Pandemic In A Rather Large Proportion!

Excess body weight contributes to medical conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, some cancers, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. It is estimated that obesity and the associated illness cost the Australian society and federal government a total of $21 billion in 2005. It is estimated that over 2.5 million Australian adults are obese and a further 4.9 million plus aussies are overweight. The proportion of Australian adults who are obese has more than doubled since 1990. Studies show that men were much more likely to be overweight than women (43% compared with 28%) and they were slightly more likely to be overweight.

Do you think there is an epidemic happening?

Children are now the ones suffering for the mistakes we as adults have made, I'm sure most families try and promote healthy eating to their young ones but it falls to pieces when it comes to exercise or the child simply being outside running around or riding their bike. Everyone's circumstances are different I know, but how long can parents go on kidding themselves, do they honestly think that just sending their child to school and participating in physical education once or twice a week provides their child with enough exercise. Then on the other hand there is some unfortunate children growing up in homes where fast food and junk food is their base diet along with little to no exercise, I guess it's a fair bet that these kids are already, at such a young age overweight and possibly obese, if they aren't now they soon will be. Studies show that about 50% of obese adolescents carry their obesity into adulthood and once a child is classed as overweight they are not likely to shed their extra weight as an adult.

If you're a parent please don't think I am just scathing a personal attack on you and no nothing about kids, I have two young children and understand that it can be hard to teach them to eat healthy foods once they have developed a taste for lollies and sweets. Junk food is unavoidable these days, it is perfectly placed in stores and advertised on television but the worst sort of advertisement out there is word of mouth and peer pressure from their friends. I should note the government is acting on this issue, but acting very slowly. Some recent action was to regulate television advertisements for fast food during afternoon and early evening times and stepping up their television campaign trying to make people aware of the brutal facts of obesity.

By now every adult in the world knows that obesity is a huge problem. So what's the solution?

As there is a number of contributing factors leading to obesity, we must first start and keep reinforcing the education on healthy living at home and set a good example for our children to follow so they are well equipped to tackle this issue when they are adults. If your child is overweight or obese perhaps we need to not only look at how, but also why they are overweight or obese. So for the sake of our next generation learn to be healthy yourself and set the example needed, and if you personally have weight management problems that you can't control, please seek help, join a gym, join a weight loss organization or find the right motivation to start yourself on the right track to living a healthier and longer life.

One last important tip to remember if you are about to make a dramatic change to your eating habits, is that if you are a large eater who needs to lose a lot of weight, my advice is that you cut back the size of your meals slowly and even introduce fruits and vegetables slowly if you do not normally eat them, even exercise should be started at a gentle pace so you don’t suffer from burnout and throw in the towel. One of the biggest reasons why so many people fail at dieting is because the sudden change of foods affect the body in sometimes unpleasant ways and it takes time to adjust, it is in this period where so many dieters fail. I suggest taking a good multivitamin and drinking plenty of water is one piece of advice you implement straight away.

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Today for our first post I want to talk about the general concerns of obesity and also why this problem is getting worse. Everyone has heard the message that obesity causes a number of health issues and is directly related to a high percentage of deaths, not to mention taking up a lot of desperately needed hospital beds. So why is it that the cases of obesity in the general population continue spiral out of control. It truly is wrong to blame one cause as there a number of contributing factors such as the person themselves, hereditary obesity, the never ending advertising campaigns of fast food companies and also the major grocery suppliers with their inconspicuous marketing. Have you looked at the price difference between healthy food and the high fat quick and easy meals at your local grocery store?

There is far too much money being made by major fast food companies to truly believe that they are looking at ways to provide healthy food to their customers without tarnishing their valuable greasy burgers and chips for which they are famous for, now don't get me wrong because like I said we cannot blame one single cause for obesity because of the number of continuing factors.

So if the food giants are not going put their profit on the line (which I don't blame them) who can we look to for help. My suggestion is to look in the mirror and find your answer and if you're not confident or do not believe in yourself which is also another reason why weight management can be hard for some then you need support which can be from a friend or even a weight management mentor/coach who no doubt will soon be your friend.

To combat the food giants and the tricky advertising we constantly face each day, we need to turn a blind eye and remenber that everything in moderation should keep you on the right track, but hang on, how moderate do I have to be compared to your moderate, tricky question and that is why we need to learn more about our own body and keep track of what happens to our body after eating food. By keeping track I mean taking note of how you feel or how your body responds, so do you get grumpy, happy, do you get an upset stomach, do you feel guilty, even feel slightly ill, if you suffer any of these feelings or consequences then that is the survival part of your brain telling you not to eat these foods or keep this food in MODERATION.

With a bad diet we also starve our bodies of the right balance of vitamins and nutrition, so if you are feeling off all the time I advise you to head to you doctor and have a blood test to determine how low your vitamin levels are, also have a few other tests while you are there if you haven't been for a while and are obese, the major ones to check are you blood sugar levels and cholestorel levels.

Good luck and be healthy

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