There Are No Shortcuts To a Slim Waistline
EmPower Research
September 11, 2007
By Shekeb Naim
People, generally, love to take routes that require less effort and energy, ignoring the fact that to accomplish any task there is some threshold effort that has to be input, anything less than that is unacceptable. Can the molecules of water start colliding against each other with the same energy as they do in the boiling state? The answer would be a resounding no! Unless we boil the water to 100-degree Celsius, can a particle of matter have potential energy equal to ‘mgh’? No again, we need to take it to the height ‘h’. Similarly, there are some initial processes that all of us need follow in order to accomplish certain tasks, but generally tend to ignore them. Why do we then start looking at short cuts knowing fully well that it is not going to work?
Humans generally are misers in spending energy, and this trait compels him to look for easier paths. The approach is not wrong, but this holds true only when there is an efficient completion of the task. One such instance of this attitude is depicted in the following case.
Expanding waistlines
Currently, a very common problem in our society is the curse of being obese. Apart from genetic factors, obesity is largely a consequence of carelessness. A common cause is the habit of overeating, which develops unknowingly and becomes too late to turn back. There is no harm in eating more unless we exercise. We seem to be loosening the belt buckle another notch, Obesity rates are rising. To measure obesity rates, Trust for America's Health compares data from 2003-2005 with 2004-2006. It combines data from three years to improve the accuracy of projections. The data come from a survey of height and weight taken over the telephone by state health departments.
Generally, anyone with a body mass index greater than 30 is considered obese. The index is a ratio that takes into account height and weight. The overweight range is 25 to 29.9. Normal is 18.5 to 24.9. People with a large amount of lean muscle mass, such as athletes, can show a large body mass index without having an unhealthy level of fat.
A lack of exercise is a huge factor in obesity rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found last year that more than 22% of Americans did not engage in any physical activity in the past month. People are eating more and being less active. About a quarter of people eat fast food every day. The amount of calories has gone up. The quality of food has gone down. This demonstrates the shorter or easier route.
Child obesity is again another problem faced by the US. About nine million kids are affected which comprises 15% of American children and the amazing part is they are aged 6 to 11 years. This number is actually tripled in last 30 years. What can be the reason behind these unbelievable figures? One reason being the less physical activity. When they should be rolling on the play fields, they are busy downloading the games on their computer system. Fewer children walk to school or play outside after school and find it more difficult to exercise.
Proboitc Food
It was also seen that Americans are facing the digestive problems increasingly. The average number of physician visits for constipation in the United States is 2.5 million per year and there was two-fold rise in physician visits for the children in the age group of 0–9 years, in the last two decades.
Americans are shy to discuss such problems socially as compared to Europeans. They are not adequately educated about their GUT health which is again one cause of these digestive complications. So the easy solution for the problem found by the people is having a control over their diets and eating habits, because of which proboitc (dietary supplements containing potentially beneficial bacteria or yeast) food is the buzzword in US, which contains active cultures that helps in better digestion and immune system. Although the benefits of these foods are not yet proved completely, but it is enough to attract the people who are looking for shorter routes and more interested in cure than prevention?
Approximately, half of the US citizens have become calorie conscious, which is why low-calorie food, functional food, probiotic food are gaining momentum. So, being cautious about the food eaten is easier than burning that extra calorie by exercising. Some prefer liquid food, one reason being that it is convenient which again shows the consumer behaviour of taking short cuts.
The above-discussed approach of people trying to get a trim waistline is very similar to the route, which requires less effort and energy but does not lead to the accomplishment of the motive. So physical movements, whether in the form of exercise, sports or anything else, cannot be overlooked or omitted from the route, which is very essential for a trim waistline. A trim waistline does not necessarily require low calorie food, but a proper mix of healthy ingestion and exercising. Thus, there are no short cuts to a trim waistline.
