We are killing ourselves with obesity

The fundamental gaps in our society leading to a shorter health span.

The Problem

What is killing most people today? Previously, it was tobacco. It turns out now it is obesity. Look at the data. 50% of all hospital admissions are due to diseases caused by obesity. These people could have avoided it.

Today, 42% of adults and 20% of children in the US are obese, three times higher than 50 years ago. If we plot these numbers on a chart of human existence, the curve will be completely upward at the end of this graph. Obesity is killing us. And it is getting worse and worse.

The Reasons

There are very fundamental reasons behind this.

Our biological bodies have been designed over millions of years, with the latest release of homo sapiens that happened 100,000 years back. So, with the change to our lifestyle that happened in the last 50 years, our bodies cannot adapt as quickly.

As hunters and gatherers, our predecessors had to walk the whole day to find food. We now sit in front of a computer, working from home, and then use a drive-through to pick up food. That's not a lot of physical activity.

The Industrial Revolution created so much comfort that this comfort is now killing us. We have eliminated almost any physical activity from our lives. It's no surprise we are getting overweight.

Understanding the problem is the first step in solving it, so let’s examine it more thoroughly. Below are the key reasons behind this problem.

1. Machines took over physical activity at work

Over 50% of US jobs today are in services. Machines have taken over the most physically difficult work in manufacturing and construction. Robotization continues with 3D printing of anything and everything, from parts to buildings.

2. Appliances reduced physical activity at home

When we get home, the dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer have already taken over most of the physical activity. When humanoid robots become available, we will not need to leave the bed at all.

3. Food became very affordable

Our predecessors had to work the whole day in the field as farmers. Now, only 2% of the working population works at farms to feed the rest of the people.

75 years ago, a family would spend 25% of their monthly household budget on food. People were careful about what they bought and how much they consumed.

Now, we spend only 5% of our household budget on the food we prepare at home. So, anyone can eat almost any type of food in any amount they want.

4. We consume too much of processed foods

We invented processed foods to store them for winter and reduce costs. But with modern supply chains, we can get fresh food from the farm nearby the next day or from a farm across the globe in two days.

We can feed ourselves completely with pure, whole foods. But 75% of all food bought in supermarkets today is still processed.

People still do not realize that processed foods are bad for the body for many reasons. Some are known but ignored, and others may not be fully recognized.

High in calories

100 grams of chocolate chip cookies is 500 calories. That’s almost your whole daily norm on carbs. With the volume of sweets people consume, they easily double or even triple their carbs intake compared to what they need.

High-glycemic

They are much easier to digest than whole foods. Processed, in most cases, means the foods have been altered from their natural state by cutting, chopping, or grinding, altering the size or shape.

When these foods enter our stomachs and digestive tracts, they are quickly digested. This makes them high-glycemic and causes blood sugar spikes. The body doesn’t know how to handle such spikes, and we develop type 2 diabetes.

Low nutritional value

These foods are typically low in protein but high in fat and carbs. Even food manufacturers recognized that and started adding protein everywhere as if that were a valid reason to consume them.

Contain unhealthy fats

These foods undergo cooking, baking, or frying, which alters the fats and makes them unhealthy. Saturated and trans fats raise cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart disease.

Contain additives

These foods have additional ingredients like sweeteners, artificial flavors, and preservatives to extend their shelf life. When people realized there was too much sugar in their drinks, the industry created a diet version. But even when diet soda doesn’t have the same amount of sugar, it still has all those artificial additives and preservatives that the body doesn’t understand. These substances get stuck in our fat cells and retain water around them. So, why are we consuming it instead of drinking clean, pure water?

Are addictive

These foods contain a lot of sugar, salt, and fat, and these substances are as addictive as nicotine. When tobacco companies became constrained by regulations, they went after processed foods that trigger the same addictive behavior and are cents to produce. Philip Morris acquired Kraft Foods, while R.J. Reynolds bought Nabisco. This way, they gained control over popular snack brands.

5. We blindly follow our past culinary traditions

Refrigeration eliminated the need for traditional food preservation

Our predecessors had to find ways to preserve food for the winter. They used salt, sugar, heat, cans, and other methods, which were necessary then.

With refrigeration and our modern supply chains, we no longer need these food preservation methods. You can freeze foods instead of adding salt.

In Japan, life span increased significantly with the introduction of refrigeration, when people didn’t have to eat as much salted fish anymore.

The leading causes of death at that time were strokes and other high blood pressure-related illnesses, many of which were caused by high salt consumption.

But we are so used to consuming pickles and sauerkraut that we think of them to be part of our traditional meals. But we can eat fresh cucumbers and cabbage any time of the year. Most of us do not realize the harm we do to our bodies with excessive salt consumption.

