Causes of Obesity - The Cost of Doing Nothing

Those persons suffering from obesity should know the causes of their condition and the health dangers involved. Once the causes of obesity and the subsequent health risks of obesity are understood then it becomes easier for overweight - obese - people to appreciate the need for a major life style change.

Firstly change your diet

Nutritional and medical experts are of the unanimous opinion that obesity is caused my two major factors - diet and an inactive lifestyle, with diet being recognized as the primary cause.

A diet consisting principally of processed foods, high in protein, sugar, salt, with an plenty of fat, without any fresh fruit and vegetables, is a diet with one outcome - obesity. In this case a complete change of diet is necessary to halt the progress of the disease.

The obesity sufferer and other overweight people need to adopt a healthy diet that consists of plenty of fresh fruit (two portions daily) and vegetables (five portions daily). A moderate amount of lean meat, poultry or fish. Nuts, pulses, grains and whole meal products should also be part of the diet. Alcohol drinks in moderation are acceptable, but sugary soft drinks should be kept to a minimum.

Good eating habits can be quickly taken up, and passed onto children. Similarly bad eating habits are quickly adopted by children, thus ensuring the obesity problem passes from one generation to another.

Then get more exercise

The other major cause of obesity is a lack of regular physical exercise, especially in the case of children. Children are not getting the exercise they need to keep healthy. Too much of their spare time is spent in inactive pursuits - watching TV and playing computer games, instead of playing outdoors.

Exercise can take many forms - a quick walk, jogging, running, playing tennis, squash, swimming, cycling - the list is endless. But for a person just coming to terms with the need to engage in exercise, then a walk of about 45 minutes a day would be sufficient. This level of exercise is enough to prevent the build up of fat within the body providing the right diet is eaten.

A change in life style involving diet and exercise, together with a total commitment on the part of the sufferer to successfully lose weight, can provide a permanent solution for obesity.

Beware the Health Effects of Obesity

By failing to embrace a healthy diet and regular exercise obese people be susceptible to health risks associated with obesity, many of them potentially life threatening. This factor alone should encourage obese people to adopt a weight loss plan.

These life-threatening conditions include some of the following:

Type 2 diabetes - considered a killer disease, it's caused by excessive overweight and leads to blindness, loss of limbs, and eventually death.

Chronic heart disease, hypertension, disease of the arteries, stroke

Several forms of cancer are more prevalent in obese people - colon, prostate, bowel, kidney, and breast

Arthritis is more common amongst overweight people.

In addition to these medical conditions, excessively obese people will also experience difficulties in enjoying a normal lifestyle. They will experience difficulties in moving about (lack of exercise will highlight their problem). They may even have problems in being able to breathe.

Whilst the severe health problems are bad enough, an obesity sufferer may experience the adverse social effects of obesity. The biggest factors here are a lack of self-respect from the public and perhaps more important, social discrimination, especially in the workplace.

Obesity sufferers are being helped to overcome their health condition with a new fat binder product recently released on the market. This product has the ability to reject 28% of the fat in a recently eaten meal and prevent it from being stored in the body, and has been recognized by government agencies internationally as being an effective weight control product.

The author has a personal interest in a wide range of health and social issues and has contributed to web sites dealing with topics such as the best way to lose weight and how to lose weight. The author also gives his opinion about a newly released weight loss pill.