Friday, October 28, 2011

What Causes Obesity?

By Taco Fleur


Obesity, an epidemic that is threatening the human race, yet, we hardly think about it in our daily lives. We choose to ignore a threat that has one-third of the U.S in its jaws. Obesity is defined as a state where your actual weight deviates from the ideal weight by more than 10 - 20 %. Many of us fall in this category but the important factor is; are we aware that we are obese? Many people disregard their weight issues by using phrases like 'it's probably a little holiday weight that I'm carrying' or 'I'm not fat, I'm just curvy/buff'. The first step to obesity treatment is proper awareness of the problem itself. Obesity symptoms are easy to identify. The weight scale never lies. Neither does the fat measuring caliper. Solutions to obesity are many but they come into play once you identify the fact that you're obese.

Causes of obesity in adults:

All the causes of obesity can be nut-shelled into a simple cause. Obesity is on the rise because we are deviating way too fast, from the original diet our ancestors use to have. Fresh fruits and vegetables are no longer considered as a viable option for a snack. Let alone snacking, we don't even consume organic food in our meals anymore. Everything we consume is packed, refined and loaded with artificial stuff such as sweeteners or preservatives. What essentially we are doing is that we're loading our system with complex refined carbohydrates and trans-fats that our digestive system can't just cope with. The result is that whatever the body is unable to burn or process properly, it stores as fat and this is exactly what's going on in our systems. The second problem is lack of physical activity. Where our ancestors use to hunt and exert physically, in retrospect, we're just couch potatoes and that creates havoc on the metabolism, forcing the body to become a fat storing machine.

Causes of obesity in children:

The causes aren't much different in children's case. They too have sedentary lifestyle and their diet is full of food that is high in saturated/Trans-fat, processed sugar and refined carbohydrates. 'Food on the go' are recommended and since the adults themselves are unaware of the factors that are contributing to obesity, the children are left in darkness in this regard.

Obesity surgery:

Obesity surgery is NOT the solution to the problem of obesity. Unless you remove the root cause that is causing this problem, surgery just improves the condition momentarily by removing the effect, not the cause. The solution should be to follow a balanced and healthy diet rich in organic food (Raw vegetables fresh fruits, lean proteins and simple carbohydrates). Other thing to do would be to exercise daily. There are a lot of diets and fitness plans available on the internet so the advisable thing to do would be to do your research and stick to one of the plans.




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