Capitalism - The Cause of American Obesity
Americans need to stop taking things for granted. The American way of life is conducive to obesity and weight gain, due to the influence of food and (lack of) physical activity.
America's system of capitalism has spawned an abundance of wealth that feeds the very mouth of obesity.
As the richest nation in the world, we have a prosperous population that lives much differently than just fifty years ago. In the last fifty years, changes have allowed Americans to give up wage earning labor in exchange for productive yet sedentary lives. As Americans, we make more money and enjoy a higher standard of living. In some parts of the world like Mexico and India, an average workers daily wages are equivalent to a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
Incomparable prosperity has bred an abundance of food, products, and services that offer an explosion of choices for the American consumer. Product choices, from vacuum cleaners to cars, have multiplied with each generation. Just thirty years ago, the average home had one television. Many homes now have one television for every room in the house. Fifty years ago not every household had a telephone. Now most every adult has a personal cell phone.
Food has been no exception. Food producers, dissatisfied with the limitation of Mother Nature's product line, engineer new processed foods daily. Without hesitation, these companies attack their own product lines with the same quest for quantity. Brands have been diluted in the interest of more. More variety, more shelf space, more sales, more profit.
Modern conveniences and prosperity have increased the average American's free time. There are a growing abundance of home entertainment choices. Just fifty years ago there were but four television stations. Now there are hundreds. Entertainment choices have multiplied. Videos, CDs, DVDs, video games, I-pods, Satellite and Cable TV, cell phones, calculators, computers, digital cameras, video cameras, global positioning systems, and the Internet. Most of these devices provide great entertainment and save time, but also lead to sedentary activity and further physical disconnection from one's body.
We are eating too much fast food. As Americans have become more prosperous with an almost endless array of entertainment and leisure time activities, the personal economic cost of fast food has become cheap.
Grocery shopping and cooking for one or two people is not always as economical as fast food or even dining out. Americans now eat more food prepared outside their home than in. When food is not the quick fix, it is a social event.
It's time we took a step back and analyzed our lives. Eat less fast food, enjoy natural, healthy foods and become more physically active. America needs to start enjoying food and activity once again, and the change begins with you.
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Gotten The Best Fat Loss Supplement? Don't end up pathetic! Part 1
Here's 4 obvious signs of the current pathetic state of fat loss aspirants whom one of them may be you:-
* It's a fact - 95% of the people who go on conventional diets gain all the weight back and sometimes they end up fatter than when they started.
* If you've ever started a diet, then smashed into the dreaded "plateau," it's probably because you cannibalized your own muscle and slowed down your metabolism.
* When you mention bodybuilders, some people think of steroids or fat burning drugs. It's sad but true - most pro bodybuilders take them. But the joke's on them. Drugs work, but the results are temporary and the side effects are nasty. The tiny handful of natural bodybuilders who have learned how to use training and nutrition science to alter body composition without drugs are the only people in the world who keep their fat loss and muscle gains permanently.
* 97% of all supplements are a waste of money. You are being lied to and ripped off by crooked companies that don't care about your health and well-being.
Every day, you're bombarded by so much conflicting advice about fat loss. Some "gurus" tell you to eat low carbs, others tell you to eat high carbs. Some say calories don't count, others say count your calories. Some say eat high protein, others tell you too much protein is bad for you. Some say eat fat to lose fat, others say eat fat and you get fat.
All these so-called "experts" make arguments that sound completely logical. Sometimes they even give you long lists of scientific references to back up their claims. But who are you supposed to believe?
Unfortunately..the more you study and read, the more confused you get...
Are your current sources of information still trustworthy?
There's only one thing worse than the sheer quantity of conflicting advice that's circulating these days - That is, you never know if you're getting the truth or if someone's lying to try to sell you something. Before you jump on the bandwagon with the latest diet or supplement "guru" you should ask yourself some serious questions if you are a rational individual:
* Don't you find it odd that the people who write these "Supplement review" books are supplement companies?
* Doesn't it seem suspicious that 50% of the "editorial material" in most major muscle magazines is about the latest "breakthroughs" in nutritional supplements when the magazines own the supplement companies?
* If supplements are so effective, then why do new ones keep coming out every year - what happened to last year's "miracle" supplement?
* If there were pills or supplements that really increased fat loss to any noticeable degree, then why are there more overweight people today than ever before in history? Wouldn't everybody be leaner? Go back and read that last sentence again and really think about it.
In the year 2004, Americans spent more than $40 billion on diets and weight loss products. According to the Nutrition Business Journal, the supplement industry reached an all time high of $16.1 billion in sales. 1,000 different manufacturers produce about 20,000 different products, which are consumed by 100 million people.
With billions at stake, supplement and weight loss companies will tell you anything to get you to buy their products. And the fact is that the industry is so loosely regulated.
Americans are fatter than ever and they're going to keep getting fatter unless they do something about it. The Surgeon General and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) tell us that more than 120 million Americans - 60% of the adult population - are overweight! Statistics from the CDC also prove that the problem is getting worse. This means that the way people are dieting today is not only ineffective, it's less effective than ever before. Why is this so?
To Be Continued...
Part 2 of this series will reveal the answer to the question above to let you gain a better understanding of the current situation faced by fat loss aspirants.
