We have now reached the fourth reason that is driving obesity in the western world, which is not entirely due to the individual. I consider that the western culture corporations have designed this pattern, firstly by encouraging everyone to use a car for transportation, instead of their own feet.
Then there has been a discouragement of eating family meals at home to a faster, more convenient method of family eating that is more fun, high in fat and sugar. And finally we are dehydrating ourselves by drinking more sugary drinks, coffee and tea; instead of natural tap water; which provides better for our body than acidic sugary drinks...
These three areas all relate to the success of rich corporations, becoming richer through planned attraction of family financial spending power. The fourth reason is more to do with pressure on the family unit, which has caused family dynamics to change and therefore sustains the family’s needs in the first three planned directives.
Driving anywhere in a car, fast food sites are located everywhere. It is impossible not to see them when you are driving. It means that families are under pressure from children, to visit them for immediate drinks or snacks. This pressure on the fun side of eating; detracts from the education to children about healthy eating and reinforces fast food eating, along with sugary drinks as the norm in healthy sustenance.
Structural changes or breaks in the family, cause pressures to provide more treats to children, which then become a repeated part of a normal lifestyle. The repetition in this style of living will continue to drive the growth in obesity, due to the revolving cyclical pattern generated through driving a car.
It is very difficult to break this pattern, without removing the first reason, which is the use of a car. If the car is removed, then a new direction can be created with a whole new formula for family meals. But these fixed patterns remain secure, when the car continues to be used and visual exposure to fast food outlets is reinforced.
Much of the changes in family dynamics are due to parental pressures of working long hours; along with the added burden of financial pressures to sustain the family lifestyle. The family stress can create fracturing of the family unit that will continue to depend on the first three sins for sustaining the emotional balance of the family unit.
As you can see from the way these sins are laid out, your lifestyle is not easy to change; with corporations making certain that you will visually see what they are offering and therefore will succumb to their continual advertising of special offers.
The author Gail McGonigal is an Occupational Therapist by profession, who has her own internet company called Active Living Solutions Ltd. Her company’s focus is on people with aches and pains in their joints, largely due to obesity for achieving an active and comfortable lifestyle using her products. Gail has the professional knowledge and experience, but also the personal experience of erasing scoliosis in her back and wants to help you resolve your back problems, through selling much larger ergonomic chairs for comfortable sitting: http://www.activelivingsolutions.net/big-and-tall-chairs.html Gail has also cured severe osteoarthritis in her hands by drinking alkaline water as part of her everyday lifestyle: http://www.activelivingsolutions.net/healing-water and also reducing to her fears of becoming much heavier . She now lives a productive quality of life in Vancouver, riding her bicycle and building on her active living website. Her goal is to help people that are overweight not to focus on food that creates a negative spiral in obesity; but to learn an active lifestyle leading to a better quality of life, without the focus on food.