Two out of three Americans are either obese or overweight. More than 100,000 people die each year due to obesity related diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Obesity induced conditions cost the U.S. some $150 billion in health care expenses annually and these costs are bound to increase. An obese adult represents $1,400 more in annual additional health care expenses compared with healthier peers.

It’s not just adults who are suffering. Alarmingly, one-third of all American children between the ages of two and 19 are now either obese or overweight. This puts them at a higher risk of serious diseases that can impair their way of life or worse, cut their lives short.

Dr. Joseph Mercola believes that the very future of the developing world is at stake as a result of the exploding problem of obesity. He’s so concerned about this development that he co-wrote a book with Dr. Ben Lerner called Generation XL: Raising Healthy, Intelligent Kids in a High-Tech, Junk-Food World.

If the obesity epidemic is not reversed, we may see children living shorter lives than their parents, Dr. Mercola warns. He is determined to help turn this deadly trend around and shares seven steps you can take to help your child beat obesity:

1. Drink pure water instead of sugary juices and soft drinks.
   Kids can easily reduce the amount of sugar they consume if you don’t give them soda and juice due to the high amount of high fructose corn syrup in these drinks.. This step alone can have a dramatic effect on your child’s health and weight, since each can or bottle of soda or sugar-sweetened beverage consumed increases  obesity risk by 60 percent.
2. Learn your child’s Nutritional Type to plan meals accordingly.
   Encourage children to eat healthy, nutritious foods. Focus on fresh whole foods, preferably organic whenever possible, and avoid processed foods.
   Any meal or snack high in carbohydrates or sugars results in a rapid spike in your child’s blood glucose level. To compensate for this spike, the pancreas secretes insulin into their bloodstream, which lowers your child’s sugar level.
   Insulin is responsible for an overweight child’s bulging tummy and fat rolls. High insulin levels also suppress glucagons and growth hormones, which burn fat and sugar and promote muscle development.
3. Limit or eliminate TV time.
   A surprising 90 percent of American children under age 2 and almost 40 percent of babies under 3 months old watch TV regularly. This is because more than half of children have a television in their bedroom. Each week, a typical child watches about 38 hours of commercial media.
   Too much TV not only encourages inactivity, it also exposes children to commercials promoting junk food and fast food. A study published in the The Journal of Law and Economics suggests that banning fast food advertisements in the U.S. could reduce the number of overweight children. Eliminating the tax deductibility of TV advertising would also reduce the incidence of childhood obesity.
4. Lead by example.
   Seek to maintain a healthy body weight for yourself and your spouse. Avoid eating fast food. Cook healthy meals and set regular family mealtimes. Your efforts to keep your child away from fast food and junk food advertisements will amount to nothing if you don’t prepare healthy meals for the family.
   Studies show that families who eat together have better overall nutrition. Ask your children to help in meal preparation. Doing so will increase the likelihood for them   to eat the healthy foods you’re serving.
5. Increase exercise time.
   Exercise is extremely important for all children, Dr. Mercola stresses. An obese or overweight child needs at least 30 minutes of exercise a day. Major studies suggest that it is best for kids to get an hour of exercise daily.
   Start exercising as a family. Take daily walks, gradually increasing the intensity to include jogging. You can also implement a rule that allows your child one minute of video (TV or game) time for every minute of exercise.
6. Address emotional eating.
   Emotions play a huge part in childhood obesity. Emotional eating often thwarts weight loss efforts. If your child has a hard time giving up junk food, this is where Meridian Tapping Technique/Emotional Freedom Technique (MTT/EFT) can help. MTT/EFT can be very useful in addressing not only food cravings, but also the underlying emotional challenges – such as low self-esteem – that can lead your child to eat unhealthy foods or overeat.
7. Make sure your child is getting enough sleep.
   A recent study revealed that the risk of obesity increases when one sleeps less than six-and-a-half hours a night. So be sure your child is going to bed in plenty of time to get enough rest.

However, eating is not something that should be rushed because it leads to stressful, unhealthy living.

Nutrition and fitness expert Marc David, founder and director of the Institute for the Psychology of Eating, points out that Americans tend to eat under a state of stress and anxiety. You could be eating the healthiest food available but you won’t necessarily be digesting and assimilating it properly because eating under stress puts your body in the opposite condition of where it should be in order to digest and assimilate food.

