They exist here in Israel too! Too much pizza and cheeseburgers, and not enough exercise and whole food diets.
One of America’s most popular internet health news websites, Natural News, is telling its readers that Americans are on their way to becoming a nation of overweight and obese people and that three fourths of all Americans will be either overweight or obese by the year 2020. This prediction comes on the results of findings made by a study made by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which found that citizens of the worlds most affluent countries are becoming more overweight, and that Americans are “leading the charge”/ They are now ranked number one in the world.
There are an estimated 400 million people in the world who suffer from various forms of obesity. That number is expected to rise to over 700 million by the year 2015. The phenomenon of overweight people is not limited to Americans and to people in European countries, but is a growing problem in Israel as well where 62% of the population are overweight. This percentage gives Israelis a very high world overweight and obesity ranking of number 8, and No. 11 for severely overweight children, according to Niva Shapira of the Institute for Nutrition Research at Beilinson Hospital.
More and more Israelis are joining the ranks of the grossly overweight, due to an addiction to fast or “junk foods” and to a lack of daily exercise in their lives. This phenomenon is currently a fact of life in Israel; and affects people of all ages and from all walks of life.
There are three main reasons why this is happening: The first is that people get less exercise due to driving cars too much and sitting in front of computers and oversized TV screens. The second deals with people eating too much food; especially convenience or “junk” foods. And the third reason is that the food people do eat is commercially processed “dead” foods.
In other words, people need to “green” their lifestyles and eating habits more by doing more exercise and by eating whole or natural types of food over the high fat and starch commercial types found in fast food restaurants, falafel and houmous eateries, and even in most supermarkets, where a great many already prepared “dead foods” are ready to be popped into a microwave or toaster oven – high “carbs” and all.
Being a “green” website, Green Prophet has tried to present more healthy lifestyle alternatives by posting articles dealing with organic and whole foods.
The advantages of riding bicycles to work in congested city environments and many articles dealing with natural living by using herbs over conventional medicines.
In Israel, as well as in America and other “fat” countries, the diet abuse starts with too much sugars in the form of candies and soft drinks given to small children as well as pizza and hamburger joint “happy meals” that load kids up with sugars and carbohydrates as well as with saturated fats. This results in overweight and obese kids, which progresses into overweight and obese adults.
Television reality programs such as “The Biggest Loser” that deal with obese people trying to use crash diet and exercise methods to loose large amounts of fat only wind up with many of them gaining it back even quicker than they lost it, according to dieticians and doctors who specialize in treating these types of patients.
What we would like to promote, however, is to encourage a diet change that will enable people to live a healthier and “greener” lifestyle and prevent themselves from suffering from being overweight and especially obese.
More articles on green and healthy living:
Israel Becomes a Nation of Cycling Freaks
Israeli Food Chemist Answers Nutrition Questions Online
Michael Pollan’s Environmental Linking Food Rules
Author: Maurice Picow
Maurice Picow grew up in Oklahoma City, U.S.A., where he received a B.S. Degree in Business Administration. Following graduation, Maurice embarked on a career as a real estate broker before making the decision to move to Israel. After arriving in Israel, he came involved in the insurance agency business and later in the moving and international relocation fields. Maurice became interested in writing news and commentary articles in the late 1990’s, and now writes feature articles for the The Jerusalem Post as well as being a regular contributor to Green Prophet. He has also written a non-fiction study on Islam, a two volume adventure novel, and is completing a romance novel about a forbidden love affair. Writing topics of particular interest for Green Prophet are those dealing with global warming and climate change, as well as clean technology - particularly electric cars.
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