To listen to the audio version
of this secret
please click the play button when it appears:
TOPIC:
"We’re Super-Sizing Ourselves To Globesity"
“Globesity” - a scary new word in our language tells a sad story about just how
serious a health problem we’re facing with respect to our overstuffed, overweight, super sized society. Being overweight or obese is no more just a health risk in North America, but has taken hold on a global scale. Hence the new term “Globesity”.
How did the world come to be in such an overweight state? Of course, part of the problem can be attributed to clever advertizing campaigns
that put out by the ever-expanding fast food moguls, such as McDonalds,the pizza
parlors on every corner and the KFC’s everywhere you turn, but we can’t just blame the media for how fat we’ve become, because ultimately every individual is in control of their own choices.
And don’t forget the hidden costs of being overweight, which is by no means a little drop in the Medicare bucket. Did you know, for instance, that in the U.S. “the public pays about
$39 billion a year – or about $175 per person – for obesity through Medicare and Medicaid programs, which cover sickness caused by obesity including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and several types of cancer and gallbladder disease”?
Here’s some shocking global statistics for you from the International Obesity Task Force who “estimates that
300 million people worldwide are obese and 750 million more are overweight, including 22 million children under age 5.”
Didn’t we see this globesity trend coming? I think we did, but unfortunately we’ve become a nation of “instant gratification”. Because we want and expect everything right now,
we’ve made a vital mistake in making a global choice to ignore all the tell tale signs that are leading us down the very pregnant fast food path to obesity by choosing the convenience of Door #1, because it’s closer, you don’t have to get out of your car to get it, it’s cheaper, it’s faster, it’s more convenient, you don’t have to cook it for yourself, it’s instant gratification.
I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember the lyrics of a song that made it to the #1 position in the late 60’s called
“In the Year 2525”, but if we don’t do something to reverse this globesity trend, the lyrics of this 60’s tune may come true a lot sooner than artists Zager and Evans ever anticipated. Here’s some of the lyrics from this song that I hope will motivate you to participate in taking a serious stance against over-serving, over-stuffing, over-eating and super-sizing our nation to its death.
“In the year 2525,
If man is still alive,
If woman can survive, they may find…
In the year 5555
Your arms hanging limp at your sides.
Your legs got nothing to do.
Some machine doing that for you….”
Have you noticed that portion sizes have been increasing? For instance,
muffins are 300% larger than they used to be, cookies are the size of small pizzas, a steak dinner at a restaurant could feed three families, and the size of sodas at fast food restaurants could drown a small child. If your eyes light up at the sound of those all you can eat smorgasbords and 2 for one pizzas, and you’re in the habit of super-sizing portions when you eat out as well as at home, you’re riding a very slippery slope to an unhealthy and shortened lifespan.
Most people aren’t aware that, for instance, over the past 20 years hamburgers have expanded by 23%, a plate of Mexican food is 27% larger, soft drinks have increased in size by an incredible 52% and snacks, no matter whether they’re potato chips, pretzels or crackers are 60% larger. With these sorts of statistics, is it any surprise that
humans have increased in size right along with the increase in portion sizes? Obviously that the empty potato chip bag, super-sized drink cup or pizza box doesn’t have to worry about heart disease, but you do.
Do you know that during the same period of time while all these portions have been increasing in size,
adult obesity in the U.S. alone
has increased from 14.5% in 1971
to 30.9% in 1999?
As the ones truly in control of your choices, you need to blow the lid off the idea that when it comes to feeding yourself, more is better, and that value for your dollar doesn’t mean a super-sized portion of anything.
Do you know that, “last year, a federal judge in New York dismissed two class-action lawsuits blaming McDonald’s for making people fat”. Although I agree that eating at the golden arches can make you fat, I also agree with the judge dismissing the lawsuits, because ultimately the choice to go through those doors is yours.
This year there was a very interesting article written by the New Zealand Times about a film director by the name of Morgan Spurlock who had an ingenious idea for a film festival entry called
“Super Size Me: A Film of Epic Portions” where this man made himself the guinea pig while he investigated the adverse effects of eating nothing but fast food. As the New Zealand Times article says, this “is a sometimes comic but serious look at America’s addiction to fast food.” Here’s the story:
“Morgan Spurlock ate only at McDonald's for a month - three meals, every day - and took a camera crew along to record it. If a server offered to super-size his order, he was obliged to accept - and to ingest everything, gherkins and all.
Neither Spurlock, 33, nor the three doctors who agreed to monitor his health during the experiment were prepared for the degree of ruin it would wreak on his body. Within days, he was vomiting up his burgers and battling with headaches and depression. And his sex drive vanished.
When Spurlock had finished, his liver, overwhelmed by saturated fats, had virtually turned to pate. "The liver test was the most shocking thing," said Dr Daryl Isaacs, who joined the team to watch over him. "It became very, very abnormal."
Spurlock put on nearly 12kg (26.4 pounds) over the period and his cholesterol level leapt from a respectable 165 to 230. He told the New York Post: "I got desperately ill. My face was splotchy and I had this huge gut, which I've never had in my life ... It was amazing - and really frightening." And his girlfriend, a vegan chef? "She was completely disgusted by me," he said.
Spurlock had the idea for the film on Thanksgiving Day 2002, slumped on his mother's couch after eating far too much. He saw a news item about two teenage girls in New York suing McDonald's for making them obese. The company responded by saying their food was nutritious and good for people. Is that so, he wondered? To find out, he committed himself to his 30 days of Big Mac bingeing.
At the festival in Park City, Utah, he has had teams handing out "Unhappy Meal" bags on the streets with a few "Fat Fun Facts". For instance, one in four Americans visits a fast-food restaurant every day. And did you know that McDonald's feeds more people around the world every day than the population of Spain? The makers have self-rated the film "F" - for "fat audiences".
Spurlock claims that the goal was not to attack McDonald's as such. Among the issues he highlights is the willingness of schools to feed students nothing but burgers and pizza.
"If there's one thing we could accomplish with the film, it is that we make people think about what they put in their mouth," he said. "So the next time you do go into a fast-food restaurant and they say, 'Would you like to upsize that?' you think about it and say, 'Maybe I won't. Maybe I'll stick with the medium this
time."
I’d say that was pretty good advice and further along those lines, there’s a company in San Francisco called Trendscape that’s helping spread the word about
the dangers of super-sizing, by taking an active role in spreading the word about “Simple-Sizing”.
You can go to their website at
www.Trendsetters.com and order your own supply of NO Super-Sizing stickers for free.
Remember that even the smallest person can make a difference when you start doing your part to
“speak out against over-serving”. Insist that fast food chains and local restaurants adjust their portion sizes to be more compatible with the less active lifestyles so many of us are leading today.
As individuals and groups we must each make the effort to help reverse the trend of globesity because large portion sizes mean large body sizes.
Have you read my new
e-book called "Solving The
Weight Loss Puzzle - What No One Will Tell You",
yet.
I hope you've enjoyed this simple health
"secret", compliments of SolvingTheHealthPuzzle.com
where you'll learn simple "secrets" every week about how to live a healthier
and more toxic-free life.
Please visit our home
page often to see newly added health related products and information!
