By: Amanda Celine Longoria, RD, LD
The Srenretsew People
Over the past 100 years, the Srenretsew have abandoned traditional food preparation and have begun to consume food factories’ high-calorie concoctions of gigantic proportions.
It’s the Srenretsews’ evolutionary drives—cravings for foods packed with fat and sugar—that cause them to disregard their natural hunger and fullness cues and choose these foods over something more nutritious, even though their lifestyle does not require the energy stored within.
But the Srenretsew have been known to consume enough calories for two or more people, even though they sit most of the day and avoid as much movement as possible!
Studies have shown an odd phenomenon—the Srenretsew are stuck on following this prescription every day and at every meal even though it’s taking a toll on their health. They’re forced to take pills to counteract the effects of the food they consumed.
Through interviews with the Srenretsew, researchers have compiled a list of the diet the Srenretsew follow, a diet they’ve coined the “Obesity Prescription (Rx).”
Obesity Rx
1. Load up on fats: fried chicken, fried fish, fried shrimp, buffalo wings, French fries, French toast, fried okra, hush puppies, blooming onions, fried jalapeños, and more!
2. Fill up on refined carbohydrates like white rice, white pasta, sugar, white bread—especially bread packed with fat and sugar like pan dulce, tortillas, and gorditas made with lard.
3. Pump as many calories into each dish as possible: beans packed with lard, rice made with half a pan of oil, steamed broccoli doused in butter or cheese (or both!), and salads swimming in salad dressing.
4. Eat like you’re at a carnival every day: hot dogs, corn dogs, funnel cake, slushies, corn slathered in butter, gigantic cookies, candy, and cotton candy!
5. Have dessert at every meal—and between meals! After all, you deserve a treat—even though you know you shouldn’t! Pies, cakes, cookies, jello, ice cream—the more calories, the better!
6. Choose milk products packed with sugar and fat: cheese, milkshakes, ice cream, and every yogurt besides the plain version.
7. Pack a punch with condiments. Add sour cream and butter to your baked potato, creamy gravy to your mashed potatoes and chicken fried steak, mayonnaise to your corn, cream cheese to your bagel, and cheese to your fried tacos, enchiladas, and sandwiches!
8. Avoid water at all costs—as if you had rabies! Pack every sip with calories. Choose soft drinks, sweet tea loaded with sugar, coffee drenched with cream and sugar, punch, Kool-Aid, beer, wine, tequila, and energy drinks.
9. Follow a diet that will be sure to give you constipation by avoiding any foods with fiber. Pass on the vegetables, fruits, beans and peas, nuts and seeds, and whole grains like brown rice, wild rice, oatmeal, quinoa, and barley.
10. Eat all the time—carry snacks with you in your purse, backpack, and car. Buy something from the vending machine. Grab a candy from the bowl at work. Snack while you’re making dinner. Sip caloric beverages while you drive.
11. Camp out at the buffet for the day so you get as many calories as possible for your dollar. Make every meal a banquet!
12. Eat until you are stuffed!
Does this sound too familiar? The Srenretsew are Westerners (spelled backwards). Overeating, and consequently, an expansion in Americans’ waistlines and increased incidence of overweight and obesity have become an epidemic.
Choosing to eat naturally occurring foods can help you to achieve a healthy weight, discontinue certain prescription drugs, and decrease risk of health complications.
Naturally Occurring Foods Rx
Choose a variety of naturally occurring foods: fruits, vegetables, and grains that grow in the fields and orchards, meat and milk from farm animals, and food from the sea.
Choose foods prepared as closely to the natural state as possible. For example, grill chicken instead of frying it. Avoid foods processed in factories. For example, milk is a naturally occurring food, but cheese, butter, and ice cream—which are processed from milk in factories—are not.
Obesity Cure
Want to stop following the Obesity Rx, reduce your waistline, boost your energy levels, and cut your risk for disease?
Just remember 4 words: choose naturally occurring foods. It’s simple—but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Talk to your doctor and your registered dietitian for help with implementing lifestyle changes in the way you eat and how you exercise.
Family physicians (MDs) can help you make changes in your diet to lose weight and decrease you risk for disease. They can also recommend foods to eat and avoid, and they can help implement strategies for healthy eating in general.
Registered dietitians (RDs) are the health care team expert in nutrition! Nutrition is a science, and an RD can provide you with cutting-edge information about what to eat. Your RD can also help you come up with an eating plan tailored to your lifestyle and budget.
Use health care team members as resources. If you don’t take care of you, who will?
Cheers to your good health!
Amanda Celine Longoria, RD, LD, is a registered and licensed dietitian at South Texas Institutes of Health in McAllen with Dr. Steven M. Stoltz. Amanda helps patients manage their chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and kidney disease with what they eat. She also helps expectant moms eat right throughout their pregnancy, talks with families about healthy eating, and works with kids to help them manage food allergies and set a precedent of wellness. For more information or to set up your nutrition consult today, call 994-9832 or toll-free at 1-888-648-3390.
