Over the past few months I have brought to the Village several posts on news articles from all over the world. It is very evident that obesity is becoming a global epidemic. This seems weird to talk about when the normal reaction of our brains is to think of global epidemics taking shape as poverty, aids, and starvation. When did obesity become a global epidemic?



The health condition of the majority of people in developed nations has deteriorated to such an extent that it has literally become a crisis. In the US, experts estimate that approximately 70% of the adult population is currently overweight or obese. That means that if you are a lean and healthy individual, you are a minority! It has literally become the norm for most people to be out of shape, overweight, and ridden with degenerative diseases like type-II diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Thats pretty sad. With as fast as obesity rates are increasing, if things don't change soon, we could very likely see 9 out of every 10 people as overweight or obese in another decade or two.

Something needs to give. People need to start taking responsibility for their own health and fitness and that of their families. Nobody else is going to do it. It is not my desire to see fitness remain the minority.

It is our responsibility to take ownership. The billion dollar food manufacturing companies sure aren't going to do it. All they want to do is make huge profits by selling you cheap junk food, heavily refined and processed full of chemicals that are causing a cellular disaster within your body.

The billion dollar pharmaceutical companies sure aren't going to look out for your health either. They want you to be sicker than ever, so that you'll have to buy more of their medicines.

And the rich supplement companies won't look out for your health either. They love the fact that people are getting fatter all the time, so that they can persuade you with fancy marketing into thinking that there's a quick-fix solution and all you have to do is spend lots of money on some of their pills and you'll magically be lean and mean without changing anything else in your life.

It's pretty simple as to why the world is becoming a fatter place at an astonishing rate. For one, the population has become increasingly more sedentary over the years. Kids no longer spend most of their time running around and playing games outside. Now, they spend more time inside playing video games or surfing the web on the computer. Adults do less manual labor than ever before. Technology allows us to be lazier than ever and perform as little movement as we want on a daily basis. This simply means that we must intentionally add extra movement to our daily lives in this day and age where we're not required to do much movement any more.

My thinking is, why does it have to be a chore to add movement to your daily life? It should be the opposite, you should be active because you enjoy it! For example, if you're not the least bit interested in weight training, then find something you do like such as swimming, rock climbing, mountain biking, or competitive sports, and enjoy it on a regular basis.

Another reason the world is becoming fatter is that our food supply has become more heavily processed, refined, filled with chemicals, and modified from its natural state over the years. Everybody thinks that they don't have time in this fast-paced world to prepare their own meals anymore, so they grab quick junk foods from corner stores, fast food joints, and restaurants. This habit makes it that much harder to stay healthy and lean, because THEY aren't looking out for your health. Only YOU can do that!

The solution is easy! First, we need to make smart whole food decisions, and prepare our own meals. Second, we need to get out and move. Our bodies are meant to move and be active on a regular basis. That's the simplest way to look at it.

If we start paying attention to what we are doing and what we are eating perhaps we can change the norm of fit people being in the minority!