Overweight Americans - Diet and Nutrition

Overweight Americans

Holistically healthy people attempt to eat all the essential foods they need in the proper proportions. Unfortunately, 60% of Americans now consume excessive amounts of the wrong foods. According to a series of eight annual surveys conducted by Louis Harris and Associates in 1993 for Prevention Magazine , 64 million Americans are now overweight. Life insurance company tables taking into account age, sex, and body build were used to determine whether or not a person was overweight. Interestingly enough, almost a third of those who were overweight did not know it, or at least did not admit it. Instead, they told interviewers that they were “at about the right weight.” Overweight men were nearly twice as likely as women to feel that their weight was acceptable. The survey also found that fewer Americans are trying to avoid eating too much sugar and sweets than in 1983. And fewer are making an attempt to consume enough vitamins and minerals or eat fish twice a week.

Weight-Loss Programs.     What should overweight people do to regain holistic health? Basically, they need to adopt a weight-loss program consistent with the major tenets of holistic medicine–proper diet, adequate exercise, and a positive mental attitude. The basic equation for losing weight is the same whatever diet program is followed. In order for an individual to lose weight, energy intake must be less than energy expenditure. This can be accomplished by decreasing caloric intake (dieting), increasing the rate at which calories are burned (exercising), or a combination of the two.

As Murray and Pizzorno explain in the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine , people must take in 3,500 fewer calories than they expend in order to lose one pound of body weight. Therefore, to lose one pound each week, a negative caloric balance of 500 calories a day is required. This could be accomplished through exercise alone by jogging for 45 minutes, playing tennis for an hour, or taking a brisk walk for one hour and 15 minutes, assuming that caloric intake remained the same.

The most sensible approach to weight loss is to decrease calorie intake and increase energy expenditure. Most individuals will begin to lose weight if they keep their caloric intake below 3,000 calories per day and do aerobic exercise for 15–20 minutes 3–4 times per week. Starvation and crash diets usually result in rapid weight loss (largely muscle and water), but cause rebound weight gain. The most successful approach to weight loss, acc-cording to Murray and Pizzorno, is gradual weight reduction (0.5–1 pound per week) through adopting dietary and lifestyle modifications.