7Their eyes stand out from fatness, they exceed the imagina­tions of their heart: Psalms 73:7 Darby translation
Are you a lardbottom? Are you obese? Is Canada becoming a nation of tubbies? The Globe And Mail newspaper had an ar­ticle with a drawing of a grossly obese man sitting in front of his computer. The writer is saying that there are people who are get­ting too fat not from eating too much but from sitting too much in front of the TV or computers .I’ve seen somebody who seems to be planted in front of the com­puter from morning till late at night day in and day out, and his chair can hardly fit him any more. In my mind I call him a lardbottom. Prob­ably the word is not in the diction­ary yet.
In June 18, 2008 CBC news, StatsCan came out with the study on obesity. The results are star­tling. To appreciate the study bet­ter you should read the verbatim result. This way it will not be my opinion only but backed by a sci­entific research. Okay? Here it is.

TV viewing, computer use linked to obesity: StatsCan
Last Updated: Wednes­day, June 18, 2008 | 11:40 AM ET
Comments56Recom­mend43 CBC News

“Canadian adults who spend hours a day watching television or sitting in front of a computer are more likely to be obese, accord­ing to a new Statistics Canada study.Sedentary Behaviour and Obesity, released Wednesday, is based on data from the 2007 Ca­nadian Community Health Sur­vey of more than 42,600 Cana­dians aged 20 to 64, interviewed throughout 2007.It found that television viewing or computer use was strongly associated with obesity. A third sedentary activity — reading — was not associated with obesity.

“The odds of obesity among men and women who reported watching television 21 or more hours a week were almost twice those for study subjects watching an average of five or fewer hours a week. The link between obesity and “screen time” persisted even when demographic factors such as age, education, household in­come and urban-rural residence were considered, the authors
found.
“Physical activity and diet were linked to the sedentary habits, but Margot Shields, author of the study along with Mark Tremblay, said that even when these factors were controlled, the relationship between “screen time” and obesity remained. This suggests “screen time” should be considered a dis­tinct factor when developing in­terventions to reduce obesity, she said. “Physical activity and diets haven’t gone down and have actu­ally improved somewhat, but obe­sity is still prevalent,” said Shields, who works with Statistics Canada’s health information and research di­vision. “So we have to start looking at other factors.”

“The authors suggest it may be time to revisit what “physically ac­tive” means. The metabolic energy demand when watching television is much lower, for example, than vacuuming, putting away grocer­ies or even playing card and board games, they said. “This under­scores the importance of accu­rately measuring physical activity in all domains of life [including both structured and unstructured activi­ties during leisure and non-leisure time] to understand the potential mediating role of other activities in the association between television viewing and obesity,” they wrote
.Statistics Canada has done studies looking at the screen time habits of young Canadians and the connection with obesity, but this is the first to look at adults, said Shields.

3 in 10 adults frequent TV viewers: study
“A separate but linked study, by the same authors, of “screen-time” habits found over a third of Canadian adults are spend­ing hours of their daily leisure time sitting in front of either a computer or television screen. Almost three in 10 Canadian adults (29 per cent) were fre­quent television viewers: that is, they watched more than 15 hours of television a week, or more than two hours a day. Nineteen per cent of those sur­veyed, or one in five, reported watching 21 or more hours a week.
“About 15 per cent of adults were considered frequent lei­sure-time computer users, logging more than 11 hours a week on a computer. Only five per cent of respondents were both frequent computer users and frequent television viewers. About 61 per cent Canadians were not frequent leisure time users of either a television or a computer.

“The study said that among younger-age groups, computer use is replacing television view­ing as the screen time activity of choice. Close to half (45 per cent) of the screen hours reported by 20- to 24-year-olds were spent on a computer.

“In general, younger ages and higher levels education were as­sociated with increased computer use and decreased television use. Recent immigrants were also more likely to be frequent com­puter users and less likely to be frequent television viewers.”

We are advised by our doc­tors to lose weight for all the right reasons. Health profession­als urge us to follow these eight principles that cannot be proven wrong. They are the following: NUTRITION, EXERCISE, WATER, SUNSHINE, TEMPERANCE, AIR, REST, AND TRUST IN GOD. The Apostle John wrote in his third letter, verses 1 & 2, “1From the church leader. [a] To my dear friend Gaius. I love you because we follow the truth, dear friend, and I pray that all goes well for you. I hope that you are as strong in body, as I know you are in spir­it.” Good Health to all and God bless and don’t be a lardbottom for health’s sake.