Why are we obese?

Since obesity is a multifactorial disease, among the answers we can mention that man on his way to civilization has abandoned or reformed customs that, together with a favorable genetic base, have triggered the origin of obesity.

Food industry

Who remembers his way of eating when he was a child? Those foods definitely had a different flavor, they were made in a different way using less refined products and more attached to the concept of the natural, in addition, the land where these foods were grown was different, it had the capacity to provide a greater amount of nutrients to our diet.

Today 20 apples are needed to be able to provide the vitamins and minerals that 50 years ago only one of them provided, in those days genetically modified foods were not a reality as they are in our time.

The famous seasons of certain fruits no longer exist, today with genetic manipulation we can have mangoes all year round or any other fruit or vegetable, but with a nutritional contribution well below what is required, not to mention fertilizers and chemicals used to grow those products.

All of this has an impact on our health and participates in the development of obesity. In addition, today the food industry is dedicated to generating cheaper foods that fill us up but do not nourish us, since for a low price they can satisfy the appetite, but they are very far from providing proper nutrition. Above all, this industry invests millions of dollars in researching and manufacturing foods that are pleasant to the palate and that can be easily sold to millions of people around the world, adding a large number of chemicals that can be harmful to health in many cases.

If we realize, at no time does he mention the word healthy, since it seems that the more delicious foods are, the less healthy they are and it is understandable due to the number of chemicals that must be added to them in order to make them explode on our palate and give that sensation of satisfaction and well-being, in addition to the fact that in its preparation the sugars are increasingly refined and the fats are increasingly harmful.

We try to make up for our shortcomings.

In our country, there is a marked difference between how our parents lived, how we lived as children, and how we live now, since the deficiencies that we may have suffered as children are externalized now that we have greater purchasing power, now that we can eat and drink since we couldn't before in such a way that we eat and drink, "We indulge in eating what we couldn't before."

Difficulty preparing food.

It is also common to see that now those in charge of the home cook less and more food is consumed outside the home, perhaps as a product of this civilization where women play a preponderant role and participate more in the household economy with their work, which makes it difficult for them to be able to be in charge of his family and not to mention healthy cooking.

Children get used to eating food outside the home and the worst thing is that we change milk for sodas or sugary drinks, it is very sad to see children's bottles filled with soda and not milk, this leads to devastating nutritional consequences.

It is common to see liters and liters of soda on the table in our homes, and the famous jugs of natural water are left behind, remembering that as a species we were created to hydrate ourselves only with water.

The cultural aspect

In addition, in our culture we relate everything to food, to celebrate, to have a good time, to be together with the family, in short, we relate everything to food. Another factor, corn is predominant in our culture and I still don't understand why apart from eating foods with a very high caloric value like tamales or tortillas we still have the audacity to fry them or combine carbohydrates with more carbohydrates, in some parts of In our country, the tamale is consumed in a cake and to top it off it is combined with a drink like atole or we eat chilaquiles cakes.

What if it is not right is not selecting the right foods, prefer more vegetables to natural ones, learn to select the healthiest foods, drinking more water in short, this must be aimed at protecting our body and definitely not fighting the fact of sharing the table and food with friends and loved ones with good eating.

Obesity is a product of civilization.

Today, also as a product of that civilization that we have reached, our jobs are less and less related to physical activity, so after a long day of work sitting or making little physical effort, it is common to make our stay at work more pleasant we grab unhealthy habits like:

• Drinking a large number of sugary liquids.
• Eat candies, chocolates, chips, or any food from us or from the office neighbor.
• We get used to not having breakfast at home, eating only once a day, and ordering food in groups over the phone.
• We behave like the typical snacker who, when asked about his eating habits, always says “Dr. I don't know why I'm obese if I barely eat."

What he does not take into account is a large amount of food with a high-calorie content that he consumes routinely and without realizing it at work and since everyone does it, it is a habit that he does not see badly. To this, we add that the patient comes home late very hungry because he did not eat during the day since the junk he ate partially alleviated his hunger, but when night came he eats as if there were no tomorrow and curiously it is the patient himself who tells us “Dr. If it were up to me, I would even eat my wife” This situation is very common.

The need for satisfaction.

It is also common to eat in front of the television, what happens with this behavior? The emotion of watching a program of our choice, combined with the pleasure of eating, enhances the feeling of satisfaction and well-being. This causes the patient to concentrate on the pleasure that these behaviors cause him and tries to make this pleasant period as long as possible. In this way, they serve themselves more and more food and fill their plate as many times as necessary until they are almost bursting

This also happens because after long days of work, patients try to find a bit of well-being and pleasure that makes them forget their day and the most accessible is this combination of eating and watching television. What the patient does not realize is that we have a biological clock inside us. What this clock does is that in the final part of the day, more or less after 4 in the afternoon, it prepares our organism to rest and our body progressively decreases.

Our metabolism as the night goes on, which has the consequence that the calorie-burning process slows down and in such a way that if the food eaten is not used to generate energy, it is stored in the form of fat it is common to hear the story of our patients saying “Dr. I only eat twice a day and look how I am”.

  In these cases two phenomena occur to consider:

• The first is that eating a lot at night does not allow you to burn those excess calories.
• The second is that if a person eats only twice a day, his body gets used to it and prepares for fasting.

If we combine the effects we have that on the one hand the patient eats a lot at night and does not burn those calories and on the other hand, his body tends to store more energy in preparation for the prolonged fasting to which the patient has accustomed his body. It is for this reason that what we call night eaters are a group of patients who have very high degrees of obesity.

In summary.

In short, obesity is related to three important factors, a very generous way of eating and drinking, little to no physical activity, and finally our genetics which, as we have already mentioned, favor obesity due to the capacity we have to store fat.