Obesity in the News

I recently told a friend of mine that I felt one day obesity would be the major cause of all other diseases and now we hear this statistic... that by mid century there will be more people dying of obesity that cancers. Now our children, one in three obese, will have a life expectancy that will decline by approximately 4.5 years.

What I do not understand is why the so called experts did not see this trend accelerating over the years and do something long before this. Who ever thought up the idea of sugary drinks in school vending machines. Never mind the chemical sodas, I do not believe it is even good to put juice in those machines. Juices are simple sugars without the benefit of the nutrition from the whole fruit and cause a rise in blood sugar. Eaten as part of a meal fine but alone, not in my opinion. In fact I drink very little juice unless I make it myself...I eat the whole fruit. Milk has its own host of problems with hormones and antibiotics that are in the dairy feed and make their way into the bodies of our children causing a host of problems. The body needs water. Water bathes every cell carrying nutrients in and toxins out. Fill those vending machines with water. Sure what kid will drink that you say? Well taught the outcome for them later in life they just may. Besides that sugar rush and subsequent drop, does little to help a child's concentration.

I cannot believe how the children have gotten to this state in this country. Could it be the parents that themselves grew up during the time of fast foods and knew little about nutrition? Could it be the era of mom moving away from cooking and into the world of having to contribute to the family income? By adopting a life that is so hurried the food companies have only accommodated our needs. We want faster everything. Processed foods are processed. Processed by man so we do not have to. Potatoes are boxed so that we do not have to cook them. There are sugar laden and fiber stripped cereals, so we do not have to slow cook the whole grains.

I find it funny, no sad that many people today struggle to feed a family yet do not realize the unbelievable amount of money that is spent on packaged foods. The next time you grocery shop look at the cost of a box of cereal and compare that to buying oat groats or whole grain oatmeal. Why not cook up a pot of that at night and put in the refrigerator to be spooned into bowls in the morning? Talk about a rib sticking breakfast to last the children throughout the morning studies in school. If people bought as close to nature as possible they would save money. In fact the grocery bill would be reduced by more than half. I stopped paying for the packaging and processing of foods long ago and in the end became healthier.........there in lies a big part of the answer to the obesity problem today. Eat whole foods. Besides the body knows what to do with those, not the chemicals, sugars and trans fats in processed foods. The body stores those as fat in our bodies and toxic poisons in our tissues. And they wonder why we have such a problem. More deaths by mid century of obesity than cancer. Obesity will be the number one cause of all other major lifestyle diseases...I am convinced that we will hear this one day...absolutely convinced.

Norma Jean