Source: http://www.springerlink.com/content/w3j15540gp503p7w/
Nutritional concerns of the American consumer” by Lawrence Shiman
Vegetarianism & Vegetarian Nutrition
People, generally, love to take routes that require less effort and energy, ignoring the fact that to accomplish any task there is some threshold effort that has to be input, anything less than that is unacceptable. Can the molecules of water start colliding against each other with the same energy as they do in the boiling state? The answer would be a resounding no! Unless we boil the water to 100-degree Celsius, can a particle of matter have potential energy equal to ‘mgh’? No again, we need to take it to the height ‘h’. Similarly, there are some initial processes that all of us need follow in order to accomplish certain tasks, but generally tend to ignore them. Why do we then start looking at short cuts knowing fully well that it is not going to work?
Humans generally are misers in spending energy, and this trait compels him to look for easier paths. The approach is not wrong, but this holds true only when there is an efficient completion of the task. One such instance of this attitude is depicted in the following case.
Expanding waistlines
Currently, a very common problem in our society is the curse of being obese. Apart from genetic factors, obesity is largely a consequence of carelessness. A common cause is the habit of overeating, which develops unknowingly and becomes too late to turn back. There is no harm in eating more unless we exercise. We seem to be loosening the belt buckle another notch, Obesity rates are rising. To measure obesity rates, Trust for America's Health compares data from 2003-2005 with 2004-2006. It combines data from three years to improve the accuracy of projections. The data come from a survey of height and weight taken over the telephone by state health departments.
Generally, anyone with a body mass index greater than 30 is considered obese. The index is a ratio that takes into account height and weight. The overweight range is 25 to 29.9. Normal is 18.5 to 24.9. People with a large amount of lean muscle mass, such as athletes, can show a large body mass index without having an unhealthy level of fat.
A lack of exercise is a huge factor in obesity rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found last year that more than 22% of Americans did not engage in any physical activity in the past month. People are eating more and being less active. About a quarter of people eat fast food every day. The amount of calories has gone up. The quality of food has gone down. This demonstrates the shorter or easier route.
Child obesity is again another problem faced by the US. About nine million kids are affected which comprises 15% of American children and the amazing part is they are aged 6 to 11 years. This number is actually tripled in last 30 years. What can be the reason behind these unbelievable figures? One reason being the less physical activity. When they should be rolling on the play fields, they are busy downloading the games on their computer system. Fewer children walk to school or play outside after school and find it more difficult to exercise.
Proboitc Food
It was also seen that Americans are facing the digestive problems increasingly. The average number of physician visits for constipation in the United States is 2.5 million per year and there was two-fold rise in physician visits for the children in the age group of 0–9 years, in the last two decades.
Americans are shy to discuss such problems socially as compared to Europeans. They are not adequately educated about their GUT health which is again one cause of these digestive complications. So the easy solution for the problem found by the people is having a control over their diets and eating habits, because of which proboitc (dietary supplements containing potentially beneficial bacteria or yeast) food is the buzzword in US, which contains active cultures that helps in better digestion and immune system. Although the benefits of these foods are not yet proved completely, but it is enough to attract the people who are looking for shorter routes and more interested in cure than prevention?
Approximately, half of the US citizens have become calorie conscious, which is why low-calorie food, functional food, probiotic food are gaining momentum. So, being cautious about the food eaten is easier than burning that extra calorie by exercising. Some prefer liquid food, one reason being that it is convenient which again shows the consumer behaviour of taking short cuts.
The above-discussed approach of people trying to get a trim waistline is very similar to the route, which requires less effort and energy but does not lead to the accomplishment of the motive. So physical movements, whether in the form of exercise, sports or anything else, cannot be overlooked or omitted from the route, which is very essential for a trim waistline. A trim waistline does not necessarily require low calorie food, but a proper mix of healthy ingestion and exercising. Thus, there are no short cuts to a trim waistline.
Source: http://www.springerlink.com/content/w3j15540gp503p7w/
Nutritional concerns of the American consumer” by Lawrence Shiman
Vegetarianism & Vegetarian Nutrition
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