by M E Skeel

Created on: May 03, 2009   Last Updated: May 23, 2009

For most of our evolutionary history we lived in hunter-gatherer societies where high quality food was not always available. During times of plenty, it was a good idea to eat as much as possible, because fat had survival value, becaue its stored energy can be burned during times of starvation. Harsh winters, droughts and other natural conditions meant that there were many times when food was scarce. People with good fat reserves were more likely to survive those periods than skinny people. People didn't live long enough back then to suffer from the long-term effects of too much fat in the diet, such as diabetes and heart disease.

In modern times, most of us have enough food available all the time and most of us have much more sedentary lifestyles than the average hunter-gatherer. With stores and restaurants to provide our food, cars to move us around and jobs that involve long periods of sitting, we need far fewer calories each day to satisfy our energy needs. But the urge to eat is still there and our bodies are still programmed to store the excess food energy as fat rather than throw it away. The drought never comes and the fat is never burned, so we grow obese. The current statistics are about 30% of Americans are obese while only 14% of Canadianw with Britain in between with about 23& having a BMI or body mass index of 30 or more.

We live a lot longer now so the negative effects of obesity on the aging process are well known. As the average ofweight in a population increases, rates of diabetes, heart disease and other obesity-related illnesses also increase. The media tells us about it but it doesn't overcome the constant temptations to eat that are put in front of us and our bodies' propensity for storing the excess calories. The TV and other media constantly bombard us with ads for food. As we walk down the streets, there are dozens of restaurants, fast food outlets and coffee shops to tempt us to have another meal, another snack, another latte.

So what is the solution? It is not something that can be legislated out of existence and all the finger wagging by doctors has little effect. Each of us must find our own solutions. More exercise in our lives is probably the most important change most of us can make, as long as we don't use that as an excuse to eat more. At the same time we do have to constantly watch our diets. We have to eat less or make the foods less calorific. We have to make the effort ourselves. No one else can do it for us.

We also have to let people make their own life choices. We can point out all the evils of smoking but it is still legal for adults to smoke. It is the same with obesity. We know the risks and if we choose to continue to eat too well and not exercise enough, or we do not have the ability to stop, then we have to accept the consequences of our actions. People who, for whatever reason, remain obese, must also accept the consequences of higher insurance rates, since they will be making, on average, more use of the health systems than people who are not obese.

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