Throughout most of my life I, like many of you have had to battle my weight. I have never been obese, and can only imagine how that feels, however managing the ever growing mid-section has brought challenges of its own.
We have all been taught by a variety of sources the key to successful weight loss or control can be found by combining diet and exercise. Typically speaking, one without the other does not bring lasting success nor the desired results. In fact, without the combination of diet and exercise, success is more often slow or non-existent and therefore the motivation is lost leading to abandoning the program.
Since we understand this simple concept, why then is America getting bigger and bigger? Although, we can either debate or agree on a multitude of reasons, with a little common sense we can see at least a few major culprits in our quest for the Baywatch body.
Speaking of television programs, on the 50’s sitcom “Father Knows Best”, Ward and June Clever would sit down to a wonderful dinner, as a family, seemingly each and every night. While this was fiction, the Clevers represented main stream America as it was in those days. My family was no different with my mother preparing meals for us and the family sitting down to dinner each night. In fact, not unlike many households in America, the vegetables were home grown and the meat purchased from a local farmer. Meat, potatoes, vegetables and salad were the norm as these were commonly referred to as “comfort foods.” Were the meals we were served perfect? Probably not but they were arguably much more wholesome, fresh and without the additives in much of today’s products. The bottom line, main stream America sat down to the family dinner on most nights and ate foods that were locally grown, fresh and without the additives.
Today, main stream America is vastly different. Although I could expand so much on this particular aspect of America, I will limit this post to talking about the epidemic of obesity. Many families today have both parents working due to economic necessity or simply the “me” generation and wanting materialistic “things” now. Whatever the reason, no one is home with the children and no one has time or energy to properly prepare healthy foods. Further, healthy foods are increasingly more expensive than the non-healthy foods. I would venture a guess to say that it will cost a family 20% more each and every week to eat healthy. As the economy slows and people have less money to spend on groceries, potentially the healthier foods will be replaced in the home by the cheaper, less healthy processed foods further adding to our obesity epidemic.
Processed foods are not much more than “manufactured foods”. Most processed foods, although may be based in the actual food, have most of the nutritional value “processed” out and chemicals added in. Chemicals added for preservation, color, and taste, all to make the boxed foods seem appealing and taste similar to the real deal. Although a person can be eating potatoes from a box, most of the nutritional value is lost when compared to a potato from the garden, plain and simple.
Families having both parents working full-time, have less time to prepare healthy meals. Further, after working a full day, many parents simply do not have the energy to come home and hit the kitchen. People now look again towards processed or prepared foods as a substitute for good old home cooking. Comfort foods like meat and potatoes are now saved for holiday dinners while fast foods, frozen foods, and grinders are providing the bulk of the daily meals. It is much easier and quicker to swing into the local pizza place and order the double stuffed crush, three pizza, two topping, family meal deal than go home and cook. Be sure to hit the drive thru and grab the double quarter pounder meal deal and don’t forget to “supersize” it. Don’t bother cooking, you can be quickly and easily satisfied with a run through the drive thru.
Need gas? As you stand and pump your gas, you can watch the LCD display tell you about all the sodas, candy, and chips they have on sale. Be sure to run in and grab the 64oz super gulp of your favorite soda. . For so many families, trips to the grocery store are replaced by trips to the local convenience store. Is there anything at the corner convenience store that actually fits into a real food group? Yes, of course, but not very much.
Think for a minute, in simplistic terms, how our bodies react to nutrition and frequency of meals. Back in our caveman days, humans hunted, fished, and foraged for berries. Meals were few and far between so our bodies typically have a predisposition to storage. Their bodies didn’t know when the next meal would come so it stored whatever was eaten. Were those guys fat? No, and the reason for that was exercise. They probably did not hang out together and bench press rocks, but they did cover great distances daily to find food. I’m sure they may have even been chased by an occasional saber toothed tiger, which would help keep them slim. Although their diet was wholesome, albeit infrequent, they did get some exercise and were able to keep thin.
Our bodies have not changed much since then, generally. The food supply has become much more stable and in fact, plentiful for most. Unfortunately, our bodies still store much of what we eat no unlike our early humans. How does this all fit together? Well, we eat large quantities of food and specifically much more than necessary on a daily basis. Those of us that are old enough to remember, even restaurant portions are much larger than they were even 15 years ago. We have been taught to eat 3 meals per day and this does nothing to change our bodies desire to “store” food as fat. Ironically, if you eat healthy foods every couple of hours this has the effect of retraining your body to not “store” foods as fat. Your body knows it will be fed regularly so it uses what it needs and dumps the rest. As a society, we are much more sedentary than ever before in our history. Moving sidewalks in airports, escalators, elevators, and a multitude of other convenience items has made us the laziest society in the world. In summary, more food, the body stores what we eat, and less activity. The result is weight gain and obesity.
