Why Are We Overweight?

Did you know that two out of every three adult Americans are overweight. That's right, 67% of adult Americans have a BMI (body mass index) over 25. That's the indicator that doctors go by to measure "percentage of body fat". Doctors and insurance companies use this information to decide how to treat your health problems and how to charge you for your insurance.

I believe you have to understand why you have a weight problem if you’re going to lose weight. In the U.S. we've been very fortunate. We enjoy a high standard of living and it's this prosperity that has caused us to become overindulgent. We overindulge in everything, and food is at the top of the list.

Some people complain today about how they don't have the things they want, but if you go back to the big depression when there were no jobs and there was little or no welfare programs and people were living on $20 a week in cold water flats, we have it pretty good in contrast. 

So when I say that overall the American people have done pretty well, I guess what I mean is that there's not a lot of people skipping meals anymore. In the 1950's, when we bought fruits and vegetables at a "produce market", meat at a "meat market" and bread at a real "bakery" we ate better than we do today. You ask why? Well, today we have more fast food, more highly processed food, and way more restaurants. This is the underlying reason for our overweight problem. I call it “fake food”.

You may not even realize that most of the processed foods we eat are manufactured with food substitutes that make the Fruit pie, for instants, taste like they use real fruit, but that would cost too much so there's only an extract of the fruit to give the pie that fruit flavor. Did you even have a hamburger in a restaurant that was absolutely plain, no condiments like mustard, catsup or mayonnaise? Of course not. The meats served in restaurants are drenched in a tenderizer or what they call marinade that usually contains chemicals to soften the meat and add some flavor.

Yes, I understand that everyone is looking for convenience today. The population is over worked, stressed out, and looking to somehow make their lives a little easier. So we try to spoil ourselves whenever possible. If you think about it for a minute, this is the reason for more than one of our problems today. Somehow people need to return to eating the way we did in the 50's.  The way they still eat in other parts of the world were Cancer and other health problems are not so common place. Supermarkets are a great convenience but we're eating fresh food that ripens in trucks during shipping. Fruits and vegetables should stay on the vine or on the tree until ripe. But growers can't get it to the market fast enough, so it's picked weeks early and ripens in transit. Picking early causes a loss of nutrition and flavor. You’re paying for something you’re not getting.

Many consumers today don't realize that in your grandparents day very few people even got Cancer and a larger percentage of adults smoked. Shopping for food grown locally is the only way to get real fresh food. In outdoor markets, the grower is selling you the products he grows. I know that limits you, all your able to buy is the produce grown in your area, but that's the way it uses to be. Even frozen vegetables are grown by the large growers that only produce for the mass markets. And yes big growers do freeze the fruit or vegetable at the time their picked so they’re as ripe as possible, but those large growers use chemicals to grow their products and their lies the problem. Organic is better if you’re buying supermarket food but is it ripe? Did it stay on the plant or tree long enough to get the nutrition you’re paying for? Who knows? I prefer to get the product from the farmer. If the farmer says it's organic it probably is. Farmer’s Markets are easy to find today. Even in the city, you can find weekly Farmer’s Markets.

Part of eating small portions or eating less to lose weight is getting the most nutrition you can out of the food you eat. I believe that if you get enough nutrition from your food you won't have cravings between meals. But to avoid food cravings, I started eating 5 small meals a day, which means you’ll probably have to prepare your own food. But if you can’t, the large supermarkets are preparing small meals fresh that you can buy in the deli section. All fresh food and low in calories. Some people have told me that buying these small prepared meals in the store and not buying all the juices and snack food which means you’ll have to start drinking more water and stop drinking calories can actually lower your grocery bills. Imagine that you can eat healthy meals all day long and not worry about buying groceries. All fresh healthy foods in the right portions and all you do is warm it up and eat. This might be the way to lose weight.

If you have a question, leave a reply and I'll answer it.

If you want to lose that extra fat, the best way to find out is to get one of my e-books. You can find my e-books listed at several websites. My first book is listed on Amazon.com, iBooks, http://Barnes&Noble.com, http://Kobo.com, http://Scribd.com, and Gardner Books in the U.K. Type "how bad do you want to lose weight?" in the search bar and read the sample.

My second e-book is listed on the same sites plus http://Smashwords.com. Just type "getting to a healthy weight" in the search bar.

You can get all the information you need all in one place. The book will give you tips on how I lost 60 pounds and kept it off. Plus, diet and exercise information. You don't have to kill yourself exercising to lose weight. Lose extra fat is not just about looking good, it's about changing your life.