A good diet can be one of the most effective ways of maintaining natural health.
This means not only eating appropriate food, but also avoiding inappropriate food; and eating an appropriate quantity of food. Too much or too little of a good thing can be a problem.
We have more knowledge than ever before about what we should eat, but even amongst experts, the application of this knowledge is not always balanced.
Lifestyle, Diet Choices and Weight Issues
Lifestyle choices are characteristic choices which determine the way someone lives. For example, someone may choose to drive the car to the shop rather than walk or cycle; someone else may choose to go for a run instead of watching a movie. A lifestyle typically also reflects an individual's attitudes, values or worldview.
Points to consider within lifestyle and exercise are:
- Activity levels
- Eating Out
- Snacking
- Drinking alcohol
- Medical and dental checkups
- Frequency and number of meals per day
Lifestyle factors, exercise and dietary habits that increase risk of obesity in children and adolescents include:
- Too much fast-food and take away dinners
- Lack of family dinners – children who rarely enjoy sit down family dinners are more likely to have poor consumption of fruit, vegetables and dairy
- Too many soft drinks. These are packed full of sucrose and for each soft drink a child consumes each day they dramatically increase their risk of obesity
- Poor role models. Overweight and obese parents tend to have poor dietary habits and children take note of this. They are less likely to stock healthy foods in the house, more likely to have junk food snacks and in some cases are less concerned if their child is overweight
- Poor parental expectations. When a child is raised with little or no expectation on how they eat, they are more likely to have trouble with their weight. Parents may show little concern if junk food is consumed, if meals are nutritionally poor, if weight is being gained, if fluid consumption is low or from poor sources and so on.
- Divorce and traumatic events. Stress and depression can trigger comfort eating in children if they have no healthy outlet for their emotions. In tense, acrimonious divorces parents may try to win favour with children by offering sweets and junk food among other things. Relationship break-ups can be a source of stress and upset in teenagers, and children may develop poor eating habits when trying to cope with a death in the family, an illness in the family, abusive or tense family environments, trouble at school (poor academic performance, bullying, trouble with teachers etc).
- Junk food in packed lunches. Some children will have a piece of fruit in their lunch; however more will have junk food. There is also little way of parents knowing whether fruit provided is being eaten, especially if children have their own money to spend on food available at school canteens.
- Portion sizes. Super-sized portions from fast food outlets are a classic example, and can provide many times a child’s daily sodium requirement, and contain large amounts of trans-fats and saturated fats as well as sugar (many fast food burger buns are packed with sugar). Meat is often of questionable quality also. At home, many parents offer portion sizes much too large for children, and then insist children clean their plates, so as not to waste their food, or in order to have a sweet or dessert.
Eating Habits and Water Consumption
Often eating habits and patterns are to blame. Simply eating too much becomes a habit for many people. This can be as a result of large portion size or adding unnecessary extras to meals e.g. bread with dinner or heavy desert after a main meal. Often people will eat high carbohydrate meals like pasta and sauce for dinner as that is often cheaper than buying fresh vegetables and making a vegetable dish.
Eating habits generally remain the same for long periods of time (often years) instead of a person altering their eating habits to suit their energy needs. Many people don’t take account of the fact that their basal metabolic rate gradually decreases each year. Other people may not consider changes in their diet which are needed when they move from one occupation to another. In one role, maybe they were required to be active, whereas in a new job they might not move around as much – possibly if they sit at a desk all day.
Sometimes thirst is mistaken for hunger. People should aim to drink a glass of water when they feel hungry as this may reduce the feelings of hunger. Also drinking a large glass of water before a meal normally gives a feeling of fullness earlier and helps people to eat smaller meals.
Medical Conditions and Disease
Several medical conditions can cause weight gain. Below are only a few examples for your notes:
Chronic Stress: When someone lives with anxiety, stress, or grief, their body can produce chemical substances, for example, cortisol, which is a hormone which is more likely to make the body store fat, especially around the waist.
Cushing's syndrome: This happens when the adrenal glands produce too much cortisol, which leads to a build up of fat in the face, upper back, and abdomen.
Hypothyroidism: If the thyroid gland is under active, the body may not produce enough thyroid hormone to help burn stored fat. As a result, metabolism is slower the body will store more fat than it burns - especially if the person is not physically active.
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): This disease is much more common than many people realise. Symptoms are irregular menstrual bleeding, acne, excessive facial hair, thinning hair, difficulty getting pregnant, and weight gain that is not caused by excessive eating.
Metabolic Syndrome X: Also called insulin resistance or hyperinsulinemia (high insulin levels), syndrome X goes hand-in-hand with weight gain. Syndrome X is a cluster of health conditions thought to be rooted in insulin resistance. When the body is resistant to the hormone insulin, other hormones that help control metabolism don't work as well.
Depression: Many people who are depressed turn to eating to ease their emotional distress.
Some women may gain weight at times in their lives when there is a shift in their hormones - at puberty, during pregnancy and at menopause.
The other side of this to consider is - can taking medication affect digestion or weight?
The answer is yes! The reasons certain medications cause weight gain or create issues with digesting some types of foods.
Antipsychotic drugs, for example, may increase appetite as well as lower the metabolic rate which inevitably leads to someone becoming overweight if they are continued over a long period of time.
Beta-blockers (used for sufferers of heart conditions) are thought to lower a person's metabolic rate by about 80 calories a day and hormone replacement therapy increases the body's level of oestrogen, a fat-storing hormone. Of course there are many more examples we could discuss, however this part of the lesson is included only to give you an introduction to this idea - a concept many people tend to forget when thinking about causes for obesity.
Medications may cause weight gain in both men and women, but because women gain weight more easily than men in general, and have a harder time losing it, they may notice more added pounds than men taking the same medication.
Psychological Factors
People often experience bullying, and torment from other people as a result of their weight. It can be either direct or indirect. Sometimes people will stare, or hold a look too long, and the obese person picks up on that. So how does the social stigma attached to being fat effect people?
In work settings people who are overweight or obese are viewed as lacking self-control, lazy and even less competent than others. These attitudes held by colleagues and employers and affect the chances of promotion or pay increases. This research has gone as far to identify that an obese person who holds exactly the same qualifications as a slim person will lose out to a new job based on their weight. This kind of discrimination is very well known to exist in school environments where children experience rejection from peers and even biased attitudes from their teachers.
Sadly this discrimination does exist and add to the ongoing problem as people who suffer exclusion and loneliness are likely to turn to food for comfort. If someone is bored or lonely or feeling depressed, they may use food as a comforter. They find solace in food. Food becomes their focal point, offering them something to look forward to and enjoy when they feel there is little else in their lives.