Our caveman ancestors received all of the nutrition their bodies needed through diet. They did not have a GNC on the corner to purchase vitamins and other dietary supplements. All things being equal, we too should be able to get the supplements our bodies need through diet. In fact, the wellness industry of supplementation barely existed 25 years ago. With the advent of processed foods and fast foods, we cannot get what our bodies need through diet alone. Hence, we have hundreds of vitamin stores in most cities and towns in America. Going back to our common sense bodies and we can see how this scenario is played out. We get hungry and our bodies crave nutrition. We feed ourselves the processed foods that contain little to no nutritional value. We become “satisfied” on empty calories and are no longer hungry however we did not give our body what it needs. Our bodies store the non-nutritional foods as fat because that is what we’ve done for hundreds of years. The body, realizing it did not get what it needed, craves again. We feed it lousy food, it stores it, and we get fat. Since we exercise so rarely and stand on those moving sidewalks, we don’t burn any calories and we remain fat. Any questions? Now we have a billion dollar industry in supplementation.
Interestingly, on a recent trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, when my first meal arrived at the table, I was certain I would starve to death before I got home as the portions were very small. I ate the meal and was completely satisfied. I did not feel stuffed, nor did I still feel hungry. What I learned was that our Russian friends served realistic portions similar to what you may have served yourself. As we spent time seeing the sights, I noticed most people in the city walked everywhere. Public transportation was available, although sparse, so most people walked, even in the winter. They did not over eat and they exercised their bodies by walking. The result was I did not see very many overweight people. This was probably also assisted by the fact that many Russians smoked cigarettes, which is another story.
If you think of your body in simplistic terms regarding foods, food consumption, calorie intake versus calories burned, you can see just how we have grown larger and larger. Unfortunately, this trend is continuing and is being passed down to our children. Our children are more sedentary than ever before. The inventions of computers, video games, and television have made our children the laziest children in the world. Further, children eat what their parents eat so you can only imagine where they are headed. Fly Safe.
We have all been taught by a variety of sources the key to successful weight loss or control can be found by combining diet and exercise. Typically speaking, one without the other does not bring lasting success nor the desired results. In fact, without the combination of diet and exercise, success is more often slow or non-existent and therefore the motivation is lost leading to abandoning the program.
Since we understand this simple concept, why then is America getting bigger and bigger? Although, we can either debate or agree on a multitude of reasons, with a little common sense we can see at least a few major culprits in our quest for the Baywatch body.
Speaking of television programs, on the 50’s sitcom “Father Knows Best”, Ward and June Clever would sit down to a wonderful dinner, as a family, seemingly each and every night. While this was fiction, the Clevers represented main stream America as it was in those days. My family was no different with my mother preparing meals for us and the family sitting down to dinner each night. In fact, not unlike many households in America, the vegetables were home grown and the meat purchased from a local farmer. Meat, potatoes, vegetables and salad were the norm as these were commonly referred to as “comfort foods.” Were the meals we were served perfect? Probably not but they were arguably much more wholesome, fresh and without the additives in much of today’s products. The bottom line, main stream America sat down to the family dinner on most nights and ate foods that were locally grown, fresh and without the additives.
Today, main stream America is vastly different. Although I could expand so much on this particular aspect of America, I will limit this post to talking about the epidemic of obesity. Many families today have both parents working due to economic necessity or simply the “me” generation and wanting materialistic “things” now. Whatever the reason, no one is home with the children and no one has time or energy to properly prepare healthy foods. Further, healthy foods are increasingly more expensive than the non-healthy foods. I would venture a guess to say that it will cost a family 20% more each and every week to eat healthy. As the economy slows and people have less money to spend on groceries, potentially the healthier foods will be replaced in the home by the cheaper, less healthy processed foods further adding to our obesity epidemic.
Processed foods are not much more than “manufactured foods”. Most processed foods, although may be based in the actual food, have most of the nutritional value “processed” out and chemicals added in. Chemicals added for preservation, color, and taste, all to make the boxed foods seem appealing and taste similar to the real deal. Although a person can be eating potatoes from a box, most of the nutritional value is lost when compared to a potato from the garden, plain and simple.
