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THE MISSING PIECES OF THE WEIGHT Loss PUZZLE THE MISSING PIECES THE WEIGHT Loss PUZZLE Overweight and obesity have serious consequences for health and ageing. The best advice for shedding kilograms includes keeping your brain in shape, maintaining optimal vitamin D levels, getting plenty of sleep and balancing your intestinal flora. Overweight: A Risk Factor in Numerous Diseases besity has gone prime time. We see evidence of its presence wherever we look: in every neighbourhood, in every mall, in every school and in every workplace. Hardly a day goes by without news reports on some aspect of the looming obesity crisis.” However, the epidemic is not confined to just the wealthy developed world. Even desperately poor countries such as Nigeria and Uganda are wrestling with the dilemma of obesity. China, which was once one of the world's leanest countries, is not immune: it has one of the fastest-growing obesity rates in the world, and one quarter of its urban youth is presently overweight.’ It is projected that by 2015, 200 million Chinese will be not just obese but morbidly obese.* The looming obesity epidemic is sending chills through the global community. Worldwide, more than 1.3 billion people are overweight, whereas only 800 million are underweight—and these statistics are diverging rapidly.” The problem of expanding waistlines is more than merely a vanity concern. There are serious health consequences from sporting that beer belly. Being overweight can radically change the course of a person's life. Fat is toxic and potentially lethal. Just carrying as few as an extra 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds) over your ideal weight is considered a serious risk factor for heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, dementia and Alzheimer's disease, liver disease, hormonal imbalances, depression and cancer. In fact, at least 30 different diseases are related to being overweight. Overweight and obesity have serious consequences for health and ageing. The best advice for shedding kilograms includes keeping your brain in shape, maintaining optimal vitamin D levels, getting plenty of sleep and balancing your intestinal flora. The Failure of Traditional Weight Loss Advice So, what's going on here? If people were to follow the advice offered by medical professionals, public health officials and experts from the weight loss industry, the problem would be easily solved. The call to action basically involves turning your back on all those sugary, high-carbohydrate, processed junk foods and switching to a low-calorie diet fortified by plenty of exercise. They say that it all boils down to a very simple equation: take in fewer calories and burn more. It sounds logical. The only problem is that this decades-old approach is a dismal failure. For the vast majority of people, it doesn't work. In fact, long- term success for attaining permanent weight loss is only achieved by a mere two to five per cent of those very determined and lucky dieters. A definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. It certainly appears that the traditional approach to winning the battle of the bulge does indeed seem insane. If there are answers and successful strategies to stem the tide of this serious health epidemic, they will need to be sought elsewhere. It's time to discover some of the missing pieces of the weight loss puzzle. by Sherrill Sellman, ND © 2011 410 W. 7th Street #1922 Tulsa, OK 74119, USA Email: drsellman@ whatwomenmustknow.com Website: http://whatwomenmustknow.com 410 W. 7th Street #1922 Tulsa, OK 74119, USA Email: drsellman@ whatwomenmustknow.com Website: JUNE - JULY 2011 NEXUS ° 17 www.nexusmagazine.com