Containing Childhood Obesity

July 19, 2014

Containing Childhood Obesity – Using Diet, Nutrition and Exercise

Protecting your children from obesity and weight related problems beings on your wedding day. the choices you make today will impact positively or negatively on your children.

I don’t know if there can ever be any gift better than the privilege of being blessed with a child. To me of all the gifts under the sun children is a priority making them the most valuable assets that you cannot attach any value on? These priceless children must be protected at all cost and by all means. In careering for the children we must ensure that we start this exercise before they are conceived, during pregnancy, on delivery and their entire childhood through adolescence into youthful stages of their lives until they become adult.

Childhood obesity is a serious problem affecting children not only in your country but also in many nations around the world. Many children are suffering from weight related problems in the process of struggling to stay at a healthy weight. Regrettably obesity affects people’s overall health and can cause real life complications with heart disease, diabetes and other issues. It is necessary that when making effort in containing childhood obesity, several considerations needs to be looked into critically. For instance:

Children need to eat a healthy diet so that they can get the nutrition they need.
They also need to exercise on a regular basis.

This is an enormous task that needs the participation of all stakeholders at different levels like schools, health professionals and individual families pooling together to help stop childhood obesity and guarantees good health for our children.

Containing Childhood Obesity – Diet

Much as we all need food for the supply of energy and food nutrients in the body, it is important to know that this is one area that when look properly checked may become a real cause of childhood obesity. Therefore when feeding your children special attention should be taken on ensuring provision of a healthy diet as this will help them remain in shape and lose weight when necessary. Impacting the knowledge of consuming only the right quantity of food is crucial as this enables the children comprehend the distinction between healthy food options and the unhealthy ones. Getting right this knowledge of different food options enables individuals to hold onto healthy diet. Embracing healthy diet in no doubt paramount but then again parents and all other people taking care of children whether in children’s homes, schools or hospitals have a duty to ensure that they build confidence in the children so that the children do not feel bad about themselves or do not suffer stigmatization.

Containing Childhood Obesity – Proper Nutrition

The children will always mimic at what their parents do in almost everything they do, meaning that if you choose to feed wrongly then your children will do exactly that and if you feed on healthy foods then they will follow on your steps not just when they are young but even when they grow up to have children of their own. It is therefore important that we create healthy eating habits in our families and this will impact positively to our children and by extension contains the possibility of weight gain and obesity. Collectively we must make it a hobby feeding right in all families. Can imagine how life would be when each family is bringing up their children with the right kind of food stuff? We will not only bring up healthy children and kick out obesity from our homes and society but our children will not have to learn wrong feeding habits from the neighborhood, what a community it will be! What do I say; leading by example is a great way to get our children eating healthier.

Containing Childhood Obesity – Exercise

Physical activities are very essential in fighting obesity not just in childhood but even with the adults. It is important to engage our children in activities that make them more active. For example if you are planning taking your children out, it would be good for them to go camping or light hiking depending on their age or go in an open park where there are several sporting activities taking place than taking them to the cinema for movies. Regular exercise helps children stay healthy you may not achieve this by buying your children expensive toys every day and every week try buying then children’s bicycle and you shall definitely have them engaged physically and actively daily. If you are still reading this article then I want to believe that you are following and developing a mind set to wards your role as a parent in preventing obesity and the problems associated with it from setting foot in your family and in particular your children.

Today we have an opportunity to keep our children from being obese because if we don’t, then the consequences of childhood obesity which has both immediate and long-term effects on health and well-being of our children will take the driving seats in our homes.

Containing Childhood Obesity – Immediate health effects

Obese children or youths are more likely to have risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure.
Obese adolescents are more likely to have pre-diabetes, a condition in which blood glucose levels indicate a high risk for development of diabetes.
Children and adolescents who are obese are at greater risk for bone and joint problems, sleep apnea, and social and psychological problems such as stigmatization and poor self-esteem.

