If you ask most Americans whether wellness is important, most will agree. Parents will usually say that family health is one of their major concerns. Yet most are rather ignorant about nutrition information. Blame our public education system, false or misleading reporting, and ads, ads, ads.

Recent news increasingly reports that obesity is epidemic in the United States, and that it is the major cause of early death, after tobacco. Yet the solution is really simple.

It used to be that people who claimed the simple life is the key to anti aging would be met with a big yawn, or strong doubt, or rude noises. Now, such reliable sources of health information as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are saying that good diet and moderate exercise really are the keys to long life.

The same ad blasters who helped get us into health troubles are eager to sell us pills, potions, books, quack cures that dance all around the truth. After all, folks really want magic bullets to fix problems, so they won't have to take responsibility for the consequences of their own choices. It's not the merchants' fault if they get rich off public stupidity. Or is it?

People, WAKE UP!

America is a country in which even the poor people are FAT. History tells us that this is a very unusual situation.

It is a principle of physics that matter-energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Therefore, if our weight exceeds the medical ideal, it can ONLY be from consuming more calories than we need. The only healthy solution is to be more careful of what we eat, and to increase our exercise. Drugs or surgery to cheat on this equation are life threatening. Wild claims to "turn up your fat burners" are total NONSENSE, even though some of the "experts" telling this are physicians and nutritionists who really should know better.

One advantage of wise food choices is that we can eat as much as we want and still not get fat. Another is that good diet can help protect us against common scary diseases that can lower quality of life and cause early death.

"Low Carb diets" are a red herring. Taking the hamburger out of the bun, but keeping the fatty meat and oily toppings, is utter madness.

The other part of the story is that even easy exercise can stimulate the body to health, help prevent those scary diseases, and make us feel better, while helping us to live longer. * If you don't like army calisthenics, at least walk 1 to 2 miles a day, 5 to 7 days a week. * If back pain or shoulder aches plague you, do some simple exercise routines at home, workplace, or while walking. * Head off wrist problems by frequent breaks to stretch them in all directions. * If you don't have time or money for a gym membership, buy a twelve foot piece of rope for isometrics and skipping.

"We don't stop exercising because we get old. We get old because we stop exercising."

The CDC tells us that 7 out of 10 deaths are caused by chronic diseases, 1.7 million per year in the USA, and that these early deaths can be prevented by good diet and easy exercise. We can save billions of dollars per year just from good diet and moderate exercise. Now that's a bargain!

** Diet with FACTS, not MYTHS. **