Causes of obesity in modern man

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Obesity is now called the disease of the 21st century – the number of people suffering from excess body weight has increased so much over the past 100 years. According to statistics, there are already about 1,5 billion obese people on Earth, and 500 million of them have extreme obesity, which negatively affects the quality and duration of life. What caused the increase in the number of obese people on the planet? How not to fall into their ranks? Let's consider the 5 main prerequisites for increasing body weight in modern conditions.

 

1. Sedentary lifestyle

Causes of obesity in modern man

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Among the causes of obesity, the palm belongs to a passive lifestyle. Modern man is spoiled: transport takes him to his destination, home appliances “helpers” make life easier, and online stores eliminate the need to leave home to make a purchase. Technical progress, saving time, deprives health.

The body, created in order to waste energy, begins to accumulate its excess in tissues, muscles, and blood vessels. In the absence of physical activity, physical inactivity develops, a disease that extensively impairs the functions of the musculoskeletal system, digestive and respiratory organs, and especially the cardiovascular system, doubling the risk of death from stroke. The reason for such catastrophic consequences is quite innocent – these are the benefits of civilization. They were simply abused.

What do doctors advise? Remember the importance of physical activity and take every opportunity to walk, climb without the help of an elevator, play with your child. The cost of health is low: just 40 minutes of intense activity a day, and the enemy called "obesity" will have no chance of winning.

 

2. Improper diet

Causes of obesity in modern man

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If lack of movement is accompanied by unhealthy eating, excess weight cannot be avoided. The modern culture of everyday life has affected not only the lifestyle of a person, but also his diet. Civilization has touched the process of making many products. Our diet is saturated with mouth-watering sweets, flour, smoked products – unnatural dishes that clog the body, are poorly absorbed and give the body nothing but short-term pleasure and fast carbohydrates. Only 20% of the average person's diet consists of vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Under the pressure of flavoring additives, he increasingly prefers tasty, healthy, and fast food to long-cooking meals.

Disorders of the digestive process are provoked not only by an unbalanced diet, but also by non-compliance with the diet (refusing breakfast, rare meals, overeating at night), as well as long-term storage of food, which destroys nutrients.

Nutritionists are categorical: in order to reduce the risk of obesity, it is necessary to revise the nutrition system, abandoning the habitually excessive consumption of "sweets" in favor of the gifts of Mother Nature. So, the share of vegetables and fruits in the right diet for a person should be at least 60%, which is 4-5 servings per day.

 

3. Non-compliance with the regime of the day

Causes of obesity in modern man

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To the surprise of many, the lack of a daily routine and a good night's rest is also a significant reason for the rapid gain of excess weight. Chaotic sleep, chronic lack of sleep, falling asleep after 22:00 cause a decrease in the blood of leptin, the hormone responsible for the feeling of satisfaction with food. Its absence becomes a serious cause of overeating: a person eats, but cannot get enough.

On the contrary, a healthy 8-hour sleep without interruptions helps reduce the “stress hormone” in the blood – cortisol, which stimulates the destruction of proteins and the accumulation of glucose in the blood. The correct daily routine is an important condition for maintaining normal body weight; neglecting this aspect negates all preventive measures. After all, even by controlling your appetite, a person cannot control the action of hormones.

 

4. Bad habits

Causes of obesity in modern man

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Smoking is often considered a good way to lose weight, but this is nothing more than a delusion. In fact, a bad habit is a prerequisite for problems with being overweight. Suppressing the appetite for a while, nicotine causes a subsequent explosion of signals from the receptors about the feeling of hunger. A person either takes up a cigarette again, or begins to absorb food with a vengeance, making up for the lack of a narcotic substance with a “hormone of pleasure”.

However, the harmful effects of smoking on the body do not end there. Nicotine reduces the amount of enzymes needed to digest food, reduces its nutritional value and causes disturbances in the gastrointestinal tract. Under the onslaught of toxins, the body begins to “give ground”, the processes of processing and absorption of fats, as well as nutrients, are disrupted. And everyone knows what a slow metabolism leads to.

It is worth noting another drawback of nicotine: the lack of oxygen provoked by it in the tissues makes any physical exercise absolutely useless in terms of combating excess weight. So – in one fell swoop – smoking pulls out a few more bricks from the foundation called "healthy body weight."

 

5. Stress

Causes of obesity in modern man

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Stress is called a faithful companion of excess weight for a reason. A dissatisfied, depressed, grumpy person lacks serotonin – the “pleasure hormone”, which is responsible not only for the degree of satisfaction with life, but also for good sleep, social behavior, memory and many other functions of the body. Suppliers of serotonin are both pleasant events in life and food, in particular starchy foods and sweets. And by choosing the easiest way to cheer up, people “eat up” depression. However, easy does not mean correct. Starch is broken down into glucose, the level of which in the blood quickly drops, which provokes another surge of discontent and contributes to excess weight gain.

 

Experts advise fighting not the effect, but the cause: instead of artificially raising your mood, eliminate the causes of stress. And if it does occur, compensate for the situation in other ways: sleep at least 8 hours a day, walk in the sun and do more things that bring you pleasure.

Source: neboleem.net