Nearly seventy percent of Americans are overweight or obese. Almost fifty million Americans go on a diet each year to lose weight. Obesity is a serious health problem. In some cases, it can require lifelong medical care.
Dieting is thought to be temporary. People think they can go on a diet and lose ten or twenty pounds. The cause of their initial weight gain was never identified nor changed. The lost weight returned for most of them within a year.
There are lots of diets and eating preferences. Atkins, Weight Watchers, South Beach and Ketogenic are a few of the major diet programs. Eating preferences include the vegan and vegetarian diets. The question I ask people on those programs, “Are they nutritionally balanced?”
Three major components of a healthy lifestyle involve eating properly, exercising regularly, managing stress daily. Fewer than three percent of Americans get a passing grade on the combination of these three lifestyle habits.
There is no health success in your life if you diet, lose weight, and it returns within a year. Why not adopt a healthy lifestyle to start? Healthy eating is simple, but not easy for most of us. Exercise is simple, but we can’t seem to acquire the consistency to make it work. Stress relief is also simple, yet few take the time to do it daily.
I believe we have a major education and awareness problem with our healthcare system. We don’t know what we don’t know. Ask anyone if they have nutritional balance in the foods they eat daily? The answer is, NO! Even health professionals don’t know the minimum daily requirements. Nor do they know how to eat the right foods to achieve nutritional balance for at least thirty of the nutrients our bodies need daily.
We live, year after year, deficient in many vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. These nutrient deficiencies lead to disease. It won’t happen the first decade of not eating properly. But, continue those unhealthy habits for a few more decades and watch your medical bills skyrocket, if you live that long.
New Years is right around the corner. Make a Resolution to learn what to eat and why. Start your own personal health learning program! It might save you from a life from pain, suffering, and financial ruin.
