American people are literally running out of time. Achieving a balance between work time and leisure time, remains a luxury for innumerable working people, has been overtaken by an even larger demand: a work-life-nutrition balance. Unfortunately, this growing demand for nutrition has not been accompanied by a useful strategy that allows people to reclaim time from their chaotic lives.
The result of this dilemma has been a further layer of stress applied on top of an already stressful life. With in the past 2 decades this added stress has contributed to America's number one health problem since the 1980's[i]
Once the link between poor time management and stress is created – and it is virtually obvious at this point in time that this link exists[ii] -- a range of adverse health and nutrition consequences often result. The vicious cycle that results is traumatic and known to most individuals through direct experience, or by way of painfully seeing it displayed in the life of a loved one, friend, or colleague.
On top of the physical stress that the body goes through by not having an adequate amount of the essential micronutrients and vitamins it requires, the psychological stress of it all can lead to an increased level of unhealthy eating[iii]. While this is happening, since poor eating is usually related to undesirable weight gain, another level of psychological stress – this one associated with body image issues – is unleashed.
Although if the cycle stopped here this may be enough to solidify this as a major problem, it continues beyond this point and becomes worse.
This psychological stress due to body image issues/weight gain typically results in “emotional eating”. It's estimated that 75% of all overeating is the result of emotional eating[iv]. This, in turn, leads to yet more nutritional deficiency, since the emotional eating is usually of unhealthy comfort foods that are rich in saturated fat. This – as can be inferred -- leads to yet more stress, and the cycle continues, unabated, typically resulting in malnutrition, obesity, and in more cases than most average individuals notice, even suicide.
The almost clinical description of this negative cycle in the preceding paragraphs will not remotely capture the inexpressible pain and anguish that millions of Americans experience each day because of the conflict of stress, lack of time, and poor eating habits. Whereas no description could precisely capture the devastation that this negative loop leads to, it is enough in the context of this article to decisively declare that it's a deeply significant crisis.
It is impossible to come to a quick-fix answer to this topic because of the broad assortment of factors, thus any quick answer should be examined very carefully. The key to addressing a situation of magnitude is to define the root cause, and then offer remedies that mitigate or in some cases, avoid the negative loop from the beginning in the first place.
One of the root causes of this problem has been noted already: a lack of time. If more Americans had more time, or felt that they had more time, the stress associated with not having enough time wouldn't be able to tug them down and into a negative nutrition spiral. Thus, a solution that works on this level – the level of time – is going to help cure this problem to some extent.
It is within this awareness that time is of the essence that a number of nutritional supplements have been created. Sadly, whereas many of those supplements take mere seconds to ingest, an array of them are not providing the body’s requirement for micronutrients and vitamins.
Furthermore, and quite negligently, many so-called “energy bars” are terribly high in calories and carbohydrates, and as such will lead to emotional eating and trigger weight gain. It's even more unfortunate than this to observe that the race to market several nutritional supplement products has been more about making money through clever advertising and slogans, than it has been about helping individuals save time, eat healthy, and avoid potentially life-altering negative stress cycles. This is evidenced by the number of so-called nutritional supplements that are little more than costly and pretentious candy bars.
However, there are some products that have risen to this ethical challenge – products that have been truly inspired by actual nutritional scientists who see a dire need in society, and have engineered a useful product to help meet that need.
The simplest means to identify such products is to search out those that deliver an entire, nutritionally balanced supply of nutrition for time-starved people, including: adults, youngsters, athletes, sedentary people, and all those in between. At the same time, these elite products ought to offer a range of necessary nutrients so that, in effect, the nutrition source can be relied upon as a whole meal when time is severely limited.
Solving America’s time-starved problem is larger than any one product, or series of products, can solve. However, though the right resolution to this complicated problem remains obscure, it's abundantly clear that part of that eventual answer will depend on solving causes, and not chasing symptoms. Nutritional products that offer scientifically developed meal and supplement solutions will be a significant ally in this resolution.
References
[i] Source: “America’s 1 Health Problem”. Stress.org. http://www.stress.org/problem.htm
[iv] Source: “Are You an Emotional Eater?”. About.com. http://exercise.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/emotionaleating.htm
Author Resource:
About Protica Research
Founded in 2001, Protica Research (Protica, Inc.) is a nutritional research firm specializing in the development of capsulized foods (dense nutrition in compact liquid and food forms). Protica manufactures Profect (www.profect.com), IsoMetric, Pediagro, Fruitasia and more than 100 other brands in its GMP-certified, 250,000 square foot facility. One area of specialty is the manufacturing of Medicare-approved, whey protein liquid for diabetic patients.
You can learn more about Protica at www.protica.com - Copyright - Protica Research
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