What is our problem today? With the world? With the Planet? With our lives? I believe it is not knowing where to draw the line. Excesses.

When it comes to eating, we don’t know when to say enough. Portion sizes have increased. The urban crowd is now introduced to things like unlimited buffets with 100 items on display that most of us stagger out of those meals knowing that we have succumbed to gluttony. A recent Global Burden of Disease study concluded that “obesity is  now a more serious problem than malnourishment in the world, with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa” . Diabetes is a serious problem in our country now. Becoming overweight through overeating is the biggest diet-related risk factor for type 2 diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.  Growing up we had limited access to homemade sweets, which was made only on special occasions. We didn’t have access to the range of chocolates and sweets available today. Today everything is available all the time and we don’t know when to say enough .

First we had Doordarshan. With its severely limited choices, we were forced to wait with great anticipation for the ten minutes of the animation of Giant Robot that would be telecast every Sunday. Then we thought the roof was blown off when Cable was introduced with a plethora of channels .Still there were times when we would flip channels repeatedly not knowing what to watch because the content was not great. Now with internet streaming services like Amazon and Netflix, the options have become endless. We binge watch shows, because we can. There is no limit to the number of shows available. You can choose to indulge in train wreck reality shows or the National Geographic series- whatever floats your boat. But again, excessively.

Everything is a Marathon today.  From running marathons to Netflix marathons. Everything is nonstop.  There is no moderation. And that is our problem. We are all prepping ourselves for a slew of health issues because of our refusal to moderate our behavior. We are behaving like kids in candy land who don’t know when to stop. We are becoming incapable of taking care of our health, incapable of making sensible decisions on basic requirements for a healthy life like going to bed at a reasonable time and waking up when the sun is up. This being out of sync with the circadian rhythm is going to have major health repercussions.

It is not a big deal when we can’t do something because we don’t have the product, time or money to indulge in it. But when we have all of it, then it becomes a conscious choice.  Now we have to exercise our judgement and say ENOUGH. We have to say ENOUGH to that second piece of dessert. We have to say ENOUGH to the episode number 2 because episode 1 ended on a cliffhanger. We have to say ENOUGH to being perennially distracted by social media and cat videos on YouTube. We have to say ENOUGH to being slaves to endorphin hits which will bite us in the rear on day.