Obesity is one of the biggest health challenges that our communities face. When someone is drastically overweight, they are at a higher risk of facing a multitude of other health issues alongside obesity.
We’ve known that obesity is a major health risk for years, yet the rates of occurrence for this health emergency have not gone down. Despite all of our best efforts at reducing this risk on our loved ones, we’ve made no progress.
Recently, a team of researchers has made claims that there’s a reason for this lack of progress. They state that obesity doesn’t happen because we are eating too much or not exercising enough, but that the types of foods that we put into our bodies on a daily basis are often hurting us more than helping us. This sounds overly complicated, because we’re used to thinking about a balance. If our caloric intake is equal to or less than the calories we burn, we won’t gain weight. But if we take in more than we burn off, we do.
Some scientists believe that this is a wrong way of looking at weight loss. They state that we don’t become obese because we are overeating, but rather we become obese because of a hormonal change that occurs when fat builds up.
The solution is to focus not on the amounts of food that we eat (counting calories), but rather by focusing on the types of food that we eat. Carbohydrates tend to be very filling when we eat them, but they digest quickly, leaving us feeling hungry sooner. When the number of carbs are reduced and other foods are focused on, we stay full for longer and fat does not build up because we need to eat again so quickly. It’s not quite the same as focusing on eating less, simply because there is a higher success rate behind it. When we eat less, we tend to not be able to do so for long because we get hungry and then the diet comes crashing down when we give in and eat.
They are calling this the carbohydrate-insulin model.
If you or a loved one are suffering from obesity, it’s very important to work with a doctor. And no matter how bad things might seem, there is likely a solution out there that can help you improve health. It might not be easy, but it’s possible. Having a customized plan in place can help account for your unique needs and challenges.
We can help. At Paradise In-Home Care, we are medical doctors or dieticians. However, one of the great benefits of providing in-home care is that care can be customized on a person by person basis. If that means working with another team of professionals to help with and maintain weight loss, we can do that. Services that provide care on a larger basis don’t have the freedom to customize and help on an individual basis to the same extent, giving in-home caregivers a big leg up when it comes to actually assisting the people that we work with.
If you’d like to learn more about how in-home care can help your family reach your unique set of goals, we’d love to talk more. Feel free to get in touch with a call or an email. We can set up a free consultation with you and get your entire family pointed in the right direction for a healthier, happier senior care experience.
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