Obesity is an epidemic that is plaguing our country. Children can suffer, adults can suffer, people we love can suffer. It’s important to know what we can do to ensure the people around us lead happy and healthy lives. The best way to do this is to understand what obesity is, how we can overcome it, and why it’s all so important.
“Obesity is an abnormal accumulation of body fat, usually 20% or more over an individual’s ideal body weight. Obesity is associated with increased risk of illness, disability, and death.”
The country faces a huge problem in obesity. As a matter of fact, obesity has increased from 7% in 1980 to 18% in 2012. Childhood obesity has quadrupled since 1980.
We know that as food production has gone up, food quality has gone down. This is a result of the United States subsidizing corn, causing high fructose corn syrup to be added to a lot of our foods to cut costs.
Luckily, in the last few years we have made leaps and bounds in obesity epidemic research.
The FDA has created the Obesity Working Group to research the epidemic.
The OWG is conducting a large scale behavioral study to understand the psychological factors that go hand in hand with obesity in children and adults.
The FDA is also requiring food manufacturers to be truthful on their labels and marketing, as well as promote health education. This is especially apparent in school children, who also have access to different wellness programs like Play 60.
The scariest part of obesity is just how life threatening it can be. Obesity can lead to all kinds of life altering diseases and conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and asthma.
The best way to stay healthy is to maintain a nutritious diet and get regular physical activity. However, there is also a link between obesity and genetics, so make sure to talk to your doctor if you feel you may be at risk.
If you want to make sure you stay on track to lead a healthy life, you can always stop by Elite and talk to one of our trainers or nutritionist!
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