Around seven million Australians are now overweight or obese. Estimates taken in the year 2000 suggest that, while more men are overweight than women (67 per cent compared to 52 per cent), obesity is more common among women (22 per cent) than men (18 per cent). The rates of overweight and obesity are rapidly increasing and it is estimated that, at the current rate of increase, about 75 per cent of the Australian population will be overweight or obese by 2020.
In the past two decades, the medical community, who earlier looked on obesity as a simple lack of personal self-control when eating, now recognises its psychological and physical consequences. To date, the medical approach has involved attempts to cure it rather than to prevent it. Draconian diets, drugs, jaw-wiring and bariatric surgery that reduces the size of the stomach or partially bypasses the intestines!
The future has to lie more in prevention. Changing mindsets and lifestyles to achieve the balance of calorie input and output that maintains a desired weight! There are no miracles. Without physical work and a healthy diet, humans will always tend to get fat, with some getting fatter than others!
Genetics and weight balance
The genes we inherit from our parents have a role in weight control, but environmental influences are also important. For our ancestors, getting fat was part of the survival instinct. We still have that instinct today. But the intensely physical life of even 100 years ago has largely been replaced with a sedentary life. The result? Obesity!
Weight gain or loss depends on the balance between energy entering the body in our food and drink, and the energy expended in mental activity, respiration, digestion, cardiovascular function, generating heat for body temperature, and physical activity.
Losing weight means either limiting food intake or increasing energy expenditure. This is not as simple as it seems, as seen in the ever-growing incidence of obesity.
Nestlé Research is looking for ways to re-establish the balance through specific foods, by appetite control, by increasing thermogenesis and regulating fat cells.
Weight management
The rise of obesity and the associated metabolic disorders, such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease, is a major public health concern all over the world. The main fear is juvenile and adolescent obesity, which has now reached epidemic proportions in all industrial countries and is fast catching up in emerging countries.
Personalised programs offer consumers weight management opportunities tailored to their specific needs. Each program seeks to promote a healthy relationship with food, an active lifestyle, and a balanced approach to living.
A complete approach to weight management
Some want to lose weight for health, others for beauty. Both go hand in hand. So why do so many of the diets proposed every year by all kinds of people, from medical doctors to celebrities, fail? Because they only concentrate on food. And often on a single component like protein, or carbohydrate or fat… or pineapple or green tea.
In reality, the situation is much more complex. People are not machines. They are free to decide what they eat and drink, when and how much. So the mind is critically important in weight management.
Behavioural researchers have studied what drives food choice. Other than taste preference, this is also a question of habits, which are socially as well as personally driven. Changing the mindset of habits is not easy.
For more information on the Optifast VLCD Patient Support Program click here.