Eating Healthily And Controlling Your Weight.

[p1p]

Eating Healthily and Controlling your weight.

I hope these few points will be of help to those, like myself, who need to lose weight and overcome obesity related health problems.

• Are you at risk because you are fat or overweight?

The BMI (Body Mass Index) so often quoted gives some guidelines, however it is misleading in that it leads people to assume they are safe if their BMI is below an arbitrary figure, in most cases 25. Research shows that risk factors associated with overweight increase as the measured BMI rises above a level of 16 or so. Increasing from, say a BMI of 20 to 25 is a great increase in risk factors. The lower your BMI, the lower your risks.

• A +B = C.

We put on excess weight because we consume more calories than we burn. We will lose weight if we reverse this behaviour and burn more calories than we consume.

• To lose weight and keep it off requires a change in overall lifestyle.

• Nothing will help us lose weight and become healthier if we do not exercise regularly. An absolute minimum is 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every two days. My doctor insists on 45 minutes per day. Exercise helps you to live longer and healthier. It helps protect you from developing heart disease, protects from certain cancers, diabetes, arthritis and osteoporosis. It also helps reduce incidence of impotence and reduces symptoms of depression and some other psychoses. It also helps control weight.

• Cigarettes and drug or alcohol abuse are major risk factors and should be avoided.

• Fad diets and supplements do not work because they do not address the underlying cause of our weight problems. Any diet, to work, must be one we are sufficiently happy to abide by for the rest of our lives that we never feel any desire to return to our previous behaviour.

• Our diet must be balanced.

• Alcohol, in moderation, is a valuable part of a healthy diet for many adults, especially those suffering from obesity. Those who consume one to two measure of alcohol per day get the benefit of increased High Density Lipoprotein levels in blood, (HDL or “Good Cholesterol”,) and reduced incidence of blood clotting. This results in a 30-40% lower incidence in heart attacks and ischemic strokes. Women receive the same benefit, but need to take at least 400mg of vitamin B9, (Folic acid or Folate) supplements to overcome the increased incidence of breast cancer caused by alcohol consumption. (Women are generally more likely to dir from the effects of alcohol than men.)

Moderate levels of alcohol are generally regarded as being only one to two single measures per day. More than this amount tends to bring out the bad side of alcohol and increases the likelihood of dying beyond any benefits derived from the alcohol.

The benefits of alcohol consumption do not apply to certain people however. Most people who do not suffer from obesity will receive little or no benefit. It should be avoided by people with liver disease, those with a history of alcohol abuse, dependence on alcohol or alcoholism and by pregnant women. Few people aged below middle to late middle age will receive any benefit.

• Fats are a vital part of any diet and, for best health, should provide up to 35-44% of the average calorific intake. (1 gram of fat contains approximately 8 to 9 calories.)

That said however, for best health the only fats consumed should be poly and mono unsaturated fats from vegetable oils and fish etc. Trans fats, those from hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils should be eliminated entirely from the diet. They are very harmful. Saturated fats of animal origin should be taken in extreme moderation.

The benefits of consuming unsaturated fats are many. They lower the levels of Low-density Lipoprotein, (LDL or bad cholesterol). They prevent increases in triglycerides, reduce incidence of erratic heart beats and they also help reduce incidence in the formation of dangerous blood clots. Saturated fats raise both LDL and HDL. Trans fats raise LDL, decrease HDL and increase Triglycerides.

• Carbohydrates. These are a valuable part of any diet and should contribute about 25-30% of your daily energy intake. However you should do your utmost to stick to complex carbohydrates and cut out refined, simple carbohydrates. Refined carbs include such things as sugar, white rice and anything made from white flour etc. You should try to get your carb intake from fruits, vegetables and wholegrain foods. (Unpolished brown rice and wholegrain bread are okay. Multigrain bread with intact grains is much better.)

Eating refined and simple carbohydrates has the effect of giving your body a massive energy boost thereby putting huge strain on your pancreas, which has to manufacture sufficient insulin to cope. A few years of this abuse and the pancreas will frequently just give up and leave you suffering from adult onset, type 2 diabetes.

• Other vital parts of your diet should include fruits and vegetables in abundance, nuts and different varieties of beans. Things like fish and poultry are helpful, but should not appear at every meal. Red meat, (and refined carbohydrates) should be reduced to as near to nothing as possible.

