When insufficient physical activity is combined with increased availability
and affordability of energy-dense foods, high in saturated fat, salts or
sugars, and low in dietary fibers, complex carbohydrates, fruit and
vegetables, the incidence of overweight and obesity increases.
Moreover, due to the increasingly impoverished quality of processed
foods, weight control practices limited to the reduction of food intake reduce
not only the energetic but also the nutritional turnover and, therefore, are
likely to result in a lack of vitamins and micronutrients required by the body.
Overall, our modern Western lifestyle leaves us not only energetically
overfed, but also nutritionally undernourished, and prone to
cardio-vascular and other chronic diseases.