First Lady Michelle Obama has called for congress to pass a legislation that could help combat the increasingly worrying issue of childhood obesity in America. The child nutrition bill would mean that $4.5 billion would be invested in tackling childhood obesity issues over the next decade in the states.
Mrs Obama stated her case in a public essay published in the Washington Post on Monday. In the essay she asks congress to pass the legislation that will guarantee an improvement in nutrition at school. The law will do this by regulating food standards in schools such as increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables that are made readily available to children, and regulating vending machines.
Issues
Childhood obesity in America has been labelled as an epidemic. Around 9 million children in the States are affected by weight issues. Earlier this year, research conducted by care organization Kaiser Permanente found that 37% of children are overweight, and over 19% of all kids in America are obese. Though other organizations, such as The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes that the figure is closer to 15%.
Mrs. Obama has been a leading advocate against childhood obesity. Earlier this year, she attended the launch of the President’s council on Fitness Sports and Nutrition and has also done fantastic work for child healthcare through her ‘let’s move’ campaign.
Prosperity
“We owe it to the children who aren’t reaching their potential because they’re not getting the nutrition they need during the day”, Mrs. Obama wrote. She also believes that the government owes it to parents as well as “to the schools that are trying to make progress but don’t have the resources they need”.
Obesity issues reportedly cost the American government around $150 billion each year in medical costs. The First Lady concluded that our “prosperity depends on the health and vitality of the next generation”.
Obesity is a serious condition that is typically characterized by a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or above. BMI is a measurement chart that provides a comparison of height weight in order to determine whether you are obese, overweight or have normal weight. Obesity can have extremely negative repercussions on your overall health, affect your quality of life and is one of the biggest causes of preventable death worldwide. Asthma is a chronic disease that narrows and inflames the airways in the lungs. An asthmatic individual often experiences recurrent wheezing, tightness in the chest, coughing and shortness of breath.
Link between obesity and asthma
Now, new research has confirmed what doctors have long suspected – there are strong links between these two conditions. It has been discovered that higher the BMI, greater your risk of having asthma. In fact, your risk of suffering from asthma will be more than tripled if you also suffer from obesity. But the reasons for this have not yet been identified. Some researchers suggest that obesity causes a low grade system wide inflammation which might be a major factor in causing asthma. But others argue that obesity leads to insulin resistance and is therefore responsible for causing and aggravating asthma.
Control your obesity
Obesity also enhances the risk of a number of health conditions such as type-2 diabetes, heart disease, obstructive sleep apnea, and osteoarthritis as well as some kinds of cancer. That is why it is essential to control obesity with the help of weight loss treatments that include essential lifestyle changes such as a healthy diet and regular physical activity. These can be incorporated as a part of a holistic fitness program. Some cases of obesity need to be treated with prescription weight loss medications. This will help you keep obesity linked health conditions under control and reduce the severity of their symptoms.
According to the latest research, teenage obesity is increasing at an unmatched pace worldwide. The rate at which obesity is rising has jolted the medical fraternity into action. Now that around 15% of the children below the age of 15 are obese, doctors have taken this as a wake up call that requires speedy and timely action.
Causes of teenage obesity
Various factors cause obesity; however, the main factors that contribute to obesity are overeating, lack of physical activity and excessive TV viewing. If you eat and drink more than your body needs, the excess fat is stored in your body. Lack of physical activity only adds to the problem. Most television studies have shown that children, who have televisions in their bedrooms, have a tendency to eat more. This leads to lack of physical activity and worsens the problem.
How to avoid/treat teenage obesity
The best method of treating or preventing obesity is to reverse the causes of obesity. Teenagers should eat a healthy diet and avoid eating junk foods, which is easily available these days. They should exercise regularly and stay active throughout the day. Teens should get involved in more activities that would help them maintain their fitness levels as well as burn the stored fat on a regular basis. Most importantly, they should avoid watching TV for longer durations and snacking in between meals.
How can teenage obesity be treated?
Most children inculcate unhealthy lifestyle habits from their parents. This is why parents have an important role to play in the lives of their children. They should guide their children towards healthy lifestyle choices. Several studies have revealed that a balanced diet ranks low on the glycemic index. This means that it is helpful in reducing teenage obesity. Parents should guide their children towards healthy diets and regular exercise for adequate weight loss. Moreover, it’s obligatory for parents to explain to their children, the risks and problems associated with obesity and the benefits of losing weight. If this is not possible, parents can seek medical treatment where the doctor is most likely to prescribe Xenical. This treatment can help children live a healthy and happy life.
Visceral fat is the abdominal fat surrounding the most vital internal organs of your body. It is sometimes mistaken as “beer belly”.
