Shakespearean
times never
allowed much room for discussing eating habits, apart
from differentiating manners and diet between kings
and peasants, between slaves and free men.
Nearly half a millennium later, feasting appears to
be more popular than ever. All sorts of food are
available everywhere at accessible prices. The poor,
who used to die from famine, now dies from overeating
and obesity related diseases.
Statistics show a 54% of over weight's among 40 year
olds or older. I don't believe that the poor are
overly better off.
The problem is the
type of food available: According to a recent TV
survey, one can feed a whole family on $2 worth of
sausages, which has a very high fat content. The same
amount of lean meat would cost $9. The same survey
showed a 2 litre bottle of soft drink for $1,89,
which has a very high content of sugar, and the same
amount of milk for $2,90.
One who is rational
about eating could ask: Do I have to eat sausages? Do
I need soft drinks? Sausages and soft drinks are
relatively new. A medieval person would've never
heard of them. However, I wonder if they would not
buy, after being lead to believe they need them, by
the heavy marketing campaign behind any product in a
supermarket shelf.
In the Middle Ages
kings were presented with all sorts of overseas
gifts. Sugar was a very special treat, imported from
Africa. Many people would dream of having a meal with
the king just to taste the marvelous present. With the economical
developments of our times sugar has taken a special
place in almost everybody's diet, as well as
chocolate. Everybody has access to these treats.
Exchanging them as special presents became a
tradition. Children learn to eat sugary foods since a
very early age, and grow up believing that if they
are good they are going to get lollies or chocolate.
They grow up attaching a very special, emotional
value to them. Once adults, feeling sad, upset or
bored are good excuses to eat these treats, in an
effort to restore their emotional well being.
(In the digestive
process the body breaks down complex carbohydrates
into simple sugars. With eating pure sugar, the body
becomes unable - unwilling to digest food properly
and this creates a physical dependency on refined
sugar and sweets. At this point, hypoglycemia and
diabetes result. Ed
Refined sugar is
highly concentrated, in another words, the water
content is missing. So to complicate things, the body
often fails to tell the eater he/she had enough. Now
imagine an emotionally upset adult, eating a sweet
treat to recover him/herself, without being able to
know he/she had enough... This is why one could
to eat a whole 500 g bar of chocolate at once without
realising it. It only takes
one small effort for a person to generalise the emotional sugar/chocolate
eating to eating just about anything when feeling
upset.
Once this pattern is
developed, it is also easy to start eating for any
reason: tiredness, excitement, happiness, sadness,
too much or too little energy, feeling too cold or
too hot, anger or calm, annoyed or contented...
However, not all overweight's are emotional eaters.
Some of them do show a cold attitude towards any
food, sweets or savory. In this busy modern life,
they rush around, in the hope to get ahead in life.
Time for sleeping, eating and exercise sometimes can
be even considered a luxury. If they happen to have
time to eat, their meals will be either fresh fast
food, straight from the shop, or frozen fast
food, straight from the freezer, quick to defrost and
eat. Ignorance also plays a big role. Many
overweighs do not know that they should include in
their daily diet:
a) Lean meat, fish, poultry or eggs,
b) Fresh Leafy vegetables,
c) Fresh Raw fruit,
d) Whole grain Bread, pasta, rice or potatoes.
Vegetarians should include nuts and other foods with high protein content.
Despite of lack of
information, what appears to be more common among
overweighs is the struggle to spare a little more
time to earn that little extra money and buy a little
more things, for home, themselves, and their family.
For many this means to get ahead in life. If you are
always so busy, to the extent of not having time for
exercise, sleep and a healthy diet, I suggest that
you find time to do all the things you really enjoy.
Indulge yourself, because unless
you change your habits, you are going to die much earlier!
Disclaimer: All Information is provided for
educational purposes only and not intended to be used for any therapeutic purpose, neither is it intended to diagnose,
prevent, treat or cure any disease. Please consult a health care professional for diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions.
While all attempts have been made to ensure the accuracy of this information,
The Health Information Network does not accept any responsibility for any errors or ommissions.
Shakespearean
times never
allowed much room for discussing eating habits, apart
from differentiating manners and diet between kings
and peasants, between slaves and free men. 