Eating under stress causes dramatic changes in your body’s metabolism, including:

• Slower nutrient absorption
• Excretion of nutrients, particularly water soluble vitamins, macrominerals and microminerals
• Spike in blood cholesterol
• Increased food sensitivity
• Decreased gut flora population
• Heartburn
• Increase in cortisol and insulin

The hormones cortisol and insulin track each other. When cortisol increases, insulin decreases. The two hormones signal your body to store fat and stop building muscle, effectively causing weight gain.

The simple act of taking time to eat a meal can have a profound effect on your health. Here are the reasons why you should start eating slower:

1. Weight loss – It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to realize that your stomach is full. David explains that if you eat too fast, your brain will often interpret that missed experience of nuances and pleasure in taste and aroma as hunger, which will lead to you eating more. If you eat a big meal but don’t pay attention to it and just devour it, you’ll notice that your belly feels full but your mouth still feels hungry. Eating slowly will give you time to realize that you’re full and signal you to stop on time.
2. Relaxation – Ever wonder why Europeans, who consume more wine and fat in their diet, manage to stay slimmer than Americans? That’s because they take their time while eating and treat meals as a celebration. They shut down work and take two-hour lunches. Eating with friends and family helps lower stress and allows people to relax and enjoy food as a gastronomic pleasure.
3. Better digestion – Digestion starts in your mouth; the more work you do there, the less work your stomach has to put in to effectively digest your food. Eating slower means chewing your food properly, which helps you break down your food better.
4. Breaking free from the fast food culture and fast-paced lifestyle – Americans are crazy about all things fast – fast cars, fast computers, fast mobile phones, and fast food, which unfortunately, is a fast route towards obesity. Break free from the on-the-go lifestyle that is dehumanizing America, making people unhealthy, stressed out and unhappy. You deserve better.

Eating is not just something to do but something to experience. The simple act of eating slower will lead to a healthier and happier you.

You’re leading a sedentary lifestyle if you’re being a couch potato or remaining inactive most of the time with little or no exercise.

A new study featured in Clinical Cardiology showed that morbidly obese individuals (those with body mass indexes between 40 and 49.9) were sedentary for more than 99 percent of the day. They also walked less than 2,500 steps daily, way below the recommended 10,000 steps for healthy living.

A precise body sensor was attached to the participants and was used to measure physical activity, caloric expenditure and minute-by-minute movement over a 72-hour period within their homes.

After the data was collected, a structured cardiorespiratory fitness testing was performed on each subject and most of the morbidly obese participants in the study were markedly sedentary. They spend 23 hours and 51.6 minutes on average per day sleeping or engaged in sedentary activity and the remaining 8.4 minutes were spent in moderate activity.

These findings aren’t really surprising. For the longest time, Americans have been eating much of the same stuff everyday – processed foods and fast foods – but have been doing very little exercise to burn those unwanted calories.

Modern living has contributed to sedentary lifestyle obesity. The satellite TV and remote control, the car wash, the dishwasher, Internet, etc rob you of the time you could have spent on physical activity and contribute to your risk of obesity.

For the record, obesity has been linked to five of the top 10 diseases with the highest mortality rates:

• cardiovascular disease
• stroke
• diabetes
• hypertension, and
• cancer

You don’t necessarily need to join a gym or engage in vigorous physical activity to start burning some calories. You can start by doing non-exercise activities like folding laundry, washing the dishes, mowing the lawn or taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

Light amounts of physical activity and exercise may yield significant health benefits. Over time, as you increase your amounts of light physical activity, you will also increase your aerobic capacity and ultimately, reduce mortality.

Whichever way you look at it, there’s no reason not to move around, sweat it out and exercise. Your body is designed for movement. Unlike a car, the more you move, the healthier your body gets.

When you move your muscles, ligaments and limbs, you’re actually massaging your tissues and organs, bringing them oxygen and nutrients and enhancing their flexibility. You also move lymph fluid around your body (you can’t pump your lymph fluid if you don’t move).