Containing Childhood Obesity – Long-term health effects

Children and adolescents who are obese are likely to be obese as adults and are therefore more at risk for adult health problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, several types of cancer, and osteoarthritis.
Overweight and obesity are associated with increased risk for many types of cancer, including cancer of the breast, colon, endometrium, esophagus, kidney, pancreas, gall bladder, thyroid, ovary, cervix, and prostate, as well as multiple myeloma and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Containing Childhood Obesity – Prevention

Healthy lifestyle habits, including healthy eating and physical activity, can lower the risk of becoming obese and developing related diseases.
The dietary and physical activity behaviors of children and adolescents are influenced by many sectors of society including:

a) Families

b) Communities

c) Schools

d) Child care settings

e) Medical care providers

f) Faith-based institutions

g) Government agencies

h) The media and

i) The food and beverage industries and entertainment industries.

Schools play a critical role by creating a safe and reassuring environment with policies and practices that promotes healthy behaviors. Schools also provide opportunities for students to learn about and practice healthy eating and physical activity behaviors.

Like I said in the introduction we all have a duty to containing obesity and this can be done if we partners with professionals who are more experience in matters obese. It is important that we make reference from medical doctors in this discipline. A visit to AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s care will certainly give you more insight on obesity and so if you are or any member of your family or friend is obese then rich out for doctor Dalal Akoury and together with her team of experts they will help you out of this condition in the most natural way living you much healthier and full of life for many years to come.

Containing Childhood Obesity – Using Diet, Nutrition and Exercise

Overweight and Obesity

July 16, 2014

Overweight and Obesity – Treatment Available

Obesity is a medical condition giving people sleepless nights. Good feeding habit can help you get your weight problem solved.

Overweight can be life threatening if measures are not taken timely to bring it to manageable levels. This can be done successfully in various ways which may include setting goals and making lifestyle changes, such as eating fewer calories and being physically active. Other treatment methods available are medicines and weight-loss surgery normally for people who may feel that lifestyle changes aren’t enough.

Overweight and Obesity – Set Realistic Goals

Setting realistic weight-loss goals is an important first step to losing weight. The choice of goals may not be standard with everybody like the one for adult may not be the same with that of the children and so let us segment them in that order of adults and children.

Overweight and Obesity – Goals for Adults

An adult should try losing between 5 to 10 percent of their current weight over 6 months. This will lower their risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) and other conditions.
The best way to lose weight is gradual. A weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds a week is practical, safe, and will help you keep off the weight. It will also give you the time to make new, healthy lifestyle changes.
In the event that you’ve lost say 10 percent of your body weight and have consistently maintain it off for 6 months if after this progress you are still overweight or obese then you may want to consider further weight loss.

Overweight and Obesity – Goals for Children and Teens

Parent should take the lead role in this and keep monitoring the progress. Therefore if your child is overweight or has high risk of being overweight or obesity, then the goal is to maintain their current weight and to focus on eating healthy and being physically active. To help young ones the whole family should make effort to embrace positive lifestyle changes.
If your child is overweight or obese and has a health complication related to overweight or obesity, your doctor may refer you to a pediatric obesity treatment center for further examinations and treatment.

Overweight and Obesity – Lifestyle Changes

Lifestyle changes can help you and your family achieves long-term weight-loss success. Example of lifestyle changes include:

Focusing on balancing energy received in the body (calories from food and drinks) with energy the body gives out (physical activity)
Following a healthy eating plan
Learning how to embrace healthy lifestyle habits

Over time, these changes will become a routine in your everyday life which is very good for weight loss.

Overweight and Obesity – Calories

By reducing the rate of calories intake (i.e. energy in) will be very helpful in weight loss. It is important to note that for an adult to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week they should reduce their calories intake by 500-1000 calories a day.

In general, having 1,000 to 1,200 calories a day will help most women lose weight safely while for men it will be 1200 to 1600 calories a day to be effective in proper weight loss. This calorie range for men is also suitable for women who weigh 165 pounds or more or who exercise routinely.

