Lifestyle
Sedentary Lifestyle
The advent of technology has significantly reduced the amount of physical work, which we engage in. In developing countries, farmers used to engage in intensive manual labour. Tilling of fields, harvesting of crops, were amongst the activities that were performed by hand. Increasingly though, machinery such as tractors are replacing traditional methods, thus reducing the amount of energy expended.
In Developed countries, the sedentary lifestyle is widespread. With modern infrastructure and advanced transport networks, commuting is convenient, and it requires very minimal amount of energy to get from one place to another. Since the ownership of cars is the norm, it is not hard to see why many in developed countries do not burn calories while commuting. Furthermore, many modern occupations are highly sedentary, and require little physical activity. Many 9 to 5 jobs focus more on mental activity, rather than physical activity, and employees find themselves at their desk most of the time. The lack of physical activity in the sedentary lifestyle which many of us lead today, has led to obesity.
Hectic Pace of Life
With a highly hectic working environment of today, people find it increasingly difficult to sacrifice valuable time to have a sit down meal. Many thus turn to the consumption of convenience food. Convenience food Is food that is prepared and packaged, available off the shelf at any supermarket. The growing presence of supermarkets in developing countries, has made it easier to obtain convenience food.Convenience food is found to contain more calories than home-cooked meals.
Eating Habits
The frequency at which people are consuming food has changed. In the past, a three meal regime, breakfast, lunch and dinner was the norm. Increasingly though people do not follow this but instead choose to eat as and when they wish. This leads to large amounts of snacking. Such snacking usually involves the consumption of sugar rich pastries or potato chips rich in salt.
Citations & References:
September 2007, 34-43.
September 2007, 60-67.