Health News Update: The Obesity Epidemic
Hello everyone: Yes, you read it correctly…another epidemic. I would argue that it has become a pandemic due to these facts:
“The study revealed significant regional disparities in the prevalence of overweight and obesity. The most dramatic increases have occurred in Oceania, North Africa, and the Middle East, where more than 60% of men and over 70% of women are obese.
In the United States, the leader among industrialized nations, the obesity rate stands at 42% for men and 46% for women.
If current trends persist, global adult obesity rates will rise from 43.4% in 2021 to 57.4% for men and from 46.7% to 60.3% for women by 2050.”
Obesity Surpassing Overweight: The study predicts that by 2050, the number of overweight children and adolescents will stabilize, primarily because many will transition to obesity. Among boys aged 5-14 years, obesity is expected to surpass the overweight status.
The authors highlighted that younger generations are gaining weight more rapidly and developing obesity earlier than previous generations. This trend raises concerns regarding early onset complications, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and various cancers.
The author of the paper described this obesity epidemic as “a profound tragedy and a monumental societal failure.” It seems that we cannot wait for our government or public health authorities to fix this…we need to take this on.
Bottom Line: This is an epidemic that can be fought in the kitchen and the playground. This is what would help anyone: avoid ultra-processed foods, avoid drive-thru, avoid sugar, avoid processed grains and processed anything, and instead consume a plant-based, largely unprocessed (stick with home cooking at least 90% of the time), high quality food plan. Try making a rule: every hour of screen time means an hour of physical play and optimally outdoors. Avoid frying foods and avoid plastics as they contain endocrine disrupting chemicals associated with obesity and hormonal changes.
Embrace and support your circadian rhythms and get into early time restricted feeding (eTRF) which just means having some type of breakfast within 2 hours of waking, and then a great lunch so that you consume 80% of your total daily caloric intake before 2 pm. and make dinner the lightest meal of the day and early so that you consume all of your daily calories within10 hours. For example: breakfast at 8 and dinner at 6. The eTRF eating pattern has shown the best results in clinical trials for health promotion as it aligns with our natural circadian rhythms, is immune balancing and very anti-inflammatory.
