Effects of Being Overweight

Obesity is one of the top threats to the health of individuals across the globe. Being overweight changes the ability to process foods properly, release and acceptance of hormones, and creates a toxic environment within the body. No woman should have more than 35 percent body fat and men should not rise above 25 percent. Going above this body fat percentage greatly increases the risks of illness and disease.

History

• At the beginning of the twentieth century, the farming industry used very little to no chemicals to enhance production. Now, in the twenty-first century, the farming industry uses herbicides, pesticides, hormones and antibiotics on the foods we eat. Fatty grain fed, hormonally modified, chemically altered foods are digested in our systems and become cells in our body.

Effects

• Obesity causes many of the most common diseases in the world. Being overweight can cause insulin resistance, which leads to Type II Diabetes. A diet high in fat and lack of exercise causes cardiovascular disease and congestive heart failure. Excess weight can cause sleep apnea and respiratory illnesses. Many top scientists believe the increase of average weight directly corresponds to the increase of cancer cases, including kidney, breast, colon and prostate cancers.

Function

• Obesity is linked to depression, fibromyalgia, non specific joint pain and lower back injuries. Depression, fibromyalgia and non-specific joint pain causes an alarming rate of missed work days, tardiness long term and short term disability claims. All the missed work costs businesses billions of dollars around the world.

Features

• No illness is cheap to treat. Obesity related illness patients clog hospitals, spending billions of dollars in insurance. The increase of the weight of human beings also contributes to the increase in health insurance premiums. Perhaps if most individuals were thin and fit, the billions of dollars spent on treating obesity-related illnesses could be used to insure the less fortunate.

Considerations

• A body fat percentage over 40 is not genetic or hormonal. Yes, there are exceptions to every rule, but the key word here is rule. Pills and protein shake diets are not long term solutions. The long term solution to the obesity epidemic is proper nutritional habits and consistent exercise. Each and every individual should exercise 30 to 60 minutes a day, 6 to 7 days a week. The overweight individual must find activities they enjoy, whether it is walking the dog, dancing or bike riding. Each and every individual should do everything they can to eat right 90 percent of the time. Take steps to learn proper nutritional habits. Stay away from fast food, junk food and alcohol as much as possible. Take baby steps to improve the body by finding the single biggest reason the individual is overweight and eliminate it. Then move on to the second biggest obstacle and eliminate it. While eating healthy and exercising may not add literal years to your life, it can add life to those years.