Today, more people are dying from overeating than under eating. It's a fact. Did you know it? I never until last Wednesday past, when Dr. Ayra Sharma, a leading researcher and medical doctor in obesity was in St. John's and gave a presentation at Memorial University in benefit of the Canadian Obesity Network. You may have heard his name before, as he is a sought-after expert and speaker regularly featured in international media and resides in Edmonton where he is an endowed chair in obesity at the University of Alberta and medical director of the Alberta Health Service's bariatric program. His talk was about how to 'Stop being a yo-yo', and included appropriate humour, as evidenced by him entering the stage with a black sou'wester, and reviewed today's social, psychological and biomedical properties to obesity. It was such as interesting and engaging presentation, and because of this and the fact he is a leading authority on the obesity subject, I want to share with you some of the insight and info he shared with us.
He started by telling us about how research suggests that for every 20 people who set on a journey to lose weight around 19 of them will eventually put that weight back on, and one person out of that 20 will likely keep the weight off. How? But not eating whole lot of much, and probably maintaining a diet of about 1500 calories per day and by burning anywhere to 400 calories through exercise. It's certainly hard to do, and perhaps that's why many people fail. He does note though that there are things we can do, and listen up, as these are important, and something I think all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians can benefit from.
Dr. Sharma notes that fast food isn't a fast food problem, but rather a fast and time problem. We are living in a culture with no time to eat. And so what happens when we don't eat? We get hungry. And when we get hungry what happens? Well, first if all, when we're hungry it's probably the worst time to be eating as we tend to make poor choices. Hormones in our stomach which signal hunger, increase when hungry, which makes perfect sense, but what also it important to note is that this particular hormone, called ghrelin, is also considered a 'risk taking hormone, which may explain some of the reason why we end up eating way more calories then we should and eat fast, again causing us to eat more calories. He suggests we need to spend more time eating, which may sound funny at first, but it makes a lot of sense. Spend more time eating. Think about what you do during the hours of a day. Eight hours working, plus time for our daily commutes, add time for dealing with kids and chores, three meals daily totalling at bet one hour daily, one hour physical activity, seven to nine hours sleep – for many of us there just aren't enough hours in the run of a day. 'Times runs away', and we don't dedicate enough time to take care of ourselves. When we do end up taking more time to be active and eat well, and since there are only 24 hours within the run of a day, what we end up doing is taking precious time away from sleep. Not taking the time to eat well, be active, or get enough sleep can all be contributors to an excess or 'yo-yo'ing of our weights. By not taking enough time to care for ourselves our stress increases. And with increased stress, people often feel anxious, or frustrated or depressed, any or all of which can be the 'prefect recipe for emotional eating', he notes. Dr. Sharma did go on to talk about other health problems and contributors to obesity, however 650-700 words could never do his one and a half hour talk justice. So if you plan on making any lifestyle or dietary changes to improve your health and weight, consider taking more time to eat. For more information on Dr. Sharma and the Canadian Obesity Network check out http://www.obesitynetwork.ca/.
As seen in The Telegram June 10, 2013.
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