Obesity in Adolescents
You see it everyday, news and information that bring to the
front our problem with our weight. It is a national problem.
It's not just your older sedentary population; it's not just
your overworked middle-age population; and it's not just your
nerdy teenage population. It is a national epidemic.
The first question I always have, is how did we get here? How
did we go from one of the most physically fit nations, to just
wallowing in our weight? Over the last thirty years, food
nutritionists and the food industry as a whole have embraced the
idea of lowering our fat intake. This was a direct result of the
information published by the government that encouraged less egg
consumption because of the cholesterol found in eggs. After that
particular piece of information, doctors began to discover that
when we consume fat, we have higher incidences of cholesterol
problems. The logical conclusion: fat must be bad for you. And
so, an entire generation as grown up with fat-free foods. A
whole generation grew up believing that fat was what made us
fat, clogged our arteries, and generally caused ill-health.
So what did we do? We turned to carbs to make up for the loss
in taste of food that had the fat removed; for you see, fat is
what gives many of our foods their delicious taste. When you
remove the fat, the taste must be artificially injected into the
food. The end result is a food that is higher in carbohydrate
content, but lower in fat. Hence, all the wonderful labels
displaying the claim of "fat free" but neglect to mention the
higher level of carbohydrates. Lowered fat should have created a
population of slim, trim, healthy people. Right?
We could not have been further from the truth. As it turns
out, fat is a necessary part of our metabolic processes. We need
the fat in order to properly utilize many of the vitamins and
nutrients we consume. When did we make this discovery? Probably
some thirty years too late for some people.
Now, we have an entire generation of young people, who have
because of their high carbohydrate food choices, become a nation
of obese adults. Never before has a nation recorded the kind of
obesity problems this nation is facing now. Never before have we
ever had so much, to have so little. These young people are
experiencing low self-esteem, weight related health problems,
and whole host of emotional problems, thanks to obesity issue.
How can we try to help them correct this problem?
According to the guides published by the USDA, calorie needs
vary from one age group to another, one gender to another. So
how do you determine what your individual needs are? You can
setup a journal for recording your daily caloric intake for
about a month. Make a note of your weight each day. If you don't
gain any weight during the course of that month, you're eating
your recommended calorie level in order to maintain your weight.
Now, take that calorie information, use the food pyramid and
comprise a combination of foods that will help you achieve this
recommended daily intake, and still be enough to be filling and
please the palette. You now have an individualized healthy
eating plan. This is the safe sure way to reach weight loss
goals. It didn't become a problem overnight, and it won't go
away overnight.