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news
L.B.
fights obesity
By Todd A. Leland
Special to the On-line Forty-Niner
Karen Haney has
a problem that she shares with millions of Americans. Unlike
many others who share her plight, Haney, 34, of Long Beach,
has decided to fight her weight problem and has been winning.
The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases, a branch of the National Institute of Health, estimates
that approximately 58 million American adults 20 to 74 years
old are overweight or obese and the number is rising.
NIH studies show that the average weight of an American age
25 to 30 in 1992-1993 was 171 pounds. While in 1985-1986 the
average weight for the same age group was 161 pounds. The
figures display an alarming trend in the weight of young Americans.
"I weighed over 350 pounds," said Haney. "My
diet was atrocious and I did nothing that could be categorized
as exercise to balance out what I was eating."
Haney was caught up in what the World Health Organization
has termed the "epidemic of inactivity." According
to WHO, 2 million deaths per year are attributed to physical
inactivity.
"The habit of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, including
regular exercise and a nutritious diet ideally begins in childhood
and we hope parents and schools everywhere will use this day
(World Health Day) to spread this message," said Dr.
Gro Harlem Brundtland, WHO's director-general, speaking about
World Health Day April 7.
WHO has taken notice of the serious problems that excess weight
and inactivity cause. Others have also taken notice of the
epidemic and are lobbying for action.
"Our growing waistlines come with a growing cost to our
health. It's estimated that obesity-related diseases cost
Americans nearly $100 billion annually," said Pat Kendall,
Ph.D, R.D., a food science and human nutrition specialist
at Colorado State University. "After smoking, obesity
and overweight comprise the second most preventable cause
of death in the United States."
According to NIH statistics, Americans are responding to calls
to control their weight. At any given time 20 to 24 percent
of American men are trying to lose weight, while 35 to 40
percent of American women are attempting the same.
"I couldn't stay at the weight I was at any longer,"
said Haney about her weight loss. "I felt horrible, physically
and mentally. I always said I'd lose the weight or try to,
but it never lasted. A drastic change in my life allowed me
to focus on my weight problem and that's when I started to
see results."
Haney applied her focus and began a weight loss plan that
was effective, healthy and cost effective.
The NIH estimates Americans spend $33 billion a year on weight
reduction products and services, including diet foods, products
and programs. Haney said her program was simple and oddly
enough cost effective. She balanced her diet according to
her caloric output and started to exercise regularly.
"Most of the expenditures came from the gym membership
and the physical trainer," said Haney. "I needed
someone to show me the best ways to exercise and also help
motivate me to accomplish those exercises."
Haney said her primary reason for losing the weight was her
long-term health. Obesity and being overweight have been associated
with many of the leading diseases and causes of death in the
United States.
"Diabetes is the disease most closely linked to being
overweight," Kendall said.
Since 1990, Type 2 diabetes has jumped by 33 percent nationwide,
he said. Further, a growing number of persons with Type 2
diabetes are adolescents, a disease formerly seen mostly in
overweight adults.
Other diseases associated with too much weight include high
blood pressure, various heart diseases and conditions, stroke,
gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, respiratory
problems, and certain cancers Kendall said.
These diseases and conditions are also related to and causes
of five of the top 10 causes of death in the city of Long
Beach. A study by the Long Beach Health Services Department
in 1996 showed heart disease, cancer, stroke, pulmonary diseases
and diabetes as five of the 10 leading causes of death throughout
Long Beach in that year.
The NIH estimates that 70 percent of cardiovascular disease
cases are related to obesity and being overweight. While the
organization also feels individuals who are obese or overweight
are twice as likely to develop high blood pressure.
"With so much riding on your health, I think the hardest
part about losing weight is trying to find a program or plan
that will work safely and effectively for you," said
Haney.
No group is more critical on the type of diet one must use
to effectively and safely lose weight than doctors themselves.
Dr. Dean Ornish, an internist at UC San Francisco, is a strong
proponent of the government food guide pyramid. While Dr.
Robert Atkins, of the famous Atkins Diet, feels "pushing
the food pyramid is a major error."
Atkins' diet calls for the formulaic restriction of carbohydrates,
the body's preferred energy source, thereby enabling the body
to devour its fat stores to produce energy and in turn lose
weight. The government food guide pyramid preferred by Ornish
is a guide that helps individuals incorporate all foods into
a balanced and nutritional diet.
The medium to this debate was brought forth by another doctor.
"Any diet that restricts calories will result in weight
loss regardless of what foods are consumed," said Dr.
Eileen Kennedy, a U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher.
When it comes down to it, the problem of obesity and being
overweight is in the mathematics of calories. A calorie, according
to the New Merriam Webster Dictionary is "a unit for
measuring heat." The human body runs on the intake and
expenditure of this unit of measure. A person must eat to
gain a pound or burn to lose a pound an extra 3,500 calories
says the NIH.
"It's not a mystery. People are eating more fat, more
calories and more sugar, and exercising less," Ornish
said.
Obesity and being overweight in America has skyrocketed because
Americans use an unbalanced equation when it comes to calories.
"As long as Americans continue to value the quantity
of food they can receive for their food dollar over its healthfulness
when they eat out and at home, we will continue to see a steady
increase in the level of obesity and obesity-related health
problems in this country," argued Rick Riess, director
of behavioral medicine with Health Management Resources Corporation
in Boston, MA to Kendall.
Karen Haney has lost well over 150 pounds in the last two
years. She attributes her success to a steady and nutritious
diet complemented by an escape from previous inactivity.
"Exercise has been the key. Sometimes I don't feel like
it, but I know it is the only true solution to keeping the
weight off," said Haney. "I eat right most of the
time and when I don't I go out and exercise just a bit more.
In the end it all balances out for me."
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