Families having both parents working full-time, have less time to prepare healthy meals. Further, after working a full day, many parents simply do not have the energy to come home and hit the kitchen. People now look again towards processed or prepared foods as a substitute for good old home cooking. Comfort foods like meat and potatoes are now saved for holiday dinners while fast foods, frozen foods, and grinders are providing the bulk of the daily meals. It is much easier and quicker to swing into the local pizza place and order the double stuffed crush, three pizza, two topping, family meal deal than go home and cook. Be sure to hit the drive thru and grab the double quarter pounder meal deal and don’t forget to “supersize” it. Don’t bother cooking, you can be quickly and easily satisfied with a run through the drive thru.
Need gas? As you stand and pump your gas, you can watch the LCD display tell you about all the sodas, candy, and chips they have on sale. Be sure to run in and grab the 64oz super gulp of your favorite soda. . For so many families, trips to the grocery store are replaced by trips to the local convenience store. Is there anything at the corner convenience store that actually fits into a real food group? Yes, of course, but not very much.
Think for a minute, in simplistic terms, how our bodies react to nutrition and frequency of meals. Back in our caveman days, humans hunted, fished, and foraged for berries. Meals were few and far between so our bodies typically have a predisposition to storage. Their bodies didn’t know when the next meal would come so it stored whatever was eaten. Were those guys fat? No, and the reason for that was exercise. They probably did not hang out together and bench press rocks, but they did cover great distances daily to find food. I’m sure they may have even been chased by an occasional saber toothed tiger, which would help keep them slim. Although their diet was wholesome, albeit infrequent, they did get some exercise and were able to keep thin.
Our bodies have not changed much since then, generally. The food supply has become much more stable and in fact, plentiful for most. Unfortunately, our bodies still store much of what we eat no unlike our early humans. How does this all fit together? Well, we eat large quantities of food and specifically much more than necessary on a daily basis. Those of us that are old enough to remember, even restaurant portions are much larger than they were even 15 years ago. We have been taught to eat 3 meals per day and this does nothing to change our bodies desire to “store” food as fat. Ironically, if you eat healthy foods every couple of hours this has the effect of retraining your body to not “store” foods as fat. Your body knows it will be fed regularly so it uses what it needs and dumps the rest. As a society, we are much more sedentary than ever before in our history. Moving sidewalks in airports, escalators, elevators, and a multitude of other convenience items has made us the laziest society in the world. In summary, more food, the body stores what we eat, and less activity. The result is weight gain and obesity.
Our caveman ancestors received all of the nutrition their bodies needed through diet. They did not have a GNC on the corner to purchase vitamins and other dietary supplements. All things being equal, we too should be able to get the supplements our bodies need through diet. In fact, the wellness industry of supplementation barely existed 25 years ago. With the advent of processed foods and fast foods, we cannot get what our bodies need through diet alone. Hence, we have hundreds of vitamin stores in most cities and towns in America. Going back to our common sense bodies and we can see how this scenario is played out. We get hungry and our bodies crave nutrition. We feed ourselves the processed foods that contain little to no nutritional value. We become “satisfied” on empty calories and are no longer hungry however we did not give our body what it needs. Our bodies store the non-nutritional foods as fat because that is what we’ve done for hundreds of years. The body, realizing it did not get what it needed, craves again. We feed it lousy food, it stores it, and we get fat. Since we exercise so rarely and stand on those moving sidewalks, we don’t burn any calories and we remain fat. Any questions? Now we have a billion dollar industry in supplementation.
Interestingly, on a recent trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, when my first meal arrived at the table, I was certain I would starve to death before I got home as the portions were very small. I ate the meal and was completely satisfied. I did not feel stuffed, nor did I still feel hungry. What I learned was that our Russian friends served realistic portions similar to what you may have served yourself. As we spent time seeing the sights, I noticed most people in the city walked everywhere. Public transportation was available, although sparse, so most people walked, even in the winter. They did not over eat and they exercised their bodies by walking. The result was I did not see very many overweight people. This was probably also assisted by the fact that many Russians smoked cigarettes, which is another story.
If you think of your body in simplistic terms regarding foods, food consumption, calorie intake versus calories burned, you can see just how we have grown larger and larger. Unfortunately, this trend is continuing and is being passed down to our children. Our children are more sedentary than ever before. The inventions of computers, video games, and television have made our children the laziest children in the world. Further, children eat what their parents eat so you can only imagine where they are headed. Fly Safe.
Captain Tom Bake
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