"To Read Part 2 Click Here"
Janny is a 24 year old female working in a management consultancy firm. She specialises in the financial services industry. Through blogging, she expresses her humble opinions and shares her real world experience in beauty, health and financial freedom.
"Click Here to tell Janny if she is happy and wealthy"
Green Tea Diet Aid
The best course of action to take sometimes isn't clear until you've listed and considered your alternatives. The following paragraphs should help clue you in to what the experts think is significant.
Knowledge can give you a real advantage. To make sure you're fully informed about Green Tea Diet Aid, keep reading.
When you're learning about something new, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of relevant information available. This informative article should help you focus on the central points. The information about Green Tea Diet Aid presented here will do one of two things: either it will reinforce what you know about Green Tea Diet Aid or it will teach you something new. Both are good outcomes.
Green tea diet aid has been used in China as an herbal and medicinal beverage for more than four thousand years. The Chinese were so convinced with green tea’s healing powers and diet aids that they used green tea as treatment for everything from headaches to depressions and even as a diet aid.
Over the last few years, several researches have been conducted to identify what compound is present in green tea that makes it such a potent health drink and diet aid. The scientists have discovered that green tea diet aid has a high amount of antioxidants. These antioxidants present in green tea are responsible for many of green tea’s health benefits and diet aids.
A research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition highlighted the diet aids of green tea. According to the American and Swiss scientists who conducted the study at the University of Geneva, green tea diet aid is due to the presence of certain compounds that help in promoting thermogenesis in the body.
Lead scientist, Dr. Abdul Dulloo said in a press release that there are only two ways to weight loss and diet aid. Diet aid can be achieved either by reducing energy intake or increasing energy expenditure. Green tea, it seems, has compounds that can increase the body’s normal metabolic rates and at the same time suppress the appetite. This makes green tea the perfect diet aid to use.
At the University of Geneva where the study was conducted, Dr. Dulloo and his assistants used ten healthy young men as experimental subjects. They supposed that the main substance that makes green tea a possible potent diet aid is caffeine. To their hypothesis on green tea diet aid, they provided their participants on a typical “Western” diet, which is about forty percent fat, thirteen percent protein, and forty-seven percent carbohydrates.
Everyday, the researchers measured their subjects’ energy expenditure (the measurement used in determining the amount of calories burned within 24 hours) three times. They also kept tabs of the respiration quotient of their subjects to find out how well their carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are utilized.
When the data they collected were interpreted, they discovered that the men receiving regular dosages of green tea diet aid showed a significant four percent increase in their 24-hour energy expenditure. They also found that green tea diet aid can reduce the respiration quotient. This means that green tea diet aid can cause more fats to burn. On the other hand, those men who were not given green tea diet aid showed only minimal increases in their metabolic rates and almost no reduction in their respiration quotient.
Based on their findings, the scientists construed that the substance catechin polyphenol that occurs in high percentage in green tea makes it a very potent diet aid. These substances in green tea alters how the body utilizes the hormone norepinephrine, which is responsible for increasing metabolism and thus leading to diet aid.
In their conclusion, the scientists deduced that green tea owes its diet aid benefits to its high antioxidant content and the substance, catechin polyphenol. These substances in green tea help increase the speed of fat and calorie burning and optimize diet aid.
Green tea is inexpensive, easy to come by and healthy all around. There are many good reasons to drink it, even without the possibility that it could treat leukemia. Take a look at all the things that have been discovered about green tea.
Green Tea has been shown to prevent cancer - Green tea's anti-oxidants have been shown to have cancer preventative effects. Anti-oxidants neutralize free radicals, the damaging molecules that are created as a by-product of our digestion process.
Without the proper level of anti-oxidants in our diets, these free radicals can cause aging and disease, including cancer. Many foods, mostly fruits and vegetables, contain anti-oxidants; but green tea has some of the most potent available. There have been numerous studies that have linked green tea with preventing many forms of cancer.
Among the cancers with promise of being prevented through ingestion of green tea are prostate cancer, breast cancer, digestive system cancers, ovarian cancer and skin cancer. There have also been studies that have linked green tea with having to treat other forms of cancer, too.
Green tea has been shown to prevent heart disease - In other studies, green tea's anti-oxidants have been shown to prevent LDL cholesterol that is circulating in the blood from oxidizing and hardening into plaque. When LDL cholesterol hardens into plaque, it sticks to artery walls and narrows the arteries. Narrowed arteries increase the risk of heart attack and stroke because blood flow is inhibited.
Green tea has been shown to regulate blood sugar - Studies have also shown that green tea may have the power to naturally regulate blood sugar. Green tea may prove to be an effective way to prevent, or even treat, Type II diabetes.
Green tea may aid in weight loss - Green tea has been shown to create thermogenesis, a heat that burns fat. More research is needed, but it appears that, when combined with a healthy diet, green tea may speed weight loss. In addition, if green tea helps regulate blood sugar, this may also aid in weight loss.
Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.
Those who only know one or two facts about Green Tea Diet Aid can be confused by misleading information. The best way to help those who are misled is to gently correct them with the truths you're learning here.
Alien writes for Skin diseases . He also writes for eye stye and sebaceous cysts
