How to control your body weight

It is always amusing to look at photos from the 1980s or earlier to see just how clothing, hairstyles, or even the design of cars has changed over the years. But what is less fun is seeing just how much slimmer people were back then! The phenomena of overweight and obesity, at one time quite rare, have increased considerably over the last 25 years, such that today two-thirds of Western populations are overweight.

Excess weight and obesity associated with excessive consumption of calories best illustrate the dangers of today's mass-produced diet. We still dwell too often on the external aspects of fat gain and fail to take into account the number of works or articles discussing the physical or psychological aspects related to excess weight. However, scientific data gathered over the last few years about the consequences of excess fat on how the body functions show it is high time we became concerned about the internal effects and their repercussions on health.

Overweight is a major factor in the onset of all chronic diseases affecting the population: Type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, many types of cancer, and Alzheimer’s. Like quitting smoking, the maintenance of a normal body weight (a BMI of about 23) should be a key objective in chronic disease prevention.

Learn how to calculate your BMI here!

What is adipose mass?
Adipose mass is not something inert or static, just serving to accumulate surplus energy from food; it is, on the contrary, a very dynamic organ, a gland secreting significant amounts of hormones and inflammatory molecules that influence how all body organs function.

Just as we would be concerned (with good reason) about the appearance of a growth on any part of our body, the excessive growth of adipose mass must be seen as a visible manifestation of profound changes in the equilibrium of our vital functions. It is a sign of major metabolic upheaval with many ramifications for the development of different diseases.

Page 1 of 2 - find out how to fight obesity on page 2!

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Excerpted from Eating Well, Living Well Copyright © 2009 by Richard Béliveau, Ph.D., and Denis Gingras, Ph.D. Translated by Valentina Baslyk.

Excerpted by permission of McClelland & Stewart. All rights reserved.