Obesity Epidemic We are Getting Fat

My thoughts on our current obesity epidemic? Allow me to say that our advanced culture and insatiable appetites are largely to blame. We are just too intelligent for our own good.

 Although some individuals may be genetically predisposed to holding an abnormal amount of weight on their frames it is largely our decreasing activity levels and love of fatty foods that have led to our severely overweight population boom. Man has become far too efficient at taking care of his basic needs. We are a generation that enjoys our food and we have easy access to it so we take advantage of this fact.

 Not only do we overeat but we over indulge in a variety of foods strictly because they taste good and pay little attention to the fact that these foods may not be all that good for us. To top it off we also sometimes over indulge to the extreme simply for the pure pleasure it provides.
Greasy hamburgers, huge beef steaks, french fries, milkshakes, beer, and rich pastries just oozing out a gazillion calories per bite. We disregard the health issues surrounding these foods and happily chow down. The job of hunting and gathering our food has become much too easy in todays modern world and we certainly take advantage of this fact. We appear to love the fact that food is now so simple to acquire.

 This over indulgence in food might not be such a huge problem if man had not also managed to figure out a way to reduce his workload as well, but unfortunately this happened. We no longer have to work as hard as our ancestors did. Man no longer has to spend his entire day diligently working at the processes which allow him to survive.

Very few of us spend our days hunting and gathering, fending off animals who want to consume us, working a garden, tending our livestock, mending fences, checking trap lines, gathering wood or doing any of the other millions of things that folks had to do in the past to insure their survival.

Man has learned to provide a relatively easy means of acquiring sufficient food for himself and his family and he often takes full advantage of this. Off to the grocery store we trot and if that seems like to much work for us then occasionally we head over to a local restaurant to reduce our work load even further. Modern man can toddle home after a huge meal out at McFatties and plop his slightly over sized rear down on the couch for a nice little after supper nap. After this nap he might give his fingers a little workout on the old remote control till nine or ten in the evening til it is time to pull his body up from its comfy position and cart it off to bed.

Technology hasn’t improved this situation either. The remote control saves modern man from having to get up and down to change those television channels. We have electric washing machines so we don’t have to expend energy beating our clothes to a frizzle on a rock down at the local creek (which also brings to mind that one would have to cart that stuff down there). Yeah, we really do have it pretty easy.

 Electric or gas stoves and furnaces mean that wood doesn’t have to be stockpiled. Modern man doesn’t have to use any energy to haul his daily water supply in either as we now have indoor plumbing. Just turn on the tap and there it is. Voila'. If he has a yard then an electric or gas powered lawnmower makes yard work a breeze. Modern mans lot in life has definitely simplified. Even modern jobs are often less active than they were in the past. The 9 to 5 desk job can be pretty tiring but it doesn't do much to reduce one's weight.

For children the situation is the same. Instead of spending the day doing chores or running around outside playing they sit at school in a desk for six hours each day. When they arrive home each day their schoolbag is filled with that oh so dreaded homework which requires them to move from their desk to another location to sit.

 So the kids grab a snack and then park themselves down to get homework done. This usually occupies about another hour or two of their day. After which they eat supper and then finally free from the confines of their day they either park themselves at their home computer or in front of the living room television till bedtime. Kids aren’t kids anymore.

 They are trending to be just as sedentary as their parents. If they do get outside to play then you have to watch them like a hawk because of the now over abundance of predators out there (and I am not talking coyotes). Could we expect anything less than an epidemic of childhood obesity when kids have to live like this? 

The advancement of man, technology, and our now so very easy sources of food that taste so darn good are the largely to blame for our current obesity epidemic. We have outsmarted ourselves by becoming too good at the things we do. We need to focus a little more closely on the small lifestyle and diet changes that we know we are capable of making. Let's eat a little healthier and be just a wee bit more active. What a difference it could make. 

Time to take a step back into the past and try to outwit ourselves a wee bit more. If we work a little harder for our food then we may be able to drop a pound or two in the process. So what can you do?
Take the stairs whenever possible. Walk rather than drive. Dash around the table twice before you sit at it or be a superhero and dash around the house twice before you sit down. There are thousands of sneaky ways to increase your activity. Be creative.

Related Articles by Lorelei Cohen 

A Sit to Stand Crank Desk an Office Fitness Solution