5 Reasons the Obesity Crisis will Get Worse
The Centers for Disease Control recently came out with a report revealing what many health professionals already know. Over the last decade, the incidence of diabetes has doubled in the United States due to rising rates of obesity. So despite increasing governmental and consumer awareness of the problem why is the obesity crisis getting worse? Here’s my list of reasons that the obesity crisis will only get worse:
1.   Profits. The food industry, fast food restaurants, and grocery stores make more money on calorie rich foods than unprocessed fruits and veggies.
2.   School Lunches. Walk into a school cafeteria and it looks like a fast food joint filled with hamburgers, fries and pizza. Once reserved for older individuals who developed adult onset diabetes, kids are now developing “adult onset” diabetes at a much younger age requiring medications such as metformin.
3.   Fast Food Restaurants. Really just elaborating on point 1.
4.   The Online Generation. A whole generation of kids is growing up online which mean the only things they’re exercising are their fingers.
5.   Mothers. Mothers, by and large, do most of the shopping and dictate what their family eats.
The last point is controversial, but true. We can blame the food companies, the food industry and the diet and weight loss industry but unless American mothers take charge of their family’s health, they will be raising a generation of overweight children hooked like junkies on processed foods. A generation, I might add, of Americans who will be developing diabetes, cardiac disease, hypertension, and other obesity-related medical conditions in their twenties.
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I concur that obesity will get worse because too many people are taking shortcuts, not thinking or knowing about the long term effects.
But I want to elaborate on Type 2 diabetes because it is a metabolic disease that affects all organs in the body and it is an important concept when it comes to weight loss.
Coming from a layman’s point of view, I can tell you that many think Type 2 diabetes is “CUREABLE” through diet & exercise. That is if they get it, they will get rid of it through diet & exercise. Not true at all. Type 2 diabetes is “MANAGEABLE” but NOT “CUREABLE” through diet & exercise. By the time a doctor diagnoses one with Type 2 diabetes, that person has lost almost 50% of its functioning beta cells that produce insulin. And without insulin (Type 2 diabetes), the abdomen region will get bigger. It also means that person will now have a hard time losing weight.
If one has high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome or cardiometabolic risk is the precursor to Type 2 diabetes. That is the moment to “nip” it. It is defined as:
1) Waist – M >= 40″; W >= 35″
2) High blood pressure
3) Pot belly
4) Insulin resistance
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Dr. Lawrence, you make some excellent points. The tragedy is that we need to stem the tide of this epidemic as soon as possible, yet all the numbers still appear to be rising. Elevated blood sugar is a significant health challenge by itself, but its complications cause or contribute to a host of health issues. Gum disease, for example, interferes with blood sugar control and interacts with diabetes to make both conditions worse as well as increase risks of heart attack, stroke, blindness . . . the list is long and grisly. We write about this regularly at http://dentistryfordiabetics.com/blog.
Thank you for raising awareness of the factors contributing to this growing epidemic.
- Charles Martin, DDS
Founder, Dentistry For Diabetics
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Also, Google has confirmed that obesity is on the rise.
1) “dieting does work” – 427 links
2) “dieting doesn’t work” – 18 million links.
3) “dieting does not work” – 1 million links.
4) “diet does work” – 2.5 million links.
5) “diet doesn’t work” – 20 million links.
6) “diet does not work” – 2.4 million links.
I think people have given up. I am noticing less joggers/walkers in my neighborhood.
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Wouldn’t it be equally fair to blame “Fathers” as well as “Mothers”? In the average American household today, both parents work, and yet, as you point out, it is mostly mothers who shop and prepare family meals. It is easy, under those circumstances, to buy and prepare that which is easy and pleases your family. Perhaps if fathers picked up their 50% of the load of shopping and cooking, BOTH parents would buy and serve healthier, more natural meals to their children.
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Healthy eating is a bit more complex and mysterious than the avoidance of just junk or processed foods. It’s about balance as well as eating a variety of nutrient dense foods, something that is almost impossible to obtain from a supermarket unless one is willing to cook. The main reason is the hidden ingredients used in processed food to salivate hunger.
And with all the economic distress going on globally, it’s alot cheaper getting a $4 prescription filled at Walmart than to buy healthy foods. Partnership for Prescription Assistance even assists those who cannot afford their prescriptions.
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Way to go. You wasted your time on an atricle no one cares about.
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