With our busy and fast pace world, it's seldom that we cook and eat nutritional foods.  Fast foods and restaurants truly make our every day need for food easy and delicious. While eating in restaurants and going to drive thru can satisfy our craving for delectable meals, it is still important to know the content of the food that we intake.

In United States, there are 58 million Americans, aged 20-70++ that are overweight. A person is considered overweight if he/she has excess amount of body weight that include muscle, bone fat and water. On the other hand, obesity is the excess accumulation of body fat. Hence, a person can be overweight without being obese.

Obesity and health threats such as heart disease are two of the obvious effects of food intake with too much calorie and cholesterol. The ingredients and how the food is prepared and cooked also matters if we are to talk about healthy meals. Aside from food, it is also our way of life that prevent us from being obese.

There are many illnesses that can be associated to an obese individual. Some of the known diseases have effect on the heart, gall bladder and high blood pressure. A huge percentage of women with breast and colon cancer are also obese according to some studies. This can be an alarming news but everyone has an opportunity to prevent these things from happening.

We are responsible for our own health. There are thousands of ways to prevent obesity from happening in our family. Awareness and discipline are extremely needed to live a healthy and happy life. The steps are simple. Here are the 5 obvious ways to prevent obesity.

1. Drink water. Eight glasses of water is the recommended consumption daily. It is a best cleanser for the body.  More than 8 glasses is much better.

2. Exercise. If we are healthy, we can possibly eat any food that we crave for. This gives us the freedom to choose what we eat. However, we should also excrete those unwanted fats and cholesterol and that can be achieved through exercise daily.

3. Have a balance meal on the table. Always include vegetables and fruits.

4. Take vitamins and minerals regularly but don't rely on them.

5. Be an example to your children. Discipline on food should be seen in you by your children.

Life is too short to live in pain and suffering. You don't have to be paranoid on food that you consume. Being not obese does not also mean depriving yourself of food that you want to eat. It's all about balance.