Exercise also makes you sweat and flush out the toxins in your body and encourages you to replace the lost fluid by drinking pure water. Outdoor physical activities also provide you with the benefits of sunlight and vitamin D, a very important nutrient which most Americans are deficient in.

There are a lot of factors that contribute to the obesity epidemic but you always have a choice. Don’t be a victim of the sedentary lifestyle disease. It’s not too late to take control of your health.

Let’s face it: carbonated drinks are everywhere. Coke and Pepsi are not shy when it comes to flooding your television with advertisements. Ginger Ale, A&W’s root beer, Mountain Dew, Sprite, Dr. Pepper’s and the list goes on – they’re all over the supermarket in bottles and cans and are in vending machines and fast foods! In the year 2000 alone, 15 billion gallons of carbonated drinks were sold in the United States – that’s about one 12-ounce serving for every man, woman and child.

It’s not the first time you’ll be reading or hearing this but soda is one of the worst beverages you can consume. You’ll probably agree that soda doesn’t really satisfy your thirst but you’ll drink it anyway. Soda addiction is a habit that’s hard to kick. But what are the dangers of soda to your health?

Here are 10 diseases linked to too much soda consumption:

1. Obesity – Many people put on extra pounds in a hurry because they often don’t keep track of how many calories they consume when they drink soda. If you drink a 330 ml can of soda per day, you’ll gain a pound of extra weight every month. Studies show that for every additional soda consumed, you increase your risk of obesity by 1.6 times.
2. Diabetes – Not only does soda make you fat, it also inhibits your body’s ability to process sugar, increasing your risk of diabetes. Some scientists believe that the soda addiction has TRIPLED the number of Americans suffering from type 2 diabetes.
3. Heart disease – Soda addicts are more likely to develop risk factors for heart disease because research shows that drinking more than one soft drink per day may increase your risk of developing the metabolic syndrome, a group of symptoms including central obesity, elevated blood pressure, elevated fasting blood sugar, elevated fasting triglycerides, and low levels of high-density lipoprotein. Your risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes increases when you have three or more of these symptoms.
4. Liver damage – It’s not just alcohol that’s bad for your liver. You also increase your risk of liver cirrhosis by drinking too much soft drinks.
5. Kidney damage – All carbonated drinks contain high amounts of phosphoric acid, which is known to cause kidney stones. You increase your risk of developing kidney stones if you drink around three 12-ounce cans of soda per week. A new study featured in Epidemiology also reported that drinking two or more colas per day doubles your risk of chronic liver disease.
6. Osteoporosis and weak bones – Phosphoric acid is also linked to osteoporosis or the weakening of the skeletal structure because it may lower calcium levels and increase phosphate levels in the blood. When phosphate levels are high and calcium levels are low, your bones are depleted of calcium. (Coca-Cola and Pepsi contain virtually no calcium and are high in phosphate) High soda consumption in children is also linked to impaired calcification of growing bones.
7. Hypertension – Studies suggest that soda, whether it’s regular or diet, leads to an increase in blood pressure, and that black teenagers who consume soft drinks are particularly at risk from hypertension.
8. Digestion problems – If you drink sodas, especially on an empty stomach, you can upset the fragile acid-alkaline balance of your digestive system, creating a continuous acid environment which can lead to inflammation of your stomach and duodenal lining and gastrointestinal distress.
9. Tooth decay – Did you know that the acidity of soda is more harmful to your teeth than the sugar found in candy? Because soda eats up your tooth enamel, soft drinks are tagged as the culprit in increasing the incidence of tooth decay.
10. Heartburn and acid reflux – Drinking too much soda can cause heartburn because carbonated beverages are very acidic and deliver a lot of air in the form of carbon dioxide.

Besides these 10 diseases, numerous studies have also linked sugar and the increased rates of cancer. Soda contains high amounts of high fructose corn syrup, which is basically sugar from corn.

How to kick that soda addiction out of your system

Reducing or eliminating sugar intake is one of the best things you can do for your health because it will normalize your insulin levels and reduce your risk of cancer and other diseases. Getting rid of your soda habit will be a giant step towards that direction.

• Decide to stop drinking soda – First things first: you have to decide to give soda up. It will take a strong commitment on your part to make it happen but it’s not impossible.

