Diet and Obesity

Diet and Obesity

Your weight is the second most important factor (after smoking) in your long-term health. It plays a major role in your risk for many health problems: cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, several forms of cancer (breast, endometrial, colon, prostate, and kidney), arthritis, gallstones, adult-onset asthma, infertility, sleep apnea, and even snoring. Your waist size is also important, as is how much weight you have gained since your early 20s.

What determines whether you’re overweight isn’t the bathroom scale, but rather a scientific calculation of weight in relation to height called the body mass index (BMI). More than half of American adults are either overweight (with a BMI of 25–29) or obese (with a BMI of 30 or higher), according to the CDC.

Your weight is determined partly by genetics; some people are born with a tendency toward overweight. But you can control your weight to a considerable degree by limiting how much you eat and getting regular physical activity — an hour a day of moderately strenuous activity such as walking at a brisk pace, or half an hour a day of strenuous activity, such as jogging or singles tennis.

There is some controversy over just what constitutes a healthy BMI. The USDA places it at 18.5–25, but Harvard’s nutrition researchers think that a BMI of 22 or less is optimal. When BMI goes above 22, the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and blood pressure begins to climb. If your BMI is below 25, try to avoid gaining weight. Even better, work to lower your BMI to an optimal 22. However, losing weight without trying can be a sign of illness, so if you notice this happening, see your doctor.





In addition to your BMI, your body shape can affect your risk of disease. If your body stores excess fat in the abdomen — a pattern called an "apple" shape — your risk for cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes is higher than if you have a "pear" shape, with fat stored in the hips and thighs. Equations for calculating your waist-to-hip ratio are easy to find in magazines and on the Internet, but it’s easier and more accurate simply to measure your waistline periodically. Take action if your measurement starts to creep up. If you’ve already gained inches at the waistline over the years, try to shed some inches by cutting calories and adding exercise.

Choosing a weight-loss plan
Most diet plans are based on the premise that certain foods are better than others for helping you lose weight. But although certain foods are healthier than others, the key to losing weight is eating fewer calories than you burn each day.

Any diet plan that helps you limit your calories to less than you burn will result in weight loss if you stick to it. Diet plans that push certain foods or food combinations actually succeed by making you more aware of what you eat and, as a result, leading you to limit your calories. No study has shown that any diet that restricts or advocates a particular type of food helps you lose weight without calorie reduction. That includes the famous Atkins diet as well as other high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets. Very simply, to lose weight, you have to limit total calories and be active enough to burn those calories on a daily, ongoing basis.

What about fat? A common misconception is that fat is singularly fattening. It’s true that fat has more calories (9 per gram) than protein and carbohydrates (4 per gram). But contrary to conventional nutritional wisdom of the early 1990s, it turns out that "fat calories" are no more likely to make you fat than are calories from carbohydrate. Randomized trials that have lasted a year or more show little correlation between dietary fat and weight loss. You can get as much as 35% of your calories from fat and still avoid gaining weight if you eat no more calories than you need each day. When you do eat fat, make sure most of it is the healthy fats that come from vegetables, nuts, and vegetable oils, not the saturated and trans fats found primarily in meat and dairy products and processed foods.

What about carbs? If they take the form of simple sugars and starches that trigger cravings for more, carbohydrates can be even more damaging to a weight-loss plan than fat. Be aware that low-fat diets are inherently high in carbohydrates, such as bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes. Try to choose the whole-grain versions of these foods. Refined carbohydrates such as sugar, white bread, chips, and crackers may actually lead you to eat more often because of their high glycemic load, which means they don’t keep you feeling full for very long. Another potential danger with these foods is that they may cause physiological changes that cause your body to produce more fat cells, a process that can make you fatter. To fill out a low-fat diet, concentrate on fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, brown rice, and whole-grain breads. These unrefined or minimally refined carbohydrate foods are digested slowly and, therefore, cause a slow, steady rise in blood sugar, a pattern that keeps you feeling full.

A high-protein, low-carb diet can be a good choice so long as the protein isn’t mostly from unhealthy foods filled with saturated fats, such as meats and cheeses. Instead, choose healthy protein sources such as beans, nuts, fish, and skinless poultry.

Harvard nutrition researchers do not endorse any single diet plan, but they do recommend a three-pronged strategy for losing weight.
Be physically active. Aim for at least 30 minutes of strenuous physical activity (such as running or fast swimming) or an hour of moderate activity (such as walking briskly) on most days — more if you want to lose weight faster. Exercise not only burns calories, but it also builds muscle or at least prevents muscle loss. This is important because the more muscle you have in relation to fat tissue, the higher your resting metabolism — the rate at which your body burns energy when you’re at rest. And the higher your resting metabolism, the more calories you burn. Exercise also helps prevent insulin resistance, a cause of diabetes and high cholesterol.
Find a diet that works for you. No single diet plan works for everyone. Experiment with different meals within the framework of the Mediterranean diet and other healthy traditional diets. Eat plenty of vegetables and whole grains and relatively little meat, especially red meat. Use olive oil and other vegetable oils instead of butter, margarine, hydrogenated oils, and other sources of saturated and trans fats.
Be a defensive eater. Learn to stop eating before you feel stuffed. When in restaurants, avoid oversized portions, share an entrée, or choose an appetizer and salad instead of an entrée. Share dessert, too. Look for hidden calories: An 8-ounce glass of cola has 100 calories. So does the same amount of grapefruit juice (although it’s healthier because it has more nutrients). Better to drink mainly water or seltzer, which have no calories.

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DishyDelishy

I would think that obesity would be higher in the importance than smoking. This article was very informative. I like all of the information that is in it. There was a lot of stuff was stuff that I didn't know.

Another informative article! Obesity causes a lot of health troubles. In fact, in Western world, obesity is considered as a disease. Another article I have recently read stated that obese men are more at risk of Prostate cancer.