These calorie levels are a guide and may need to be adjusted. If you eat 1,600 calories a day but don’t lose weight, then you may want to cut back to 1,200 calories. If you’re hungry on either diet, then you may want to add 100 to 200 calories a day.

Low-calorie diets with less than 800 calories a day shouldn’t be used unless your doctor is monitoring your progress. However for overweight children and teens, it’s important to sluggish the rates of weight gain. Nonetheless reduced-calorie diets aren’t advised unless advised by a health care provider.

Overweight and Obesity – Healthy Eating Plan

A healthy eating plan supplies your body with the essential nutrients it needs every day ensuring enough calories for good health, but not so many that may cause weight gain.

A healthy eating plan is low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium (salt), and added sugar. Following a healthy eating plan will lower your risk for heart disease and other conditions.

Healthy foods include:

Fat-free and low-fat dairy products, such as low-fat yogurt, cheese, and milk.
Protein foods like lean meat, fish, and poultry without skin, beans, and peas.
Whole-grain foods, such as whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, and brown rice. Other grain foods include pasta, cereal, bagels, bread, tortillas, couscous, and crackers.
Fruits, which can be fresh, canned, frozen, or dried.
Vegetables, which can be fresh, canned (without salt), frozen, or dried.

Canola and olive oils, soft margarines made from these oils, are heart healthy. However they should be used in smaller units because they’re rich in calories.

You also consider adding unsalted nuts, like walnuts and almonds in your diet provided that you limit the amount you eat (nuts also are high in calories).

Overweight and Obesity – Foods to limit

Foods that are high in saturated and trans fats and cholesterol raises blood cholesterol levels and also may be rich in calories. Fats and cholesterol raise your risk for heart disease, so they should be limited, saturated fat is found mainly in:

Fatty cuts of meat, such as ground beef, sausage, and processed meats like bologna, hot dogs, and deli meats.
Poultry meat without the skin
High-fat dairy products like whole-milk cheeses, whole milk, cream, butter, and ice cream
Lard, coconut, and palm oils, which are found in many processed foods

Trans fat is found mainly in:

Foods with partly hydrogenated oils like many hard margarines and shortening
Baked products and snack foods like crackers, cookies, doughnuts, and breads
Foods fried in hydrogenated shortening like French fries and chicken

Cholesterol mainly is found in:

Egg yolks
Organ meats like the liver
Whole milk or whole-milk products like butter, cream, and cheese

Avoiding foods and drinks containing added sugars, like high-fructose corn syrup, is very necessary. Added sugars will give you extra calories without nutrients like vitamins and minerals. They (added sugars) are found in many desserts, canned fruit packed in syrup, fruit drinks, and no diet drinks.

Overweight and Obesity – Portion size

A portion is the quantity of food you choose to eat for a meal or snack. It’s different from a serving, which is a measured amount of food and is noted on the Nutrition Facts label on food packages.

Anyone who has eaten out lately is likely to notice how big the portions are. Reducing on the portion size is a good way to eat fewer calories and balance your energy IN.

Finally what you eat and how you eat can be the cause of your weight problem and this could be complicated if you don’t know that the food you eat is really the reasons for your problem and so doctor Akoury who is the founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center is committed to helping people globally in all matters of weight gain and obesity in the most natural way and putting emphasis on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE.

Overweight and Obesity – Treatment Available

Weight Gain

June 19, 2014

Weight Gain-It has become a Global Problem

Globalization and modernity has great influence on weight gain and obesity. Natural physical activities is being replaced with gym facilities.

