Obesity is Genetic

Obesity is Genetic

Is obesity nature or nurture?

Many people will tell you that because their parents were obese and their grandfather was obese that it must have been genetics from your grandfather‘s side of the family.

Maybe.

There have been studies that have demonstrated that if one parent was obese their children are more likely to be obese than if neither parent was obese.

If both parents are obese then the chances of the children being obese is greater still.

If we take a good look at our children and their development we can see that they model themselves on our example. If we have poor eating habits then they will have poor eating habits as well.

Because we have a rising rate of obesity in adults and even worse in children and adolescents then it cannot be genetic.

Over the years, takeaway food has become the norm.

In supermarkets convenience foods and highly refined foods now dominate our supermarkets.

People walk less and drive more.

In our homes we have all the modern conveniences of technology.

There is a decrease in the number of kids participating in children’s sport.

In fact over time we eat more, snack more, move less and watch more TV and are on our technology more than ever before.

There is no way obesity can be put down to genetics.

It’s has to be nurture.

How do we undo this?

It’s not easy. It takes discipline, courage and commitment and a need and willingness to change habits.

The longer we have had a habit the longer it takes to undo that habit.

We need to develop a healthy mindset which means education as well as discipline.

We need to move more and sit less.

We need to choose better foods.

We need to snack less.

We need to remove snacks from the house.

It can be done but we need to remove the lifestyle factors that are creating the problem and unfortunately those lifestyle factors have become addictive.

We have watches that count our steps and apps to calculate everything but we are heading in the wrong direction.

The change is a decision that only you can make and it has to have meaning. It has to have feeling behind it.

Obesity is not genetic. It’s nurture and we are being nurtured to death.