Modern supply chains enable affordable access to fresh whole foods

You can get fresh food from a farm nearby at a very reasonable price within a day. You can get fresh food from across the globe in two days. So, you don’t need to consume processed foods at all. So, why are we still doing it?

6. Our cooks are not nutritionists

We spend an additional 5% of our household budget on restaurants and fast food, which brings us to another issue. The cooks there are not nutritionists.

In restaurants, food is optimized for taste, while in fast food, it is optimized for cost. No one optimizes meals for their nutritional value. So, the only way out is for consumers to be educated about what they put into their mouths and the consequences.

7. Our healthcare is disconnected from wellness

We spend billions on curing diseases but do not spend enough to educate people on a healthy lifestyle because there is no profit, and we are a business-driven society.

We lack preventative healthcare.

We excel at reactive medicine but lack preventative measures. We invented preventative healthcare for infants, and it has clearly helped reduce child mortality. But for some reason, we have not rolled it out to adults.

Our doctors are not nutritionists.

For some reason, our doctors, physicians, are not nutritionists. This should have been the first thing they learned in their medical school. Many of them are obese themselves, so they don’t even know how to take care of their own health. Then they cannot help other people with obesity issues either?

We heal symptoms but not the root cause.

When people get to a hospital, we treat them for diseases that are caused by obesity, but we are not helping people solve the root cause of their health issues: obesity itself.

Nutritionists cannot solve the obesity problem alone.

Nutritionists cannot solve the problem of being overweight alone. It requires an integrated approach that includes mindset, fitness, and sleep. So, we have a situation where the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

Fitness is not part of healthcare.

Fitness is not considered part of healthcare until you have an injury or need to recover after an operation. Health and wellness require an integrated approach with multi-disciplinary coaching and education to get the needed results.

8. We are not educated on healthy lifestyle

We are not controlling the intake of addictive substances.

Substances like sugar, salt, and caffeine are addictive. They are readily available and are cheap. People do not realize the addictive nature of these foods. And we are unaware of the dangers of overconsumption of these substances.

We are not measuring the high-calorie substances.

Vegetable oils are extremely high in calories. A tablespoon of oil has 120 calories of carbs. Your whole day’s quota of carbs would be, let’s say, 800 calories. A couple of spoons for frying and a couple of spoons for salad dressing, and you are at double the calories on carbs from where you should be.

We are not consuming enough water.

Water plays an important role in enabling the metabolic process inside the body. It is essential for growing new cells in the body's muscles and organs. It is also needed to burn excessive fat, convert it to energy, and eliminate the byproducts.

We improved awareness on this topic quite a bit, which is great. It means our society can learn when it needs to. That’s promising!

We are not aware of the importance of strength training.

Strength training increases muscle mass. When your body grows muscle cells after a strength training workout, the same metabolic process spreads to all other organs and rejuvenates the whole body.

So, when we invent high-intensity training to save time on exercise, we do ourselves a disservice. We are training endurance and not growing the muscle. We are depriving ourselves of one of the major health factors – proper metabolism for the whole body.

We invented light but disrupted our natural sleep patterns.

Sleep is an essential part of how our body functions. Yet, with our modern lifestyles, we are not adhering to the circadian cycle that our bodies have.

The importance of proper sleep is increasing, but achieving it requires a comprehensive approach, a change of habits, and the establishment of new daily routines. It is not enough to be aware. We also need to know what and how to do to enable it.

We invented video but dumbed down our brains.

Video, on the one side, is a great way to communicate remotely and asynchronously. You can see the person talking, which is how people communicate naturally.

Yet, when books were invented, they created an abstraction of information and helped train our brains in abstract thinking. Reading a book makes your brain visualize what’s described in the text, developing imagination.

When we let our kids watch cartoons, they do not develop imagination and will lack creative capabilities.

Another issue is that action videos and social media content change scenery quickly. Our brains are not used to that frequent change under normal conditions. Hence, it is an additional overhead for the brain to process frequent frame changes, tiring our brains.

So, watching a movie or a TV show in the evening before bed makes it more difficult for us to fall asleep. Our brains are overenergized, and it will take time to calm the brain down for proper sleep.

Social media creates addictive behaviors.

People are social creatures. We are drawn to live in communities. So, when we share moments of our lives on social media, our friends are excited to view this content. Yet, this exposure goes beyond normal and drives an addictive behavior.

If you are going for a walk and there are people around you, how many of them are staring at their small screens and not even seeing the surroundings?

The Opportunity

Studies show a healthy lifestyle can extend your health span from 50 to 75 years!

Imagine an additional 25 years when you feel good waking up every morning and running up the stairs during the day. We can adopt a healthy lifestyle and restore our health.

Please partner with us to spread awareness about the challenging situation of obesity and methods for regaining your life back.