For a long time issues to do with weight has been a concern of the ladies with men taking the back seat. This is no more in the today’s society weight is everyone concern young and old. The kind of life we live today has great effects on our weight it is either we are adding or losing, the great concern is in the gaining because this is where health complication arises. Looking at the new styles of life brought about by modernity we can point out positive and negative development and for sure we are today much cleverer than we were several decades ago have developed immensely in technology. Modernization has for sure lifted millions of people out of poverty, reducing hunger and infectious disease and in turn improving quality of life. While on the other hand the same social and economic shifts that have increased people’s wealth have also increased their waistlines and are driving the obesity epidemic in several countries globally. Obesity is a public health problem that has been for a long time been associated with the western countries but this has over the decades changed and it is now a global problem affecting both poor and wealthy nations almost equally. It is believed that about 500 million adults are obese and 1.5 billion are overweight. These statistics are indeed worrying and it is further complicated with the fact that many poor countries are not only struggling with the burden of obesity but also that of underweight because of malnutrition. The health care professionals have raised their concern on the emerging trend of globalization/modernity is driving overweight problem as a matter of fact overweight has overtaken underweight globally thanks to the many fast food restaurants and supermarkets selling junks. This has completely changed the traditional menu in most households thereby distorting our nutrition and healthy living.

Weight Gain-Modernization Promotes Obesity

At an individual level, obesity results from energy imbalance too many calories in, too few calories burned. But the food and physical activity choices that individuals make are shaped by the world in which they live:

The food environment: what type of food is available, how much it costs and how it is marketed influences what people eat.
The built environment: buildings, neighborhoods, transportation systems, and other man-made elements of the landscape influences how active people are.
New technologies: cars, computers, televisions, labor-saving devices, and many more change what people do for work, transportation, and leisure.

There are three broad global forces which are the major drivers of these changes they include:

Free trade
Economic growth
Urbanization

These macro-level changes are for sure driving the global obesity epidemic and especially in low and middle-income countries. Let us now take a moment and discus them for better understanding.

Weight Gain-Global Free Trade

Globalization has effectively brought with it trade liberalization which has open the market for food market and a varieties of food products which are often high in calories. It has also removed barriers to foreign investment in food distribution and allows multinational food companies and fast-food chains to expand their businesses into new countries thereby introducing high risk and unhealthy feeding habits. The question we need to answer is how does this contribute to weight gain and obesity? We are in agreement that the traditional foods were much nutritious than the processed foods which are for one not fresh and are very rich in calories. These foods are affordable and readily available 24/7 creating laxity in most families consuming homemade food. People have become so busy even to eat at home stuffing their fridges with all sorts of unhealthy food stuff and thanks to this behavior we are getting a lot of calories in our bodies which we cannot burn and so the cycle of obesity continues.

Weight Gain-Income, Socioeconomic Status and Weight

Globalization has open various opportunities and nations of the world are getting wealthier each passing day and knowing that wealth is closely associated with obesity as scale of income goes up so is obesity. Take for example farm workers who were getting minimal income begins to have enough money to jump into the modern habits associated with obesity like watching television, buying processed foods at supermarkets, and eating more food away from home but without proper healthcare and knowledge about healthy foods and physical activity that would help them keeps their weight down, obesity sinks in. However the direct opposite is that when countries graduate to middle and then to high income bracket people will definitely have better access to health care and education which translate into reducing the rate of obesity and unnecessary weight gain.

Weight Gain-Urbanization, Diet and Activity

Today almost more than half of the world’s population lives in cities, compared with just some 10 percent in 1900. This then means that life style has changed drastically to these city dwellers. They are physically under the greater influence of new technology. They are no longer illiterate and are able to access quality health care from the many health facilities available in the cities which can help reduce obesity. Nonetheless in many low and middle income countries, new urban areas develop so quickly that the health care and education infrastructure is never adequate due to the enormous influx of rural urban migration. Besides feeding habits adequate physical activities in urban setups may be lucking due to the fear of insecurity associated with urban neighborhoods. The traditional villages are believed to be much safer and so movement of people is not very much restricted to use of motor vehicles. People can freely walk or do their physical activities outdoors without the burden of insecurity on their shoulders as opposed to the urban centers.

