Nutrition and healthy eating

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• April 16, 2013 9:13 p.m.

  Has anybody noticed with the founding of the "All you can eat restaurants", we became a nation of overweight people! We basically are "Hungry People" ( in more ways than one!). We want all we can get at a low price, so it shows on our hips! a

  - Jody

• April 14, 2013 11:01 a.m.

  Just because there is a link between high body mass relative to height and diabetes doesn't mean one causes the other. That's like saying being black is a disease because they have more sickle cell anemia or being Jewish is a disease because they have more tay sachs. By this logic, being asian is a disease because they have more diabetes. Even if high bmi was the cause the failure rate on diets is 99% over 5 years so how can that be a "simple" solution.

  - J Davis

• January 3, 2013 1:12 p.m.

  does sugar amd alcohol bother you and are you advised not to touch any of it?

  - Meki

• December 21, 2012 4:45 p.m.

  I agree with the Dec 8th comment that it will take a combination of personal responsibility and government action to correct the obesity problem. However the thing that drives government action is personal responsibility and action. We as people have to educate ourselves to understand that we have allowed industry and government to create a food distribution channel that encourages people to eat dead nutrition deficient food that are overly acidic and then pretend we can make up the difference by taking vitamin supplements which end up making it worse because people don't understand that you can't make up for lack of good food by taking vitamin supplements. We have to be educated enough to demand of our government stop wasting money studying the problem. We already know what causes obesity as there are some excellent doctors who are both researchers, authors and practitioners who are ethical enough to tell the truth including Dr. Joel Furhman, Dr. John McDougall, Dr. Gabriel Cousens, Dr. Brian Clement, Dr. Majid Ali, Caldwell Esselstyn and many more. Google any of these or see their Youtube videos to see their lectures. We absolutely know what causes obesity so we as people have to demand our governments pass policies to demand that our businesses provide higher quality food in the distribution channel. You have more power than you think. Vote with your wallet and only buy good food then they will start providing more of it. The trend is starting please get on board.

  - GV

• December 8, 2012 5:08 p.m.

  I completely disagree with your statement that "the most important aspect of reversing the obesity epidemic is personal responsibility and taking care of ourselves, our family and friends." The most important aspect is government legislation and action. We need government action that forces the food industry to clean up their act. We need government action that rewards the medical community for preventing disease (i.e: through nutrition and exercise counselling) not just rewards them for treating disease. We need local governments to build better neighbourhoods where people can walk/bike/use public transit to get places. For instance, car safety increased because government mandated all new cars to have car seat belts and mandated passengers to wear them. Likewise, smoking rates declined because governments discouraged cigarette advertising and made it difficult to smoke in many places. People are obese because of the toxic society we live in. Yes, there is room for personal responsibility, but the MOST IMPORTANT aspect of reversing the obesity epidemic is government action.

  - C.P

• October 16, 2012 10:25 a.m.

  All these ideas have value, but if you read Dr. Wiilam Davis' book "Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight," there may be a relatively simple approach to adressing metabolic syndrome: whole wheat bread raises the glycemic index more than a Mars candy bar! I tried stopping wheat and have lost 15 pounds without any other intervention - no diets, calorie counting, change in exercise - just avoid anything with wheat in it! Davis tears down the current gospel of "healthy whole grains" as without any scientific foundation. The modern highly hybridized, genetically engineered wheat may be killing us!

  - BarbaraW

• October 13, 2012 5:05 a.m.

  It's easy - change lifestyle. Lots of exercise. Water instead of fizzy drinks. Keep a food diary and feel embarrassed when you eat processed foods. Prepare your own vegetables, eat less meat and more fish etc

  - Patricia

• October 12, 2012 2:03 p.m.

  Obesity is one of the most complicated issues and no easy answers. I suggest just making one small change, really work on it and even right down progress or use an app to track it. Then add something else new. here is a great exercise at work article and poster to get you started. It is excellent, science based and easy to do.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/health/workout-at-work/

  - Kathy

• October 12, 2012 2:16 a.m.

  Eat REAL FRESH food - not the prepackaged processed stuff. I'm appalled at what I see in the freezer cases at supermarkets. My nephew's wife buys all that $%&#! and they have exploded like tanks in the three years they've been married. Exercise...just simple walking will be fine. I agree with the post about the absence of exercise in our schools which has been replaced by endless standardized testing?. What ever happened to President Kennedy's fitness program?

  - Vicki

• October 11, 2012 7:38 a.m.

  Obesity is caused by portion size, sugar and carbohydrates, not fat. There has been an effort over the years to reduce fat in everything, meanwhile people are getting bigger. If the emphasis were more on reducing portion size, sugar and carbs, people would be healthier. Dr. Atkins was right!

  - Judy

• October 10, 2012 1:13 a.m.

  Let's stop putting sugar in all the packaged foods. Let's teach doctors more about nutrition as a preventative tool to thawart obesity. Let's teach REAL HEATH with nutrient dense ways to eat, stop fast food, learn how to prepard SLOW food. Teach real nutrition every year to school children from age 5-18. Stop our manufacturer's from producing poor quality food. This so called epedemic could stopped if consumers were really informed about the food they are eating. It's "Frankenfood" out there unless you really know what you are doing. I had a doctor tell me to eat everything organic, but don't eat corn or wheat even if raised organically because there are NO truly organic seeds anymore for these commodities.

  - Jana

• October 9, 2012 8:11 a.m.

  There isn't enough physical activity for children in school. We expect young children to sit for hours each day while we cram their brains with information. The day would be better spent if some time was given to light exercise. The children would be able to learn better, too. I am not just referring to recess, either. A programmed break with some light aerobic exercise in the classroom would be sufficient to get their blood moving again which means their brains would be bettr able to accept and store new information.

  - Barbara

• October 3, 2012 3:18 p.m.

  Obesity is a serious problem. Health insuarance costs more for overwight people since they need more health services,therefore, private companies should charge more for overwight people until they loose their exta pounds

  - Fidaa