Visceral fat is more dangerous than subcutaneous fat as it can lead to some life threatening health issues like heart strokes, other heart diseases, diabetes etc. As visceral fat is deep embedded within body, so it can only be detected with help of imaging techniques like MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to see how much of visceral fat is present.
Men are more likely to accumulate visceral fat whereas women have a tendency to store fat subcutaneously. Lowering the levels of visceral fat in your body can substantially decrease the chances of diabetes and related health problems.
In order to get rid of harmful visceral fats, specific diet pattern (reducing saturated fats can reduce visceral fats) and regular exercise regimen is a must. Waist slimming exercises with fat burner foods would be good choice to pave way to longer, slimmer and healthier life! Also, Orlistat is one of the very few medications which actually work to result in significant loss of visceral fats from your body. So if you are one of the motivated patients, Orlistat is safe and effective treatment for you.
If you love junk food, you are the ideal candidate for obesity. Studies continue to prove that those who have no control over the amount of junk food they consume are prone to obesity.
Junk food and obesity
Junk food and obesity are partners in crime. Typically, junk food is the kind of food that has high amount of calories, salt, fat and sugar. It’s termed junk, because it does not have any nutritional value. The reason why it’s popular is that it’s tasty and can become very addictive. People can be as addicted to junk food as they can to cigarettes or alcohol.
The junk food addiction
When you eat food with high fat content and sugar, it works on your brain like a painkiller. The more you eat, the more you want it. The fact that it offers an ‘empty calorie’ effect is another reason behind its addiction. The immediate effect of eating junk food is one of fullness and satisfaction, but after some time you begin to feel hungry again and want another helping of junk food. As a result, you are taking in more calories than your body can actually metabolize, which leads to the accumulation of fat deposits in your body.
The subtle effect
Unlike other addictions, junk food has a subtle effect on your body. As soon as you eat junk food, you don’t feel your arteries clogging up. Or you don’t get up the next day with excessive fat deposits in the body. As you continue eating junk food, your internal organs become fat and weak. This is the reason why you feel tired, depressed and sick all the time. But, you don’t realize this fact until it’s too late and you have become obese.
So, it’s important that you avoid junk food like the plague and if you actually can’t do without it, make sure that you restrict its intake.
Excessive weight gain is a common condition these days. The reasons are many; one of the reasons for weight gain is overeating; and if you are looking for a solution for your weighty issues, tracking food habits will help immeasurably.
Why do some people overeat?
You and I both have overeaten at some point of time or the other in our lives. As a one off case, overeating doesn’t lead to weight gain. But, if you routinely overeat than weight gain will come knocking at your doors. So, the question is, why do people overeat? Here are a few triggers that are responsible for overeating.
- Boredom: Some people eat because they have nothing better to do. Eating seems to give them a purpose in life. It’s also a way of helping pass the time.
- Depression and stress: People eat to feel good. If you are depressed, you are looking for ways to feel good and positive. Eating emerges as one of the ways to feel satisfied with your lot in life. A person suffering from stress is also looking at reducing stress through eating.
- Eating disorders: A person might be suffering from an eating disorder, which means you have no control over the kind of food you eat and also your food intake.
If you are overeating, there is a good chance that you are doing it because of the triggers mentioned above.
Tracking food habits – Help weight loss
If you want to lose weight, you need start tracking your food habits. Keep a track of what you eat; what is good and what is bad. Keeping track of what you eat will help you come up with a healthy eating plan and also make sure that you stick to it. More importantly, knowing what you eat and when you eat, will also help you set weight loss goals. The best way to keep track of your eating habits is to maintain a journal. Don’t forget to write in the details of the meal. This will help you understand your food habits better as well as help you in your endeavour to lose weight.
Weight loss is a simple process of burning more calories than you consume. You must have heard it many times – to lose weight, you need to exercise regularly and monitor your diet so that you burn more calories than you eat. There are possibilities that despite of working out rigorously over last few months, you are still not able to lose extra pounds. Do not despair, there are some facts about exercise and weight loss which you may need to know.
Exercise is not all about weight loss but a part of the whole story. Exercise helps with weight loss only when done consistently but in specific volume. A lot of people fail to achieve any meaningful even after months of trying due to slow metabolism. In that case, you need to work out on improving metabolic rate to achieve weight loss. Few exercises simply don’t help with increasing metabolic rate because you just don’t get to burn enough calories with them and weight loss is all about burning more calories.
Apart from metabolism, genes and age can also be reasons if you are not able to lose weight with conventional exercise programs.
Exercise is as important for weight maintenance as it is for losing weight.
Before you start with any weight loss and exercise program, be sure to consult with your doctor. A doctor would be able to recommend exercise regimen that would be best for you.