We have now reached the fourth reason that is driving obesity in the western culture, 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 towards 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 healthy fluid 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 related to pressure on the family unit, which may cause family dynamics to crack or splinter and therefore sustains the family's needs in the first three planned directives.
Driving anywhere in a car, fast food sites are viewed everywhere. It is impossible not to see them, when you are driving. It means that families are under pressure from children, to visit fast food sites for immediate drinks or snacks. This pressure on the fun side of eating; detracts from the education of children about healthy eating and reinforces fast food consumption, along with sugary drinks as the norm in healthy survival.
Structural changes or breaks in the family, cause pressures to provide more treats to children, which then become a repeated pattern 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, for sustaining the family lifestyle. Cracks in family units, are usually related to economic family pressures; which will continue to increase, as stress builds in repeating the first three sins that sustains the emotional balance of the family unit.
As you can see from the laying out of these sins, it is not easy to fight obesity ; when corporations making certain that you will visually see what they are offering and therefore you and your family will succumb to their continual visual advertising of special attractive 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.