10 Pounds in 10 Days
100 Calorie Diet
180 Degree Metabolism
4 Week Detox Plan
3 Hour Diet
3 Day Diet
5 Factor Diet
18 Pounds in 4 Days
7 Day Diet
7 Day Fat Blast Diet
28 Pounds in 28 Days
Acai Berry Diet
Atkins Diet
Dukan Diet
Bernstein Diet
Apple Cider Vinegar Diet
Cabbage Soup Diet
Low Carb Diet
Carb Lovers Diet...
And the list is endless, it just goes on and on and on, full of diets promising to transform your body into something close to Halle Berry or Brad Pitt.
But the main problem is that there is a serious health issue going on that isn't just how we look on the outside.
Just go for a walk around any city in the Western World and you will see people who are overweight and people who are obese. And, at the same time, there is immense pressure on us all to be gorgeous, skinny film stars or super models or no one will love us. But first we should love ourselves.
The stark truth is that:
- Worldwide obesity has nearly doubled since 1980.
- In 2008, more than 1.4 BILLION ADULTS, of 20 years of age and older, were overweight. Of those, over 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese.
- 35% of adults aged 20 and over were overweight in 2008, and 11% were obese.
- 65% of the world's population live in countries where overweight and obesity kills more people than underweight.
- More than 40 MILLION CHILDREN under the age of 5 were overweight in 2011.
- Obesity is preventable.
The common health problems associated with being overweight or obese are:
- Cardiovascular disease (mainly heart disease and stroke), which was the leading cause of death in 2008;
- Diabetes;
- Musculoskeletal disorders such as osteoarthritis;
- Some cancers such as endometrial, breast and colon.
Childhood obesity is associated with a high risk of obesity, premature death and disability in later life (Adulthood). However, the problems for obese children do not just appear in adulthood, during childhood they experience breathing difficulties, increased risk of fractures, hypertension, early markers of cardiovascular disease, insuline resistance and psychological effects.
Source: World Health Organization Fact Sheet Nº 311 Updated March 2013.
In the western world we are constantly being bombarded with advertising from huge companies such as Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Pepsi, Coca Cola, etc to consume their products. Products which are far from healthy, packed full of artificial flavorings, salt, sugar and preservatives - none of which are going to nourish our human bodies. In fact, it has been shown that our bodies are not decomposing at the same rate as before after death, our bodies are taking LONGER to decompose due to the amount of preservatives in our diets.
Our meat often comes packed full of antibiotics and hormones and our fruit and vegetables often come covered in pesticides, and cows milk full of puss, hormones and antibiotics too. We are constantly told that these do not effect our health, but we now know that this is not entirely true. The people that are telling us our food is safe are the big corporations, the ones I mentioned before and Monsanto who are heavily into genetically modified foods which are dangerous to our health.
The truth is that most of us are unhealthy, many are overweight or obese and lots of us are undernourished even though we may be overweight. We tend to associate being undernourished with famine riddled countries where people are dying from starvation. But you can be overweight and under nourished simply because the type of foods you are eating are not nourishing your body, they do not provide the proper nutrients that your body needs to flourish.
So what can we do? Well the answer is not to try any of the fad diets listed above. We need to LEARN to eat properly and we need to TEACH the younger generations how to eat properly. Nowadays in our fast food culture, many children and adults rarely eat a meal prepared from scratch with fresh ingredients. Many families where both parents work out of necessity, rely on ready made meals or take outs and rarely do families sit down and eat together.
This western world culture that we now live in, where how much money you make, where you live, and which car you drive seems to be far more important than planning a healthy life and a healthy old age. If we all looked after ourselves more, ate properly and took regular exercise, a lot of serious diseases wouldn't effect us. We would be healthier, and the burden on our health organizations would be eased.
If we ate properly; lots of fruit and vegetables, whole grains, nuts, a small amount of animal protein and no trans fats, our weight would normalise itself. There would be no need to go on any crash diet to get
into great shape for the summer as you would be in great shape all year round. You would have more energy and stress would be easier to cope with. Exercise has been proven to be the best stress buster, and you don't have to join and expensive gym to do it. You can go for walks, cycle, roller blading, skate boarding, swimming, etc - all of which you can do alone or with your family or friends, if you get the whole family involved it will be better for you all on a health level and also as family bonding time. There is nothing to be said against a healthy lifestyle which can only bring you happiness and keep ill health at bay.
So, what are you waiting for?
Social Nutrition:
You can make an appointment to improve your health with Social Nutrition either in person (Madrid) or online (Skype). Just send an email to lucycarr@socialnutrition.com
