Is this the crisis of human survival instict?

Now, it is not only overweight that need to diet, but, latest research shows that it could be as much as half of the “normal weight” people that are obese as lack of exercise, unhealthy dieting and other factors, such as smoking, stress and salt rich diet, are storing dangerously high amount of fat around their main organs!

So, you could be slim, but actually dangerously thin-obese. With overweight-obese (nearing 60% of the population) and thin-obese (50% of the remaining 40% of population) combined, this would probably put over 80% of entire UK population with body fat problem, which is the main problem, not weight itself. Solution is simple when you know your body and how it operates, but, I have very little hope we will see things improving even in the distant future. Day in and out I meet people with no interest or true commitment to change their lifestyle as it is exactly that what is needed – complete change in lifestyle and long term commitment to lead a healthy lifestyle, not a quick fix fad diets… You may say that it is the lack of knowledge and knowing the consequences, but I am not sure that even this is enough of a motivator for many. Almost like a “it does not happen to me” syndrome. Oh, yes, it does! Illness has a very clear culprit…

With the problem reaching epidemic proportions, and just getting worse by the look of it, is this the crisis of human basic survival instict? Animals do anything to adopt and fight in order to survive and save their species, whilst majority of people seem to know (or want to know) so little about their bodies and do not even acknowledge (or care enough in some cases) that their lives (or lives of their children) are in danger.

Patients visiting their family doctor may soon be able to see at a glance how altering their lifestyle could prolong their lives. Dr Chris Martin, who combines being a GP in Laindon, Essex, with research, has created a computer program that predicts how long an individual can expect to live based on simple data such as blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking habits, age and past medical history. The output is in the form of a graph that shows how many more years could be achieved by change. The good thing is this method may bring the problem more home to people and it puts emphasis on prevention rather than treatment as it is visually obvious how, as an example, lethal smoking is and it effectively puts into perspective the importance of stopping smoking compared to treating blood pressure.

So, going back to body fat problems that is a culprit for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer and clearly provoked by bad lifestyle choices, are you “normal-weight obese” or simply overweight or “overweight-obese”? 80% chance you are! Question is, what do you want to do about it?