Denton County Living Well Magazine Spring 2015 | Page 34

How We’re Killing Ourselves by Not Making
Small Adjustments to Improve Our Health
By Dr. Tyler Cooper
So the question is

If simple changes can make dramatic differences in one’s
health, why aren’t more people fit? Why are we seeing so
much obesity and disease?

T

wo-thirds of Americans are overweight or
obese and a shocking one-third of our children
are. The sad fact: this leads directly to diseases like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease
and many kinds of cancer. The reason for this
obesity epidemic is simple: Americans are eating more and
more of the wrong kinds of foods and exercising less and
less. As a result, we’re not just lessening the quantity of our
years; we’re lessening the quality of our years; we’re winding up prematurely in wheelchairs or in nursing homes or
just unable to participate fully in activities.
Our culture encourages this. We drive more and walk less.
Huge portion sizes have become the norm, and instead of
taking responsibility for our health, we succumb to quickfix fast foods laden with fat, sugar and salt. In short, our
sedentary lifestyles and deficient diets are slowly killing us.

Now for the good news
At Cooper Aerobics, our focus is prevention—and it has
been f ܈H\