Sorry to pose an impolite question, but why are 70% of North Americans over-weight? Yes, Canadians this is us too.
Actually it is easy to see why we are over-weight, the question is more what the hell are we thinking? Why do even some relatively fit parents have chubby kids?
I am going to float my opinion here: it is not cute that our kids are overweight. It is not healthy for our society to keep pretending this elephant is not in the room. It is our failure as parents. It is our fault. We are in charge of buying and preparing the food. We are in charge of leading our kids in physical activity. It is our fault when our kids look like round little balls. We are literally killing them with our “kindness”.
No one has a waist anymore. No one tucks in shirts or wears belts. It is no longer a compliment to tell a 40-year old they have the body of a 20-year-old. Most 20-year-olds are already physical wrecks! Watch a movie from any time before the last 10 years, over-weight people used to be rare. Circuses used to present the fat man or lady as a bizarre exhibit. Now it is fit people that are rare and attracting stares. Regular body people are now considered “skinny”, and over-weight bodies are considered “regular”. We have lost all sense of natural order and balance. This is a path to self-destruction not liberation.
It is not considered acceptable to help our kids smoke or booze it up, so why is it acceptable to assist them in eating their health into oblivion. Allowing and assisting kids to be overweight in childhood, increases their risks for health problems and disease for the rest of their lives.
Talk about economic hurdles for the future! We are poisoning our tomorrow. We have to wake up!!!! It does take more effort and thought to eat slow, healthy, food and get out for exercise daily. But it is the only hope and we adults have to lead our kids through example. There is nothing more important than our health and the health of our kids.
We have to go through our cupboards and fridge and trash the packaged-processed-refined-carb-junk-marketing-driven food in the house. Get rid of it. Buy fresh, local. If we want to be really wild, we can consider starting a garden. Show the kids where real food comes from. Community gardens are becoming popular around the world. Community gardens get people off their couch and working together, young and old, to exert their own energy and grow fresh, healthy food. Community gardens have become an attractive option in today's economy. Most of our grandparents did it. Growing our own food is an idea that has come back around. It represents everything that can be right again in our world.
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Television and computer addiction are as much at fault here as poor diet. Being a spectator is these days more popular than being a player. For example, almost everyone I know is a hockey fan and does not miss a game, yet none of these folks actually take the time to put on a pair of skates and practice the sport they profess to love.
Ditto for computer games. One can do practically anything he or she can imagine via cyberspace… If only one could stay fit by exercising their thumbs to exclusion of other body parts.
Both activities encourage unhealthy eating. Processed foods are pushed during commercial breaks and how often has anyone seen someone playing a video game without a plate of junk next to the joystick.
It seems that media is largely responsible for programming the population to engage in unhealthy behaviour. That is also true for our fiscal fitness. Credit cards, houses that in other parts of the world would be considered multifamily residences and unwarranted renovations people cannot afford are also pushed.
It is always easy, of course, to blame some external forces. Truth is that everyone has a choice to accept or reject whatever propaganda comes their way. That would, however, require the biggest effort of all: thinking for oneself.
I agree 100% re the need for exercise. I happen to love exercise which is a bonus. But I know it is hard for many people to acquire a passion for it. My thought is that if people can clean up their diet and eat about half as much as present super-sized portions, they would lose pounds of fat just on that change alone. Add daily walking even, and they could be healthy again.