NUTRITION FOR ALL – NOT JUST GOLFERS AND ATHLETES
TOPIC 2 – Obesity – 11/4/2009 by; Bill Roach

A new study published in the journal Health Affairs has some important news about obesity in America.
*    America’s obesity rate rose 37 percent between 1998 and 2006.
*    The cost of obesity averages $1,400 more a year for an obese person than someone who's normal weight.
*    Overall obesity-related health spending in the U.S. is $147 billion, double what it was about a decade ago.
*    Obesity-related conditions now account for 9 percent of all medical spending, up from 6.5 percent in 1998.
This research has been reported as big news for the health care system, but in my opinion, it is also one more wake up call for us to honor the needs of our primitive bodies.   I will explain.
In America, about a third of us are obese, and another third are overweight. The word "epidemic" is overused but it does seem to describe the situation where there has been a twofold increase in the cases of obesity in the United States in just over the past two decades.
My take is that, in evolutionary terms, our bodies aren't built for the sedentary lives they live today. It has only been in the last hundred years or so that large numbers of us have been able to lead lives of physical inactivity. Our still-primitive bodies have not had time to catch up.  Our physical-selves have not had time to evolve to survive this inactivity.  Instead, our bodies crave action - demand it, in fact.  And our modern society works to defeat that at every turn.
Every day I go to work I note the apparently healthy people who park close to the door, use the handicapped button instead of their arms to open the door, and take the elevator to their offices. These are all choices we make, but those choices are killing us.  In evolutionary terms, our bodies still want to be chasing an antelope across the savannah but instead they are reduced to pushing buttons on a computer - or opening doors electronically.  We are killing ourselves with our conveniences.  In parallel fashion, we are also killing ourselves with bad food choices.
Obesity is one of the leading health problems in America and what’s so especially troublesome about obesity is it closely related to almost thirty medical conditions including heart attack, hypertension, glaucoma, various cancers, sleep apnea, respiratory problems, depression, type 2 diabetes, gallbladder disease, stroke, osteoarthritis, and more.
What to do? It’s really not so hard.  My advice:
1) Do something physically hard nearly every day of your life.
2) Make every bite you put in your mouth, an informed and conscious decision.
Other than not smoking, I can't think of simpler or more important health advice.