Obesity Health

Severe obesity is a very chronic condition that is extremely hard to treat, for the person suffering from severe obesity sometimes surgery to restrict food intake and therefore aid in weight reduction is the only option left available.

How digestion works

When food moves along the digestive tract digestive juices and enzymes arrive at the right place to digest and absorb calories and nutrients. When we chew and swallow food it moves down the oesophagus to the stomach where a strong acid continues with the digestive process.

The Elderly & Diet

A sensible diet and a healthy lifestyle is beneficial to everyone but more so the elderly, maintaining a healthy lifestyle can reduce the risk of heart disease, gastrointestinal problems and help to maintain a higher quality of life.

Problems the elderly may have

There are a number of things that can have an effect on an older person’s lifestyle, such as changes in appetite. As we get older we don’t seem to feel the need to eat as much as when we were younger, or maybe through the loss of a spouse the elderly person now living alone is no longer interested in cooking for one.

Children & Healthy eating

As a parent of a child we help to teach them how to read, write, look after themselves and just about every aspect of growing up, why then do so many children become over weight or obese? Simply because we don’t teach our children proper eating habits when young and they develop bad habits when it comes to food.

One of the most important things we should teach our children is to cut down on the amount of fat we have in our diet and the simplest way to do this is to include lean meat, poultry without skin and eat foods low in fat or fat free.

Putting On Weight

There can be many factors that cause people to gain weight, sometimes it can be through medical problems and is no fault of there own, others it is simply not taking care of what they eat and eating a lot of junk foods instead of a healthy well balanced diet. There are three main factors that contribute to weight gain and these are, binge eating, medical problems and emotional eating.

Medical problems

Sometimes weight gain and obesity can be caused by an underlying medical condition, some conditions which affect the weight are

Your Diet & Food

We all know the importance of having a nutritional diet but how do we know what’s in the food we eat, how many calories are in it, what vitamins, how much protein, what is the salt content and carbohydrates?

Fortunately just about every packaged food must now contain food labels that show us the nutritional values of food. These labels provide us with the necessary information of the content and this is usually “per serving” or so many grams, but the labels are not always clear and sometimes confusing particularly for elderly people.

Obesity Health

Obesity is not just about how the person looks, it also poses more serious medical issues, any person who is 40% or more over weight is twice as likely to die earlier than a person in the recommended weight zone. Obesity has been linked to several very serious medical conditions including:

• Diseases of the gallbladder especially gallstones.

• Developing high blood pressure.

• Developing some types of cancer.

• Diabetes.

• Gout.

Weight Loss Products

Weight loss supplements or diet pills are becoming increasingly popular and promise you can lose weight almost magically by popping a pill. We all know that pills claiming to help you lose weight while you sleep or lose 10 pounds in 10 days cannot possibly work yet we spend billions each year purchasing diet pills, many of which are unregulated but promise weight loss. But is there any truth behind this, can dieting be something as simple as ordering your pills on the web?

There is no magic diet pill

Research has shown that there is no magic diet pill that can lead to quick and easy weight loss and in fact many of the “magic diet pills” on offer can have adverse affects on our health and indeed some can even be dangerous.

The Right Diet For You

There are five different food groups and to maintain a healthy diet, foods from each of these groups should be included in your diet every day in the correct proportions. It is also to your advantage to include in your diet five different portions of fruit and vegetables daily as this can help to reduce the risk of heart disease and other illnesses. The five main different food groups are as follows:

1. Bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and breakfast cereal

Foods from this category should be included in all your meals, they contain a lot of starch and are an excellent source of fibre and are rich in vitamin B complex. When choosing cereal’s try to choose those that are high in fibre.

Diet Failure

It is thought that around 70% of the female population have been or will go on a diet sometime in their lives, dieting has always been popular and there has been many different diets and diet and exercise routines throughout the years.

It seems just about every week a famous face will pop up with the next diet and fitness routine that will promise to change your life. People will try anything to shed those pounds, from popping the latest wonder pill that promises to work even as we sleep to drinking nothing but milk shakes as replacements for meals. Why then do so many of us fail when it comes to dieting?

Dieting A-Z

A glossary of weight loss, dieting and slimming terms you may encounter on this website.

Amino acids: There are 22 amino acids and these are units from which protein is formed.

Antioxidant: A substance that protects molecules from oxidation by getting oxidized itself.

Bingeing: An eating spree.

Calorie: An energy unit in food.