• Calcium and other vitamin or mineral supplements are also valuable, particularly for those who can not absorb enough from their food.

For those who would like to know more, I heartily recommend the book, “Eat, Drink and Be Healthy” by the Harvard School of Public Health and Dr. Walter C. Willett. It contains a wealth of information and even recipes for healthy foods.

[MyPenRye]

Actually, recent research seems to indicate that obesity --and weight gain of any kind-- might be associated with other factors that have not been looked at before.

Read/listen to these scientists and their interesting research in this program Quirks and and quarks on the cbc (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation):

quirks (http://www.cbc.ca/quirks/archives/06-07/feb17.html)

Intro:

Obesity rates around the world have risen dramatically over the last 25 years. In fact, obesity is now considered a worldwide epidemic. Diseases like diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses that are a direct result of weight gain are costing the health care system millions of dollars. The standard argument is that obesity is a disease of affluence -- too much food, and not enough exercise are behind the problem. But there are researchers who argue that the story is more complicated than that; that lifestyles haven't changed enough to explain the big picture.

One of these researchers is Dr. Richard Atkinson. Dr. Atkinson is a clinical professor of pathology at Virginia Commonwealth University. He's seen patients who are morbidly obese, yet eat very little. He's also seen other people who can consume huge numbers of calories without gaining significant amounts of weight. He thinks there are a number of factors we haven't really considered when it comes to understanding obesity. As the editor of the International Journal of Obesity, he recently reviewed a paper that listed birth weight, reduction in smoking, increased age of the mother at a baby's birth and air-conditioning as reasons why obesity levels are on the rise.

Dr. Jeffrey Gordon, from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is also looking for factors that contribute to obesity. He's been studying microbes that live in the gut, and has found that the types of bacteria found in the stomach vary between obese and lean mice. Not only that, but by transferring these bacteria into other mice, he can influence whether they'll turn out skinny or fat.

In a similar vein, Dr. Nikhil Dhurandhar is also looking at microbes. But he's studying viruses. He's found a virus that infects chickens, and makes them gain weight. He's tested humans and found that some obese people carry the same virus, suggesting it may be infecting us, too.

All these different factors may be making us fatter, but Dr. Dianne Finegood, Director of the Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, thinks this is only of limited value to the public. She argues that we also need to come up with solutions for solving the obesity epidemic, regardless of whether we understand all the mechanisms.

Edited March 1, 2007 by MyPenRye

[FunkyGuru]

I agree with MyPenRye,

The popular belief of weight issues are so becoming unfounded that it now sounds very confusing.

For example, the most popular belief that excess weight = fat in body is so untrue. 80-85% people examined, show that the 'fluid retention' syndrome rather then accumulated fat.

Last year, I read an article on scientists researching on a bacteria, normally found in our digestive tract, to determine if it was responsible for obesity. They have successfully tested it on mouse but that is not conclusive enough. Their argument is, due to improper food habit and eating lot of junk, results into hyper activity of that otherwise friendly bacteria in our body.

In my experience, I have seen so many people, giving up food, fats, sugar, struggling with exercises and the lot, loosing some weight but the moment they stop, it all comes back and comes back with a vengeance.

Unfortunately the whole issue of health and wellness and living normal has been stretched into extremes. On one had the conventional 'scientific' medical world has failed to explain so many things where as the alternative medicine guys sometimes take it too far into cuckoo land by being too esoteric/hippy about it.

For me, all that contradiction and confusion is too much. So I decided to create my own understanding and theories which are based on simple rational acceptable reasons and facts.

Else if you trying to research causes of over weight, I did not find anything remotely making any sense at all.

Someday, hopefully I will get time to write one of my theories on weight and post it here.

[Yamantaka]

I will make the same suggestion for losing weight that I have for high blood pressure: meditation and exercise.

Find a good meditation teacher who can teach you the basics and then develop individually structured analytic meditations that are directly applicable to you and your lifestyle. I have no doubt this will change your view of yourself and give you the mental strength to eat properly and exercise regularly.

I learned to meditate 28 years ago. It has changed every aspect of my life including the physical. Most people think I am 15 years younger than I am. I attribute this to my using structured meditations to "amplify" the positive effects of proper diet, exercise, good sleep, tranquility, good attitude, etc.

There is no excuse for not striving for better health.

[dukkha]

Not to strong to say, care of ones health is almost a moral obligation.... Dukkha