Getting Fatter
The news on weight only gets worse. The excuses and recommendations remain the same — completely ineffectual. The doctors believe that no one is listening to them. They think it’s a simple matter of eating less and exercising more. The fact is that in 1995, there was not a single state with an obesity rate above 20 percent. Now, every state has a rate higher than 20 percent except Colorado who managed to stay under the magic number. However, the experts say that even though Colorado’s number is the best, it’s still unacceptably high because it still means 1 in 5 is obese.
This report could actually be made meaningful if someone would bother to tell us sugar consumption for the different states.
I’m willing to bet a substantial sum of money that Colorado happens to consume less sugar per capita than any other state in the Union at this present time. We all eat a carbohydrate-heavy diet but the experts continue to blame fried foods and fat. Forget the fact that the fats they mention are always carbohydrate foods like french fries, but because they used the “fat” word, red meat is thought to be the automatic villain in particular.
Mississippi is the fattest state in the union with an adult obesity rate of 34.4 percent. Colorado is the least obese — with a rate of 19.8 percent — and the only state with an adult obesity rate below 20 percent, according to “F as in Fat,” an annual report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The American South is the home and province of “sweet tea” so loaded with sugar that it’s almost too sweet. Copious amounts of ice cubes help, but it still goes down. The top nine states are all Southern States if you look at the list of obese states. They think the problem is related to the pig-pickin’s and the like, but I’ve been to a few of those and I can tell you that it’s not the pig doing the damage. It’s the side items, pies and drinks that are responsible. I never gained a pound eating at these events.
The upward obesity trend does seem to be leveling off, but the level is still unacceptably high. There are a few doctors out there actually giving good advice urging people to cut back severely on the sugary drinks and junk food, but until people get an understanding of blood sugar and insulin’s regulation of fat tissue, the primary problem will remain. Jumping up and down regarding whether insulin is the sole cause of obesity gets us nowhere. Sure, there are some who have obesity due to compensation for something else going wrong with their metabolism such as a related illness, but for the majority of people, we’re talking about simple sugar consumption.
If we can cut the consumption in half, I think we’d find our health improving in huge increments and the obesity trend would reverse itself. It wouldn’t reverse all of it, but it would make a more than significant difference.
Now, some of you reading this will say to yourselves, well, I can’t just eat meat. What you’re really saying is that you “won’t” eat just meat because the sugar addiction has you safe in its clutches. But you should know that unless and until you get a handle on the situation, it will never improve no matter how much time you spend at the gym.
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