5. Learn the latest in nutrition.
The percentage of overweight Americans has more than doubled over the past century and has continued to rise, accompanied by similar rises in incidence of disease. Culprits include our sedentary lifestyle, high stress levels, large food portions, and our evolutionary propensity to eat (and store) extra food in times of plenty just in case lean times are around the corner.
But nutritionists increasingly suspect that processed foods are the biggest contributor to our health issues. Consumption of saturated fat has actually decreased during this period of extreme weight gain, while consumption of processed foods has increased dramatically. Designed to last during long periods of storage and shipping, and with taste rather than nutrition in mind, foods with hydrogenated oils, preservatives, corn syrup and carbohydrates stripped of their nutrients are simply bad for our bodies. They create chronic disease as we get older. But they start, even in childhood, by causing inflammation and making us fat.