Weight Gain-Speeding up the Nutrition Transition

Economic growth and urbanization lead to predictable shifts in diet, called nutrition transitions. In hunter-gatherer societies, people forage for food. Next they shift to rudimentary agriculture, often enduring famine. As wealth and technology grow and famine recedes, calorie intake rises, leading to overeating and obesity. Globalization has helped move many countries from famine to food sufficiency. But in many low- and middle-income countries, globalization has also accelerated the shift from food sufficiency to Western-style feast—and in turn, to obesity and obesity-related diseases. The effects of globalization as a factor in weight gain and obesity is very interesting and needs to be further interrogated with experience experts who have had similar dealings in the past. Dr. Dalal Akoury has been helping people suffering from obesity globally using very natural means. She is also the founder of AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center a facility in which exclusive NER Recovery Treatment is administered to other physicians and health care professionals through training, clinical apprenticeships, webinars and seminars. Qualified professional or anybody with problems with weight gain or obesity can be a part of this truly successful and fast addiction recovery treatment.

Weight Gain-It has become a Global Problem

Obesity Epidemic

June 18, 2014

Obesity Epidemic-Modern Sitting Furniture

We are using seats everywhere we are without knowing that some of these seat are the source of our health problems like obesity and weight gain

Did you know that the comfort of your living room, office, eateries and the like could be the reason why you can’t have proper control of your weight? Thanks to modernity we can today afford to live a life full of comforts around us. Take for example the kind of seats you use in your house, office, hotels, in your car, buses, planes and locomotives if the pocket allows you would go for the very best that would offer you the maximum comfort. This is the problem begins and for the purpose of this article we will be discussing the possible effects of our desired seat comfort and the endless problem of weight gain and obesity so stay tuned and let us learn together. If you were to carry out a simple research today beginning with your own family you would probably if not definitely find that the seats in our homes and offices are very comfortable, soft and nice looking to sit on, it may be very difficult if not impossible to find firm wooden seats being used in our families today. What we may not know is that these comfortable seats as we call them are a great threat to good health, they are associated with the problem of weight gain and obesity and we all know the problems those suffering from obesity or weight gain goes through. Tracing the kind of life our ancestors lived in relation to today’s life style weight gain was never a problem as matter of facts there was under weight. They were using firm wooden furniture without the arm’s length and back rest which the day’s generation considers uncomfortable, what amazes me is that there was no weight related problem and less incidences of certain types of diseases that to an epidemical proportion affects the industrialized world today.

Obesity Epidemic-The traditional seats

It must be noted that sitting for a significant amount of time on modern sitting furniture result in adverse musculoskeletal changes and studies have found that adverse musculoskeletal changes cause excessive weight gain. I talked of our ancestors but bring it nearer to just a few decades ago and quite recently, even in the western industrialized world, sitting furniture consisted mainly of chairs or benches with a solid seat surface. I strong believe that we are in agreement that just a few decades ago, upholstered sitting furniture’s like the arm chair, sofa and couch were uncommon office furniture let alone household furniture’s. In most societies in the developing world the kinds of furniture used consisted of very simple seats with three leg or four legs without the back or arm rest. These industrious seats like the sofa, couch, armchair, rocking chair or even the chairs fitted with backrest were a luxury that could only be associated with a small population of the rich who could afford them. The true picture is that the majority of the world’s populations were using chairs with a wooden seat and wooden benches, and in the last few decades huge changes have happened.

