By: Steven E Whiting PhD, Director
The Institute of Nutritional Science
Introduction to the program
A hundred years ago life was very
different from today in many ways. A greater percentage of people worked harder
physically, and the stresses of attempting to cram 90 minutes into every waking
hour was the exception not the rule. The most important difference however
was the way in which we ate. No single factor has changed so dramatically
and so rapidly as the dietary intake of the average person.
At the turn of the century, Americans
mostly ate natural home-cooked meals, not commercial packaged foods filled
with chemicals and lifeless calories. Today, for many of us, it's just the
opposite.
Butter was the fat of choice, instead
of margarine or some other 'designer' fat substitute. Fruits and vegetables
were not sprayed as heavily with chemicals of a wide variety.
The meats we ate were not injected
with steroids, antibiotics, and powerful metabolic altering hormones. But
most important of all perhaps, is that sugar consumption was but a fraction
of what it is today. In our grandparents' day the average person consumed
between 3 and 5 pounds of sugar per year.
Today, the average individual consumes
his or her own body weight in sugar during the same period! This powerful
and potentially dangerous substance, consumed in such enormous amounts, is
reeking havoc with the health of each of us, from small children to senior
citizens.
Among the many detrimental effects
of this over-consumption are glucose metabolism disorders. Chronic conditions
like hypoglycemia are so common that they are often overlooked by diagnosing
health practitioners. Adult onset diabetes, the most rapidly spreading epidemic
in modern times, costs the United States 85 billion dollars annually - and
that figure is expected to double before the passing of another decade.
One of the more obvious side effects
of too little exercise and too many calories or more accurately 'wrong calories',
is obesity. There are more overweight people in America than any other nation
on earth.
A reduction in exercise and an increase
in caloric consumption will produce moderate weight gain in many individuals.
That 'extra' 10 or 15 pounds is frequently due to excess availability and
poor food choices.
But what about the millions of people
who are truly obese? Is this simply the product of excess calories? This writer
thinks not. During the past 25 years my experience both with athletes and
as an athlete, as well as my experience working with the chronically overweight
has shown that for a vast number of people, their weight problem goes beyond
the simple concept of over-indulgence. It is a complicated metabolic process
that can lead to far more than extra unwanted pounds. More about that later.
REASONS TO NORMALIZE YOUR
WEIGHT (NEXT)
Related Articles
