‘Social globalisation’ and the cheap abundance of cooking oil, say two studies, are what contributes to obesity around the world, with over 50% of the world’s population is not of a ‘healthy weight’ with researchers saying there is a need for people to move more and eat less.
A study by the London School of Economics of 26 countries between 1989 and 2005 when globalisation dramatically expanded showed that ‘social globalisation’, or changes in the way we work and live, was what was making us fat, rather than the wider availability of cheaper and more calorific foods driven by global trade. The fact that we are now increasingly able to work, shop and socialise whilst barely moving a muscle is to blame, says study author Dr Joan Costa-Font.
“Our food intake is driven towards meeting the needs of a world, where people would have to walk to places, where there would not be as many energy-saving activities as today. Individuals would have closer personal social contacts, and would cook and spend more time on daily chores,” he told the BBC.
And a recent report on food production shows that worldwide obesity has more than doubled since 1980. Professor Tim Benton, a strategic research dean at the University of Leeds specialising in food security and sustainability, says cooking oils are now so abundantly and cheaply available that most of us use it liberally in our cooking and it is also an ingredient in most of the items we buy from the supermarket.
Eat less, or eat properly, and exercise more. That seems to be the obvious cure but it is not that easy to achieve and the world we live in seems obsessed with diets, get-fit plans, body shape and fashion.
But clinical hypnotherapy can help many people overcome these fixations and fads and is an evidence-based therapy with over 70,000 research references worldwide and, says the UK’s National Council for Hypnotherapy, managing weight loss is one of the most effective results of hypnotherapy.
“Losing weight with hypnosis is essentially about teaching you to feel good about yourself, whatever size you are. It focuses on making healthy changes to your diet and lifestyle that will remain with you for the rest of your life,” says the NCH, adding that hypnotherapy for weight loss is about changing your habit with food for the rest of your life.
“When you see a hypnotherapist for weight loss they will ask you lots of questions about when you eat, what you eat, what triggers you to reach for food when you are not hungry, or how often you unconsciously polish off a packet of biscuits and avoid doing exercise,” says the NCH. “The therapist will then put together a programme of treatment that will motivate you to exercise more and eat less.”
Hypnotherapy works if the person is motivated to lose or manage their weight and it can change your habit with food for the rest of your life. Unlike crash diets it changes the root of any compulsive eating or lack of interest in exercise so the person is free to enjoy the rest of their life – eating and exercising sensibly without having to think about it.