Health & Science | Health

Why Americans Are Overweight and What to Do About It
By Tom Gruber

"Yummy, yummy, yummy, see my obese tummy!" should perhaps be America's new national anthem.

How Overweight Is America?
How serious is obesity in America? According to Kathleen Donnelly for MSN Health & Fitness, statistics show that "60 percent of adult Americans weigh too much, and 17 percent of American children and teens are overweight."

And the problem continues to escalate. In the past thirty years, children in the USA are increasingly tipping the scales. The rise of obesity among children between the ages of 6 and 11 has gone from 4% to 13 % in three decades. Obesity in US children ages 12 to 19 has gone from 5% to 14%. And if a child is obese at the age of 6, it has a 50/50 chance of being obese for life. Obese thirteen year olds have a 75% likelihood of being obese for the rest of their lives. This problem is even more severe among blacks and Hispanics.

To remedy their plight, 103,000 morbidly obese Americans living in the United States had gastric bypass surgery in 2003. The complication rate was 7%.

What causes obesity?
Several causes for obesity have been suggested, including heredity, social-economic conditions, diet, and exercise. Since we can't control who our parents are, let's focus on social-economic conditions, diet, and exercise.

• Obesity & Social-economic conditions
  Numerous studies have concluded that there is a direct cause and effect relationship between a person's level of education and their odds of being overweight. The greater their level of learning is, the slimmer their odds of obesity are.



• Dysfunctional Diets, Inadequate Exercise, and Bulging Belt-lines
  Of course, two obvious causes of obesity are dysfunctional diets and a lack of proper exercise. Americans are exercising less and less while simultaneously consuming too much junk food. The average US woman is now consuming 335 more calories per day than the average woman in 1971. Calorie intake among men has increased to an additional 168 calories per day. Is it any wonder that America is increasingly becoming an obese nation?



• Health Risks Associated with Obesity
  Discomfort about one's appearance, however, is not the only downside to obesity. There are numerous health risks associated with being overweight. Obese individuals have a higher-than-normal rate of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, high lipids, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, strokes, respiratory disease, some types of cancers, heart disease, and other chronic and deadly conditions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts obesity will soon be America's number one killer. In 2000, tobacco was linked to 435,000 deaths while obesity was close behind at 400,000 deaths.

What to Do About Obesity
There are primarily three things that most experts recommend to help maintain a healthy weight level: 1. Getting the proper amount of exercise, 2. eating a healthy, well-balanced diet, and 3. supplementing one's diet with nutritional products.

The Value of Exercise
If you're considering going on a diet to lose weight, remember that the important thing is not just to lose weight, but to keep it off. In order to lose weight and keep it off, there is no substitute for exercise. One study reported by The National Weight Control Registry shows that out of 3,000 individuals who lost a minimum of 30 pounds and kept it off for more than a year, only 9 percent lost weight without exercising.

How much exercise should an individual get?
The proper amount of exercise that an individual should get of course varies from individual to individual. To make certain you are getting the proper amount of exercise, consult your family physician.

Melissa Tennen, HealthAtoZ writer, says: "Get at least 30 minutes of activity on most days. To prevent weight gain, 60 minutes a day may be necessary."

What is a Healthy Diet?
The short answer to the question, "What is a healthy diet?" is to eat a well-balanced diet that is as close as possible to the way nature intended. Fast foods and highly-processed foodless foods have been proven to have ill-effects on one's health. Many are high in calories and low in nutritional value.

Yet not everyone has the time, the money, or the ability to eat "The Perfect Diet." So what's the solution?

The Importance of Supplementing Your Diet
No doubt, in a perfect world, we would not need vitamin pills, diet pills, and other nutritional supplements. We'd simply get everything our body needs from our food. But let's get a reality check: This is not Eden. And getting everything your body needs from your diet alone is almost impossible. Plus, if you are overweight, you need extra help.

What to look for in a Weight-Loss Pill
If you're looking for "The Perfect Weight Loss Pill," there are a number of things to consider. Here are just a few:

• Does the product's formula utilize nutrients in the most absorbable and potent form available?



• Most companies compromise on their nutrients. They use poorly absorbed forms or synthetically derived fractions of nutrients.



• Does the product use ephedra stimulants or dangerous fat blockers?



• For accelerated fat-loss support and increased performance, you need help with reducing hunger, utilizing fat, enhancing metabolism, and increasing true energy levels. Insist on a weight loss product that delivers all natural support for healthy weight loss, without using ephedra stimulants.



• Also, avoid dangerous fat blockers. The perfect solution is to find a weight loss pill that works by helping support healthy digestion of stored fat and a healthy metabolism. Lipase is the enzyme responsible for breaking down fat, making it available for utilization as energy. Without lipase, fat is stored as excess body fat.



