What is Making Us Fat?

The United States is well known throughout the world for being the most overweight country. This is not something to be proud of, but instead, it is an alarming fact. This should be our wake up call. With all the professional sports we have in the United States it seems that we would be MORE health conscious than many countries, but this is not the case. Why?

The United States is a first world country. We do not experience the same problems as other countries do. We aren’t in the midst of an ongoing civil war. We don’t live in fear of guerrilla warfare attacks. We definitely have crises in our country. But, they are different than many countries face. While there is still abject poverty in many parts of the United States, we also have programs in place to help those in need.

This sounds great, in theory. But, what are these programs providing? Many schools are finally figuring out that healthy food is an important part of children’s well-being which has lead them to begin providing healthier food alternatives. But, this is not the case everywhere. There are still schools with packaged chips and soda available on campus. These provide ZERO nutritional value for children.

So, what are we teaching them? We are showing them that pre-packaged food and sugary drinks are an acceptable choice. Even if they learn differently by taking a Health class in high school, they have already had years to develop unhealthy eating habits. It is very challenging to un-do years of ANY habit, including our eating habits.

The health crisis in America is our own doing. Most other countries don’t have access to so many pre-packaged, pre-prepared foods. They go to the market daily to buy fresh fish, meat, fruits, and vegetables, buying only what they need for a day or two. We go to big box stores and buy cases of packaged, processed food meant to last for a month. Can you see the difference?

If kids in the U.S. were taught from an early age to eat fresh fruit, yogurt, and whole grain toast in the morning as opposed to frozen pastries filled with sugary fake fruit we would probably not be looking at a ridiculous number of severely overweight children. If we fed our children fresh fish and vegetables for dinner instead of fast food, what would their annual physicals look like? We would have a bunch of healthy, vibrant children full of life and healthy energy.

We have to first look at our own eating habits when understanding why we are overweight or unhealthy. Processed sugar is the ENEMY of weight control, weight loss, and good health. It is impossible to eliminate sugar from our diet and some sugar is natural such as that found in fruit. But, we can control what we buy at the store, what we feed our children, and what we put in our mouths.

Maybe you have already made these changes and are still looking for help with your weight loss or maybe you feel overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin. Call Dr. Diego Velarde at Advanced Surgical and Weight Loss Institute today. He can help you establish your weight loss plan up to and including the least invasive surgical weight loss options using the daVinci robotic surgery method. Weight loss and good health are NOT out of reach. Stop reaching for sugar and reach for your phone. Call Dr. Velarde today if you live in the Melbourne or Merritt Island areas. He is looking forward to helping you achieve your health goals.