 and has 10% body fat and is 5’10” is considered obese. Doctors are not using their better judgement, but are being told by a system that is flawed what people are suppose to be.
Finally, we are a pill nation. We do not want to change our lifestyle, but would rather take a pill to treat whatever is causing our issue. While we are partially to blame because of our inactivity, the medical community is also to blame. Doctors get kickbacks from the drugs they prescribe and no longer tell people to change or accept the consequences. Their response is we have a pill for that and our response is great give it to me.
So what do you do? The answer is simple, but the implementation is not and will take a lifestyle change. You have to decide whether a long healthy life is worth the effort. Eat less food in general, eat less processed foods, do not eat out as much, cut out adding salt to your food, drink more water and drink less sodas and sugary drinks, take your time and enjoy your meal, eat more fruits and vegetable, eat less carbohydrate intense meals, eat more lean meats and fish, exercise more and sit less.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 New International Version (NIV)
19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 New International Version (NIV)
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
Proverbs 23:19-21New International Version (NIV)
19 Listen, my son, and be wise,
and set your heart on the right path:
20 Do not join those who drink too much wine
or gorge themselves on meat,
21 for drunkards and gluttons become poor,
and drowsiness clothes them in rags.