“Epidemic” is defined as follows:
–adjective 1. Also, ep⋅i⋅dem⋅i⋅cal. (of a disease) affecting many persons at the same time, and spreading from person to person in a locality where the disease is not permanently prevalent. 2. extremely prevalent; widespread.
–noun 3. a temporary prevalence of a disease. 4. a rapid spread or increase in the occurrence of something: an epidemic of riots.
It is a word that gets thrown around a lot. Calling obesity an epidemic in America is beyond fashionable, it’s simply ordinary. So common is this term and its use in this context that we hardly notice it any more. Let’s look at the facts. 2/3rd’s of Americans are not just overweight, they are clinically obese. That means that 190 million of the 307 million Americans are obese! That’s shocking! I found this CBS News video piece today and it just blew me away.
Many of the people that are obese in America are children. This is simply an unacceptable situation. The fact that these numbers and terms are thrown around with such a cavalier attitude is deplorable. If 2/3′rds of the country had cancer or heart disease, we’d sure as hell do something about it, but being overweight just gets written off as some sort of personal decision that people make or don’t. To compound the issue the money behind the modern food machine supresses the message, confusese consumers and further exacerbates the problem.
The video talks about an extra 500 calories a day being consumed on average. That translates into about one pound per week of weight gain. If you were wondering how to gain 50 pounds in a year, this is the formula. Keep that up for a while and it is easy to see how this happened. What’s worse is that the modern American diet is conditioning our children to eat foods that are high in sugar and fat and low in nutrients. As a result, studies indicate that this could be the first generation since the Civil War to have a shorter life expectancy than the previous one!
Eating clean is not that hard. It takes some time to understand, but this is your body we are talking about. What could possibly be more important than understanding how your food effects your body? Oh, just one thing and that’s understanding how the foods you feed your children impact their bodies. My kids are 9 and 6. Each of them understands the difference between protein, carbs (including sugar) and fat. They understand what is in the foods they eat and they understand that the food choices they make will effect their bodies. They don’t always make good decisions. I’m 37 and I don’t always make good decisions. Proper nutrition isn’t about “always” making the right decision. It is about making the right decision the majority of the time.
If nutrition is confusing to you, I strongly encourage you to take the time this year to understand the basic concepts. It might just save your life, or your the lives of your kids. I don’t know whether this is the calling of our generation, but getting more people healthy and fit will certainly go a long way towards improving society and the lives of the individuals in it. If you want our help, you need only ask. dave@thefitclubnetwork.com.
Dave
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