I think that if I were to write a book it would be the title of my blog today, "When Enough is Really Enough."
What do I mean by that?
I have been really struck these last few years as I continue on my own health journey and my studies in Obesity Prevention and Management that this country's obesity issue is simply a symptom of a much larger issue, the issue of over-consumption.
We are a wealthy nation. There is no denying that, and on the world stage we are a symbol of prosperity. This new generation of up-and-comers has really not known what "being in want for anything" really means. The whole concept of snapping our fingers and having what we want, whether it is a book, or a magazine, or a tasty treat to indulge our senses is the current landscape of what it means to live "in America."
This translates across the board to many things, but I want to talk TODAY about those of us who either ARE struggling with Obesity, or HAVE struggled with Obesity, and how the over-consumption mentality has turned us as a people into hoarders of calories.
Our body has a unique design, and was designed for periods when food is plenty followed by periods of relative scarcity. There is nothing WRONG with us or with our metabolism, and our bodies have this amazing ability to hoard energy in the form of calories for those periods where, historically, there have been food shortages or famines.
Think about it. As civilization grew and agriculture and domestication of animals became the norm, the food supply became more reliable and the "more is always better" mentality told us it is better to have and to eat MORE food rather than LESS.
In today's America, we literally have no threat of famine. The amount of available calories in the marketplace are exponential in contrast to the amount of mouths we feed in this country, and we have not adjusted our consumption to our NEEDS, but they have kept in line with our WANTS.
Our bodies have taken these cues from our constant over-consumption of calories, and we as a people have grown larger...and larger...and larger through these last few generations.
You may be asking the question "well, is it wrong to have a mentality of over-consumption?" I say it isn't morally WRONG, but it may be worth considering a paradigm shift if we are to have not only health in our own lives, but health as a nation.
What if we all decided as individuals and as a people that we were going to begin being responsible for our over-consumption of calories not only to benefit our health, but also to benefit our nation and our world?
What if we began valuing optimal nutrition and adequately meeting our nutritional needs with high-value foods? What if it became a national priority to produce high-quality, organic fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes, and what if we ate ENOUGH lean animal protein instead of TOO MUCH?
What if we stopped pumping empty "junk" calories into our marketplaces, and stopped exporting empty "junk" calories to the rest of the world?
What if this nation valued health, and we stopped being hoarders of calories on our person?
What if?
Just some things I've been thinking of lately.
