A First for Mankind

And no, it’s not good news: For the first time in history, the next generation will not live longer, or even as long, as their parents (and they won’t do as well in school, either). Diseases such as Type II diabetes, high blood pressure, heart conditions and joint deterioration–things that were once considered ‘adult’ diseases–are regularly being diagnosed in children, due to the prevalence of obesity. And researchers suspect that a lot of the obesity in kids has to do with early traumas.

Researcher Jessica Bartfield says, "What is particularly tragic is that studies have suggested that obesity in children today may contribute to a 2-5 year decline in their life expectancy, shorter than that of their parents, due to obesity related diseases that are largely preventable. If one parent is obese, a child has a 50% likelihood of being obese, and if both parents are obese, that skyrockets to 80%." To understand what an amazing change this is, here’s a fact for you: Life expectancy was probably the same for early modern and late archaic humans and did not factor in the extinction of Neanderthals.

Scientific studies often attribute obesity to poor nutrition and lack of activity, but recent research has identified childhood traumatic stress as a potential risk factor for obesity in adulthood. During a series of interviews with overweight women, psychologist Eric A. Dedert found nearly half of them reported exposure to childhood physical and/or sexual abuse. Almost 80% of the women had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression or both, which suggests that that how a person reacts to trauma can influence adult weight.

Is it too late for you (and your kids) to make the transformation from obese to svelte? If YOUR family is overweight, you need to download Anne Strieber’s famous diet book, "What I Learned From the Fat Years." Using scientific principles, she devised a diet that helped her to lose 100 pounds and YOU CAN TOO.