• Does the product contain Citrin KT and CLA?
  
  Research shows Citrin KT and CLA as two powerful ingredients in helping maintain healthy fat burning. Also important are Guggul lipids and chelated minerals. They help maintain a healthy thyroid and will reduce cravings. Weight loss pills containing these ingredients make for a healthier, safer and more effective body fat reduction formula.

Don't forget the importance of fiber
Special types of fiber will expand in your stomach and will reduce your hunger without stimulation and drug-like effects. This, in turn, will help to nutritionally support healthy body fat levels.

Your body needs energy to burn fat
Finally, the most needed factor in losing body fat is keeping your energy levels up so you have the energy burn more fat.

Are there really any nutrients available today that help promote healthy and safe fat reduction? YES! Although there are many supplements today containing herbs like Guarana, MaHuang and Ephedra that can have potentially harmful side effects, there are still many that safely help the body reduce its fat stores.

Here are just a few of the most powerful nutrients which have been well-documented:

• CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid)
  A study published in The Journal of Nutrition (December 2000, V12) established that the natural dietary supplement conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) reduces body fat. Jan Wadstein, MD, PhD, associate professor at Lund University in Sweden states, "CLA may be a valuable weight management supplement to any diet regimen. Keeping lean body mass and speeding up fat loss are the keys to a successful weight program."



• Garcinia Cambogia
  Another supplement essential for weight loss is natural organic acid extract from the rind of the Malabar tamarind called Garcinia Cambogia. This compound has been associated with gradual decrease in body fat, nutritionally supporting healthy cholesterol levels, and suppressing hunger cravings frequently. A study performed by Katts, et al, concluded the administration of Garcinia Cambogia reduced deposition of body fat and promoted increased weight loss in human subjects. Citrin K is a proprietary formula proven to suppress appetite. The best and most researched form of Garcinia Cambogia can be found in our proprietary blend called Citrin K. Citrin K also supplies potassium, which plays a major role in maintaining the body's fluid balance. There are other forms of Garcinia Cambogia on the market, but they don't have the potency guarantee that Citrin K does.
  
  Other micronutrients needed to support body fat metabolism include vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C and Zinc and Chromium. Look for a weight-loss supplement that will supply you with the highest quality of whole food vitamins and amino acid chelated minerals. This will help to nutritionally support a healthy metabolism, further enhancing your results.



• Theobromine
  Theobromine is an extraordinary nutrient found in chocolate. It helps maintain healthy levels of stress, giving you a confident and powerful feeling of health. This is a vital component to look for in a weight control product because it nutritiously supports the body in appetite suppression and provides an energetic, euphoric effect. This is very important, as many people scrap weight loss programs because of irritability and their inability to curb cravings.
  
  So if you want to lose weight and keep it off, get the proper amount of exercise, eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, and supplement your diet with a weigh loss pill that meets the aforementioned criteria. The final word on diet pills is this: "The Perfect Weight Loss Pill" should contain the most powerful and safest nutrients available to help you nutritionally support healthy fat burning metabolism without harmful stimulants.

NOTES:

1. OBESITY in America. http://health.msn.com/reports/obesity/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100133520.
2. National Center for Health Statistics. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 1999.
3. Moran R. Evaluation and treatment of childhood obesity. Am Fam Physician. 1999;59:758, 761-762.
4. Hedley AA, Ogden CL, Johnson CL, Carroll MD, Curtin LR, Flegal KF. Prevalence of overweight and obesity among US children, adolescents, and adults, 1999-2002. JAMA. 2004;291:2847-2850.
5. Newman C. Why Are We So Fat? National Geographic. August 2004.
6. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Surgeon General's call to action to prevent and decrease overweight and obesity: what you can do; 2001.
7. Newman C. Why Are We So Fat? National Geographic. August 2004.
8. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Surgeon General's call to action to prevent and decrease overweight and obesity: what you can do; 2001.
9. Obesity Swallowing America
10. The Journal of Nutrition. Vol 130, No 12, Dec 2000.
11. Kaats GR. Reduction of body fat as a function of taking a dietary supplement containing garcinia cambogia extract, chromium picolinate and L-carnitine: A randomized double blind placebo controlled study. 3rd International Conference on Anti-aging Medicine and Bio-medical Technology. Las Vegas, NV., Dec. 7-11, 1995.

About the author:
Tom Gruber writes on a wide variety of topics. One of his passions is health and nutrition. Tom's website is packed with free, useful information on dieting, health, nutrition, and supplements.
www.TomsVitamins.com

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