Dieting is the secret to weight loss

-

You’ve hear about the French and that the French have a diet that would put weight on any American, but most of them can stay thin. The men and women of all ages in France are thin. When we first looked at their diet we thought that the red wine they drank was the answer. These people eat out as much as we do, they don’t even know what low cal means. So how do they do it? Well first they walk more. City people don’t use cars that much, They walk everywhere. Also bike riding is more popular, you see gasoline has always been expensive in Europe and the people have learned to conserve. Conserving on food is something that France has done since World War II when food was scarce. So today their meal portions are smaller than ours and combine this with the increased amount of walking the French do and it’s much easier for them to control their weight.

Now how does that help you? Well there are studies going on today that are discovering that our meal portions maybe double of what we need. So how much food do you need? First of all I think we all know that Americans eat too much and that we are a nation of overweight people. Studies have also been done in the far east. Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to see why those people have much less Cancer than North Americans. They found that the people there are very healthy. They don’t have the weight problems we do and there more physically fit. So are we the only country that is habitually overindulging? Well no, Canadians and the English are just starting to change with this new generation of young people. A lot of the Central European and Eastern European countries had the same problems.

So what’s the answer? Besides the quantity of food consumed also the quality of the food makes a difference. In France for instance, yes they eat smaller meals but they also eat better then we do. In fact most of Western Europe eats better than we do. And I don’t mean more. I mean a better quality of food. Food is made with fresh ingredients and made from scratch everyday because refrigeration is still a new concept in most parts of rural Europe. By new I mean in the last twenty years.

After World War II Europe was pretty much in ruins and yes the big cities did rebuild pretty quick. By the early 50′s tourism was once again a major industry. But the rural parts of the different countries took much longer to recover. So farming communities didn’t have electricity for many years.

Europe is really only one or two generations away from the Big War. It’s this new generation today that don’t remember the War or the recovery. The reason I bring this up is because the rebuilding of Europe took a lot of sacrifice from the people. It turned a whole generation into very conservative people. Scrimping to buy food, living in war torn buildings and very few jobs. Europeans still live a more conservative life, if you grow up conservative your more likely to be conservative, but now this new generation, the under 50 group live more like we do. Except that things are a lot more expensive and most young people work in the service business, hotels, restaurants and other tourist jobs. So to get to the point, the prosperity we enjoy in this country is the main cause for our overweight problem. And now that fast food is growing popular in Europe, I think another generation from now and Europe may have the same weight problems we have today.

There will always be some difference though. Prices in Europe vs. earnings or take home pay will probably stay less then the U.S. Spendable income is less percentage wise so Europe may be more conservative than the U.S. for quite some time and they still walk more than we do and if they stay a more active people then maybe they won’t have a weight problem.

Everyone blames fast food and cheap food for our overweight nation. I think it will be interesting to see what happens in China now that fast food is all the rage. I wonder how long we’ll have to wait.







Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's the Mediterranean Diet?

-
Image
The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional foods eaten by people living in the Mediterranean region, especially Greece. It's loaded with healthy foods and research findings suggest following this diet may help reduce some of the risk factors for heart disease.  According to the Oldways Preservation & Exchange Trust, the Mediterranean diet was introduced in 1993 by Oldways, Harvard School of Public Health and the World Health Organization.  The diet includes: Olives and olive oil Whole grains, mostly in bread and cereal rather than pasta Very little red meat Fish and seafood Some cheese, but less milk Lots of vegetables and fruit Plenty of legumes and nuts A little red wine The Mediterranean diet is high in fiber and antioxidants from vegetables, legumes and nuts, far greater than the typical Western diet, and low in saturated fat. Very little red meat is eaten in this region, and milk consumption is limited as well, except for some cheese and yogurt
Read more

Changing Your Life To Lose Weight

-
Image
I can let you in on the ultimate secret for successfully making a change in your life. A century’s worth of psychological research reveals an interesting paradox in who we are. On the one hand, once we reach adulthood our basic personalities remain unchanged for the rest of our lives. We keep doing the same things—and feeling the same ways—over and over. But, on the other hand, every day we change our behavior drastically in response to different environments. Most of us are one person at work, for example, and another person at home. It is easier to change our environment than to change ourselves. So, if you want to change yourself, change your environment. Said differently: Whenever possible, don’t try to fight temptations – avoid them! The easiest way to make a change in your life is to modify the world around you in ways that will naturally drive you toward making, and maintaining, the change you want. There are many ways to change your environment, but let’s focus
Read more

Cancer and High Protein Diets

-
On the Fox TV Network the other night, one of the big stories was about high protein diets. A new study has shown a link between the over consumption of animal protein and how it can stimulate the growth of cancer cells. It seems we all have cancer cells but they don’t normally grow, unless we consume too much animal fat, dairy or fats from processed foods. Before I continue I want to explain about the link to cancer. After all, Man has been eating red meat for millions of years, right. That's true but todays red meat is not the same. Most red meat that we buy in the supermarket comes from Steers that have been raised in feed lots on a grain diet that is full of hormones and other chemicals that shorten the growing time and put more fat on the animal. These hormones and other chemicals stay in the meat and what you're buying will contain the chemicals that the animal ate. Normally a grass feed Steer that lives on the range in big herds will take 18 to 20 months to grow to
Read more