by Carolina Dream Chapman

Created on: March 10, 2007   Last Updated: November 18, 2008

Overweight in America

There are many reasons why Americans are overweight. Our food portions have grown to immense sizes, causing the general public to consume more calories on a daily basis than we really need to be consuming.

Lack of Physical Activity

Lack of physical labor causes a person to become sedentary. Everything is convenient in today's world. We have dishwashers, washing machines, and clothes dryers; it seems we have a machine for just about anything we want to do. Those machines use electric energy; therefore, we do not have to burn calories or exert energy in order to get our chores done.

Sedentary Entertainment

Entertainment, we have television, computers, video games etc.... These things keep us entertained without the use of physical energy. Physical energy burns calories yet we do not use our physical energy.

Fast Food

We have become a junk food/fast food generation. There is no preparation involved in fixing a meal today. In addition, the food choices out there that are so simple to heat & eat or open and eat or drive thru and eat are loaded with excess calories, sugar and fat.

Becoming Healthy in America

Just as there are specific reasons many Americans have become overweight there are also some very easy changes we can take in order to gain our figures and our health back.

Learn Portion Sizes

It would amaze most people to realize normal portion sizes are for most foods. Most often, we go to a restaurant and assume the serving they serve us is a normal serving. Many times we slip into thinking the bigger the serving the better.

However, just because we have become used to eating more does not mean its right. A general rule of thumb is a deck of cards or the size of your palm is a normal size for one serving of meat. Two dice equals one serving of cheese.

Learning portion sizes is not difficult but it will take some time to get used to new serving sizes. As a rule when going out to eat it is best to assume you are being served enough for two servings.

Read Labels

By reading labels on food before purchasing it, you will be able to make better quality choices for yourself and your family. Watch out for and avoid foods that have added sugar, saturated fats, trans fats, partially or fully hydrogenated oils.

When possible it is best to buy the reduced fat versions of your favorite foods. Reduced fat versions generally taste the same as their higher fat versions without the added fat. Whereas, fat free versions many times are not as palatable.

Fruits and Veggies

Some

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