Before you do anything else you MUST read the F as In Fat 2007 US Obesity Report published by the Trust for America's Health. Even with all the new gyms, the new healthy foods, the availability of produce and lean proteins, and all of our education, adult obesity rates rose in 31 states last year.
Mississippi faired the worst (for the third year in a row), and is now the first state in the US to have over 30% of its population classified as obese. But even in the skinniest state of Colorado obesity rates rose from 16.9 to 17.6%. "Rates of adult obesity now exceed 25 percent in 19 states, an increase from 14 states last year and 9 in 2005. In 1991, none of the states exceeded 20 percent."
How could this be? We have no concept anymore of portion control and have managed to stretch our stomachs to the point where we feel that only surgery can make them small enough to handle a normal portion of food. I don't care if you are eating lettuce or fried chicken, you don't need to eat more than 20 bites of anything at one time!
Eating as much as you possibly can used to be considered one of the Seven Deadly Sins--GLUTTONY. But somehow we don't see that Supersizing our fast food or loading up 4 times at the salad bar or the all you can eat buffet is in fact gluttonous! Hell, I'm scared about the fact that "supersizing" is a recognized term in the English language.
We wax poetic about how things used to be when everyone was thinner and life was good. But don't fool yourself here. In the 40s and 50s people ate canned and frozen veggies, instant mashed potatoes, pies & cakes & fried foods made with Crisco and lard (the tub of trans-fat), and Wonder Bread! Now we have all this healthy food and we are just getting bigger.
What about all the exercise? People use it mostly as an excuse to eat more. The best line I heard recently about exercise was from Diet Directive's Joan Breibart, "They should just put a candy dispenser on the treadmill so after you burn 200 calories the candy bar just pops out!" We now use exercise so that we can stuff ourselves with more food without feeling guilty about it.
Let's start controlling ourselves. 4 meals a day about 4 hours apart, 2 at 12-16 bites and 2 at 18-22 bites all with a flavored low calorie fluid (Yes, it's the Bite Diet). 3 bites of dessert or a glass of wine 2 or 3 times a week. And normal foods please--the amounts don't change just because you are eating "good" food and not "bad" food. For more information, including nutritional guidance and food charts please go to DietDirectives.com. You'll be glad you did!
01 September 2007
Why We Just Keep Getting Fatter
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Posted by Lynda Lippin at 9/01/2007 07:47:00 PM
Labels: weight loss
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4 Comments:
I'm glad I did, and I wish you much success. I have friends who would benefit from this diet, but honestly one person who this would help has told me, I only do well when I can eat in unlimited quantities. That mindset right from the start is gluttony! I was horrified. I told her, I'd rather eat whatever I want, just a small portion.
Thanks for reading my blog Nicole! It is incredible how we have all been "fed" the message that it's OK to eat as much as we want, which then leads to this whole "magic foods" marketing (the no-carb phase was fabulous for beef and pork farmers and bad for grain farmers). Now that food prices will be increasing in the US as a result of all the storms and flooding maybe that will change a bit. One can hope anyway :-).
Lynda
In actuality, the obesity "epidemic" has been vastly exaggerated. No one has ever proved that fat people eat more than thin people. In fact if you actually look into the research, the average weight gain can be explained by only ten extra calories a day. And people are getting taller too. The other fact of the matter is that categorically diets do not work for health or long term weight loss and there is an amazing preponderance of evidence that supports that. (I won't even get to how horrifically more dangerous it is to get lapband and gastric bypass surgery than it is to be even morbidly obese.) Also, more often than not if you scratch the surface of most obesity studies you find research funded by people marketing diet pills and obesity drugs.
Here are some links if you'd like to read more about what I've said here:
http://www.soc.ucla.edu/faculty/saguy/IJE.pdf
http://www.sirc.org/articles/sponsoring_obesity.shtml
http://kateharding.net/2007/04/12/diets-dont-work-but/
In the end though, no one else's fat or as you call it "gluttony" is hurting you. It is completely possible to be healthy and fat at the same time (check out the Health at Every Size movement for more information on that), but no one owes it to anyone else to be thin or healthy for that matter. We only owe happiness to ourselves. Trust me, if people could be shamed into being thin it would have already happened--lord knows there's a lot of shaming going around. What other people eat is not an affront to you. We're all doing what we can to live happy and productive lives. I am constantly amazed at just how emotional people get about the way other people look and live their lives.
Kimberly, thank you for this comment as I enjoy opening up to a discussion about this issue. First, I reread this post and do not see anything I have written as "shaming" or claiming "moral outrage". I am a bigger woman and always have been. Even with my weight loss and exercise I am not what anyone would consider small. And I tried every diet in the books & magazines and always gained back the weight.
What I am really concerned about, however, is this cultural push towards having large amounts of everything, which was started by the US government in supporting US farmers. Now, for example, there is high fructose corn syrup in just about every food in the market (extra sugar). We go to steakhouses and down a pound of meat; we go to McDonalds and eat double and triple quarter pounders with; and the cheapest food is at the all you can eat buffets.
I agree that there is money to be made pushing obesity solutions, but it seems fishy to me that everyone is making tons of money here at the expense of simple solutions to people's health. The food producers, the medical establishment, and the diet/pill/supplement/surgery pushers are all laughing on their way to the bank while we have this discussion.
But don't try to tell me with a straight face that "it's never been proven that fat people eat more". Come on! And while I agree that thinness does not equate to health, I do not agree that fat is without any negative health effects, especially since I've been there myself.
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