Why are so many people overweight?
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It’s important to try and understand why so many people are overweight and why this is increasing in our society. There are of course many factors and some are more relevant than others but to tackle the issue, both individuals and society have to explore all the possible factors and see how best to address them in order to make a positive difference. The many factors include the following:
We eat too much
A very obvious reason why people are overweight is that they eat too much. There are many reasons as to why people eat too much, which really need to be looked at and understood.
In a very primitive way humans are wired to eat when they can and effectively store food in case of emergencies – mainly being whether we need energy available for certain physical activities or we may not have food available to us for some time. For hundreds of thousands of years this was very necessary for survival as humans developed and evolved. Our distant ancestors wouldn’t always have food sources available to them and could go days without eating much, so needed the reserves. Additionally they may have come under threat by animals or other humans and needed to have reserves of energy to run or fight for their survival or to go out and hunt animals for more food.
So in this respect it makes a lot of sense that when food became available humans would look to take advantage and indulge themselves in as much food as possible, basically for their own survival. And this behaviour is pretty hard-wired into our brains and physiology since we don’t evolve as quickly as the developments we make as a human race in many forms.
In the modern, developed world it is very unlikely that we would not have access to food all the time if needed. How often have you been in a position in which you really didn’t know where your next meal might come from, or not have any access to food? Our lives are completely different now and we generally have 24-hour access to food sources, so we are never in a position where we could go one, two or more days without food. Additionally, we are no longer put in positions of danger where we need energy reserves in order to run away or fight for our survival. Energy reserves nowadays are really for optional physical activities we may choose to participate in.
So when we eat now we don’t need to indulge and eat more than necessary to build up reserves, yet our brain is still telling us to eat more just in case! It is important to understand this and to try to manage the brain’s instinctive nature. We have access to food at any time so we do not need to overeat and we should really be looking to eat just what is necessary for our modern lives, not our distant past ‘survival’ lives.
Now you could use this ‘brain wired’ reason for overeating as an excuse and think that this means it is not your fault and you can’t help it if your brain tells you to eat more than is needed. Well yes, you could go with that mentality but it will not benefit you! It is important to be in control of your food intake and you can manage your eating behaviours in this respect.
We eat the wrong food types
Another big reason why people are overweight is because of the type of foods they eat. In a similar way to the general notion that the brain is wired to eat more than it needs to, as explained in the previous section, our brain also craves more of the food types that are best for energy and energy reserve storage. These food types are more of the carbohydrates that generally contain the most calories and provide the most energy. So on the basis that we need energy and energy reserves to survive, our brain often targets and craves these far more than other food types.
Food types such as breads, cakes, sweets, chocolate, crisps, cereals, etc., are more likely to have that ‘pull’ effect on us as they provide the most calories and energy. However, we very rarely need this energy either in the present or as storage for the future so inevitably if we eat these foods we put on weight. So eating the wrong type of food can have a big effect on our weight as we don’t need to eat these food types, and combined with eating too much it is no real surprise that so many people are overweight nowadays.
If we are using the energy and burning the calories straight away, perhaps from doing an exhausting physical challenge, then those food types can be very beneficial as they provide an instant energy source and will be burnt off and not stored by the body. So it is wrong to say that these food types are necessarily bad or wrong for us, just that more often than not we do not burn the calories off. Additionally, they only really provide one key benefit, which is energy, and have very little other nutritional value or benefit to our .
We eat too much
A very obvious reason why people are overweight is that they eat too much. There are many reasons as to why people eat too much, which really need to be looked at and understood.
In a very primitive way humans are wired to eat when they can and effectively store food in case of emergencies – mainly being whether we need energy available for certain physical activities or we may not have food available to us for some time. For hundreds of thousands of years this was very necessary for survival as humans developed and evolved. Our distant ancestors wouldn’t always have food sources available to them and could go days without eating much, so needed the reserves. Additionally they may have come under threat by animals or other humans and needed to have reserves of energy to run or fight for their survival or to go out and hunt animals for more food.
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| Why are so many people overweight? |
So in this respect it makes a lot of sense that when food became available humans would look to take advantage and indulge themselves in as much food as possible, basically for their own survival. And this behaviour is pretty hard-wired into our brains and physiology since we don’t evolve as quickly as the developments we make as a human race in many forms.
In the modern, developed world it is very unlikely that we would not have access to food all the time if needed. How often have you been in a position in which you really didn’t know where your next meal might come from, or not have any access to food? Our lives are completely different now and we generally have 24-hour access to food sources, so we are never in a position where we could go one, two or more days without food. Additionally, we are no longer put in positions of danger where we need energy reserves in order to run away or fight for our survival. Energy reserves nowadays are really for optional physical activities we may choose to participate in.
So when we eat now we don’t need to indulge and eat more than necessary to build up reserves, yet our brain is still telling us to eat more just in case! It is important to understand this and to try to manage the brain’s instinctive nature. We have access to food at any time so we do not need to overeat and we should really be looking to eat just what is necessary for our modern lives, not our distant past ‘survival’ lives.
Now you could use this ‘brain wired’ reason for overeating as an excuse and think that this means it is not your fault and you can’t help it if your brain tells you to eat more than is needed. Well yes, you could go with that mentality but it will not benefit you! It is important to be in control of your food intake and you can manage your eating behaviours in this respect.
We eat the wrong food types
Another big reason why people are overweight is because of the type of foods they eat. In a similar way to the general notion that the brain is wired to eat more than it needs to, as explained in the previous section, our brain also craves more of the food types that are best for energy and energy reserve storage. These food types are more of the carbohydrates that generally contain the most calories and provide the most energy. So on the basis that we need energy and energy reserves to survive, our brain often targets and craves these far more than other food types.
Food types such as breads, cakes, sweets, chocolate, crisps, cereals, etc., are more likely to have that ‘pull’ effect on us as they provide the most calories and energy. However, we very rarely need this energy either in the present or as storage for the future so inevitably if we eat these foods we put on weight. So eating the wrong type of food can have a big effect on our weight as we don’t need to eat these food types, and combined with eating too much it is no real surprise that so many people are overweight nowadays.
If we are using the energy and burning the calories straight away, perhaps from doing an exhausting physical challenge, then those food types can be very beneficial as they provide an instant energy source and will be burnt off and not stored by the body. So it is wrong to say that these food types are necessarily bad or wrong for us, just that more often than not we do not burn the calories off. Additionally, they only really provide one key benefit, which is energy, and have very little other nutritional value or benefit to our .
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