We are living in a society that promotes overweight, if not obesity. As a baby, you are stuffed, and your parents want you to look plump, so you would look cute. As a child, you are told to clean up your plate, so as not to waste your food. Often times, you parents bribe you with a candy, so you would behave yourself. When you are a guest in someone's house for dinner, you never turn down a desert, so you would look appreciative of hospitality. As an adult, you are bombarded with coupons for cheap junk food. As an American, you are pressurized into taking the Standard American Diet (SAD). Twenty years ago, the average American consumed less than 2,000 calories a day, but today the average calorie consumption has increased by a staggering 60 percent. The typical Standard American Diet (SAD) is loaded with fat - unhealthy saturated and hydrogenated fats. A typical fast-food burger has over 500 calories and over 30 grams of saturated fat. Even the healthy-looking salads touted as health food in some fast-food restaurants are nothing short of calories and fat: with the dressing, some even exceed those of a burger. Everyday about one quarter of the U.S. population eats fast food. If you are one of them, it is not surprising that you are overweight.

You are meant to be overweight! Society and culture want you to be overweight!

However, you may not want to be overweight. You want to be thin, and you "think" thin. You may start eating calorie-deficient foods - which means you are literally starving yourself. In addition, out of convenience, you may start eating processed foods, which are not living foods, only fortified with synthetic vitamins and minerals to make them qualified as foods. Gradually, your body becomes nutrient-deficient. Wanting to get rid of those extra pounds, you may turn to a diet with diuretics that helps you lose water (not your fat), and worse, even your much needed minerals. Slowly and imperceptibly, your body metabolism becomes impaired, in particular your liver and kidneys, which process your body's fat intake. With damaged body metabolism, you body weight fluctuates. You gain weight despite eating less. You become frustrated and emotionally upset, and you may embark on an eating binge, developing eating disorders. Or you may try one fad diet after another until your whole system gets completely out of whack. You become overweight. Maybe you are meant to be fat!

You may resort to professionals to help you deal with your overweight problems. Nutritionists may give you misinformation about what you should or should not eat. Remember, their education is from grants funded by the food and diet industry. For example, a recent research study on the health benefits of chocolate was funded by a chocolate manufacturer. You just wonder how reliable or impartial the research findings were.

You are meant to be fat! Maybe it is in your genes. You start pointing finger at your parents. But genes are no more than bad eating habits from your parents. Your genes don't make you overweight: your genes simply direct where your fat goes. Both fat and thin people have fat cells in their bodies. Body fat is a source of energy for your body. It is how you utilize your fat that determines if you will eventually become overweight.

In summary, society, culture, calories, genes, and fat cells do not make you fat. It is what you do with these factors that make you become overweight; it is all in YOU - you are meant to be fat!

Copyright (c) 2009 Stephen Lau