Just a little something to perk up your Monday

Did you know, Canadians are the second highest consumers of fast food per capita, followed closely by our Southern neighbors the US? In 2007 it was reported that Canadians spent $12.7 BILLION dollars on take out food.

Ironically, overweight and obesity related disorders cost the Health Care System $4.3 BILLION in 2001. Based on past trends, we can assume, 9 years later, that this number has grossly increased, as compared to 1997 when the related disorders cost the system $1.8 BILLION.

Sadly today it is not only affecting young and middle aged adults, but also children. One study reported that 26% of preschoolers qualified as being overweight and/or obese. PRESCHOOLERS?!? That's children aged 3-5 years old. How is this possible?

Well if you look at the adults in Canada, 23.1% are reported obese (meaning, they have a Body Mass Index, or BMI higher than 30. To find out your BMI, click here).

The results of the preschoolers and the adults almost mirror each other. Coincidence? Not from my perspective.

Healthy living is likely to be a learned behavior, in super impressive psychological terms, monkey see, monkey do. I don't disagree that there are cases where genetics play a role, but I also believe that to be a convenient little excuse for too many people. Being big boned does not mean you should be overweight or obese everyone!

So the way I look at it is simple: children have no control over what food is placed in front of them. They cannot control what is brought into the household nor can they go out and purchase their own food. So that said, how is it getting to the point of children eating an excess of so much food, poor quality food that they turn obese? You can blame the media, you can blame technology, but really what it boils down to is lack of exercise and a bad diet. If you bring bad food into the home, your children will watch you eat it. And they too will believe that is their source of nourishment and pass that on to their children, their children's children..... and before you know it our health care costs will be double what they are today, as too will the incidence of the obesity epidemic (yes, epidemic) we face today.

Break the cycle! Guess what? If you don't have bad food in your house and you're not eating it neither will your kids! Kids won't starve themselves, although they may try when you're making a drastic change like ridding the kitchen of junk, but here is a little something for inspiration...

A friend of mine, Samantha shared a great link with me, and I think the message is pretty clear. Fast 'food' isn't food... how can it be... Enjoy,

CLICK HERE NOW!