Obesity Epidemic-Upholstered furniture

Not so long ago, even in the industrialized world, the upholstered furniture was affordable only to rich people. Nowadays, due to the advancement in technology, production and economic prosperity, it is available to a great percentage of the world’s population because of the drastic reduction of their cost. The economic prosperity has come with great changes and diversifications of how we live. We have replaced the traditional sitting furniture with modern ones consisting of chairs with an upholstered seat surface, like sofa, arm chair, couch, etc. if you were to interrogate technology of producing today’s upholstered sitting furniture is vastly different from the manufacturing technology that was used just a few decades ago. As a matter of fact lot long ago all upholstered sitting furniture were made using spring systems. The expensive sitting furniture was made using eight-way hand-tied springs that offer a firmer seat and a sitting position. The less expensive sitting furniture was made using sinuous springs that offers a softer seat. The current technology has tactfully eliminated the use of eight way hand tied spring and sinuous springs in a bid to cut on cost and has resorted in the cheap method of stuffing or padding with soft fuelling, mostly using polyurethane foam which are less costly. Even though a few furniture are still being made using springs these are very expensive and a preserved of the very rich leaving the majority with the upholstery of the cheap sitting furniture consists of high density polyurethane foams wrapped in fabrics that provides far softer seats compared with the sitting furniture that is made by using the spring system. The element of cost has drastically revolutionized the quality of seats in that it is less and less common for chairs to have a firm surface of the seat and most chairs have a soft upholstered seat. This revolution has not only replaced the old sitting furniture with the less costly version of modern sitting furniture’s in households, but also in public places like schools, universities, restaurants etc. chairs with a firm seat surface are replaced with the less costly version of sitting furniture that have a soft upholstered seat. This has really increased the current generation vulnerability to weight gain and obesity and all other complications associated with the two. Obesity Epidemic-Overweight and Obesity Funnily enough the changes that have taken place in the life style and food is not too much in relation to the ones that took place in the sitting furniture revolution. Let’s us get a bit of insight of this aspect even as we try to understand the implications of weight gain and obesity in the whole process. Just not long ago (a few decades) the greater population of people suffering from overweight and obesity came from the bracket of the rich and wealthy people while it is the rich who could afford the upholstered sitting furniture. Nonetheless obesity was rare and morbid obesity was inexistent the reason for this being, the seats of the upholstered sitting furniture were far less soft compared to today’s cheap version of upholstered sitting furniture. What a contrast that:

Today the expensive upholstered furniture is made by using the same technology that was used a few decades ago.
Today the prevalence of obesity among the poor population is not much different than what was the case a few decades ago.
The primary reasons for that is that they still use sitting furniture that is manufactured using the same system that was used a few decades ago.

Things have really changed and today in the developed world the most obese and particularly morbidly obese people are mostly found among the less affluent population. The primary reason for that is because they mostly use the less costly modern sitting furniture. During the time when sitting furniture was made mainly from wood without upholstering and mostly without back support, at the same time among the poor and the middle class population, obesity was unknown. During those times, the problem among the less poor population was mostly being underweight and not overweight, and severe obesity or morbid obesity was extremely rare. In the developed world, modern less costly sitting furniture is the main factor that has caused the less poor population to be affected with overweightness and obesity to a far greater extent than the rich population. Modern upholstered sitting furniture, particularly cheap versions that includes upholstered chair, armchair, sofa and couch are the main contributing factors for the increased prevalence of overweight and obesity throughout the world.

Obesity Epidemic-Gene

It is known that overweight and obese parents are more likely to have overweight and obese children. The main reason for that is that parents and children use the same sitting furniture. The obesity epidemic is mainly caused by the widespread use of modern upholstered sitting furniture. Particularly, the less costly version of upholstered sitting furniture is the main cause for the obesity epidemic and it is one of the primary factors that are responsible for the higher rate of obesity among the less poor population and regular or increased physical activity is not enough to counteract to the adverse consequences of prolonged sitting on the modern style of upholstered sitting furniture. Dietary intervention for weight management makes the problems worse. As we conclude on this article of great revelation, I want to encourage you that technology has brought with it lots of good and bad things in our lives, weight gain and obesity is just one among many. You and your friends need to seek guidance from the experts, you need not to be obese for you to do this but it is good to be full of knowledge even before the problem knocks on your door step. Taking your time to visit or call AWAREmed Health and Wellness Resource Center under Doctor Akoury’s care who is also the founder will help you clear the air and be equipped with all the necessary information you need to be safe from obesity and weight related problems. And if you are obese then doctor Akoury together with her team of experts will help you get better while focusing on Neuroendocrine Restoration (NER) to reinstate normality through realization of the oneness of Spirit, Mind, and Body, Unifying the threesome into ONE.

Obesity Epidemic-Modern Sitting Furniture

Tag Archives: Obesity and weight gain