McFat?

I first have to apologize for not blogging in quite some time. I have been busy with grad school and with all these ‘little” assignments. In the past few weeks I have thinking about of a lot of different things. One of them is health. It is widely known that Americans are overweight and/or obese. According to the CDC, in 2006 67% of Americans were overweight. What this also would say is that only 33% of Americans are not overweight which seems like a reasonable number but I have a feeling that the percentage of people becoming overweight has been increasing since the 1970’s. I recently watched Supersize Me (for the third time… in college you are pretty much forced to watch it in any type of nutrition class). I thought Morgan Spurlock had an interesting idea of going on a McDonalds diet for 30 days. In the end he gained around 25 pounds and had a total cholesterol level of 230. His cholesterol before he started the McDiet was relatively good. Also his liver was in bad shape toward the end as well. I thought one of the highlights of the movie was Dr.Siegel (the cardiologist) who told Morgan not to eat McDonalds for another year after this experiment. In the movie they said Morgan had consumed as much McDonald’s food as someone should in 8 years. The first point of the story is obviously not to eat fast food every day. Sometimes I wonder though about working professionals who eat out a lot or don’t make their own lunch. Not only all those extra calories will pile on but the cost of all those meals adds up. Making a lunch is not only healthier, but could save you close to $1000 per year ($4 per day in savings x 5 days per week x 50 working weeks per year).

What I find really interesting is that people spend so much on trying to lose weight without wanting to do any work. Liposuction, diet pills, and weight loss books were all created to seduce people into thinking that they could get obtain a healthy body without having to lift a finger. Clearly, losing weight takes hard work, consistently, and dedication. What I find really intriguing is that people make millions of dollars per year selling ideas on weight loss even though the concept of taking less calories than you consume is quite simple. The same principal can be applied to those that want to accumulate wealth. As long as you save more than you spend you will have a surplus and if you do this over many years than you can create wealth.

So what can people do to lose weight? The first thing people can do is stop drinking soda. A recent study showed that drinking soda can lead to an increase in pancreatic cancer. Water seems like a good alternative and doesn’t contain any calories. Also using a bowl to measure out to be able to physically see how much you are eating is important. Working out too is a great too. The American Heart Association recommends working out at least 30 minutes a day to decrease the risk of heart attack, stroke, and other heart related diseases. Hopefully, if we all make little changes in our diet/exercise program we can feel better, live longer, and enjoy all the fruits life has to offer.