• Use Emotional Freedom Techniques to resolve and determine issues related to the soda addiction – Click here to learn about Turbo Tapping and deal with your soda habit.

• Drink water – As I’ve said in my last post, nothing beats water. Gradually decrease the number of carbonated drinks you take each day, replacing them with water as you work towards your goal of completely kicking the soda habit. Have patience. It may take weeks, months or even a year or two to truly forget the craving. Water may be boring for you at first if you’re really big on carbonated drinks but you can make your water more exciting by adding non-caloric flavors like a sprig of mint, a slice of lemon or a frozen strawberry.

Let me give you some facts about children and the boobtube:

• A surprising 90 percent of American children under age 2 and almost 40 percent of babies under 3 months old watch TV REGULARLY.
• Each week, the typical American child gets almost 38 hours (or a full work week) of commercial media
• More than half of American children have a television in their bedroom

Studies reveal strong links between having a TV in the bedroom and numerous health and educational concerns, including:

• Lower scores on school tests
• Sleeping problems
• Eyesight damage
• Hormone disturbances
• Early puberty
• Decreased attention span
• Increased risk of smoking, and
• Obesity

Let’s look at the problem of childhood obesity.

In the past 25 years, the childhood obesity rate has more than doubled. Now, about 30 percent of children in the U.S. are overweight, with the incidence of childhood diabetes also increasing 10-fold in the last 20 years.

According to a new study published last month in The Journal of Law and Economics, banning fast food advertisements in the United States could reduce the number of overweight children, and eliminating the tax deductibility of TV advertising would also reduce the incidence of childhood obesity.

Shin-Yi Chou, Inas Rashad and Michael Grossman, the authors, found that a ban on fast food advertisements on TV during children’s programming would reduce the number of overweight children ages 3-11 by as much as 18 percent, and would lower the number of overweight adolescents ages 12-18 by 14 percent.

Research shows that there is an 80 percent chance that an overweight adolescent will grow up as an obese adult. Over 300,000 deaths have been attributed to obesity and weight problems in the U.S. annually.

Another study, published in the Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, found that a child with a TV in the bedroom will increase his/her viewing time by nine hours per week!

Of course, the additional time spent watching TV or playing videogames will lessen the time the child spends doing outdoor activities and pursuing more active forms of recreation, leading to detrimental effects on his/her weight and overall health.

The researchers placed monitoring devices on the TVs to reduce the children’s viewing time by half (by not allowing the TV to turn on once the quota was reached) and discovered that:

• Their relative body mass index dropped and,
• They ate less snacks (consuming more than 100 calories less per day)

Now that you are aware of this threat to your child’s health, what can you do about it?

Take Back the Remote Control and Take Control of Your Child’s Health!

European Union members Sweden, Norway and Finland are the only countries to have banned commercial sponsorship of children’s programs so far. There are no indications that the U.S. will follow suit, not when hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising money are at stake.

While the statistics are quite alarming, the good news is that your child’s health is in your hands!

You are the parent and your kids will follow your lead. This is why it is absolutely crucial for you to introduce them to a healthy lifestyle.

You can start by following these simple but effective tips that will immediately have an impact on your children’s minds and bodies:

• Limit or eliminate TV time – Easier said than done but decreasing your children’s viewing time will not only keep them away from all those fast food and junk food commercials; it will also encourage them to increase their activity level and take on more intellectual pursuits.
• Prepare healthy meals and set family mealtimes – Keeping them away from fast food and junk food advertisements will mean nothing if you don’t prepare healthy meals for the family. Studies show that families who eat together have better overall nutrition. Let your children help in meal preparation as this makes them more likely to eat the healthy foods you’re serving.
• Increase exercise! Exercise as a family. Take walks, play games in the backyard, or introduce your children into sports. Set aside time each day for you to sweat it out with your kids.
• Stop drinking soda! Just remember this – each can or bottle of soda you consume increases your obesity risk by 60 percent! It’s easy to cut down your children’s sugar intake. Give them water and limit the amount of soft drinks and juice they drink.
• Teach your child healthy shopping habits – The unhealthiest foods in the supermarket are usually found in the aisles, so stay clear from those areas and grab most of your groceries around the perimeter, until such a time when you’re ready to switch to organic food.