Dr. Mercola December 29 2007 74,530 views
Michelangelo, born 1475, is perhaps the most well-known renaissance artist in human history, and exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art.
The statue of David – a colossal marble sculpture, standing 14 ft 3 inches tall, completed in 1504 – was created as a symbol of Florentine freedom, and placed in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, the seat of civic government in Florence, Italy. The choice of the biblical King David at the moment he decides to do battle with Goliath was meant to reflect the power and determination of Republican Florence against surrounding rival states.
If Michelangelo were to create a symbolic sculpture for today, it’s not impossible it would look something like this photo; an image of the wasteful, bloated greed of our U.S. government and megalomaniac pharmaceutical- and biochemical industries that lead to the poor health of man, environment, and our financial- and medical systems.
Most of you know that two out of three U.S. adults, and one out of three kids, are overweight. Another 32 percent of adults, and 17 percent of kids, are obese. Not surprising considering the average American consumes 2.5 pounds of sugar each week, which leads to an excess rise in insulin – the effect of which is grandly and accurately portrayed here, in the form of a bulging stomach, and fat rolls in his thighs and chin.
High insulin levels suppress two other important hormones -- glucagons and growth hormones -- that are responsible for burning fat and sugar and promoting muscle development, respectively. So insulin from excess carbohydrates promotes fat, and then wards off your body‘s ability to lose that fat. Unless this cycle of raised insulin levels is reversed, King David’s sculpted abs will be gone forever, and he’s looking at a future filled with irresponsibly dangerous prescriptions for synthetic drugs, whose spiraling side effects will eventually destroy his health and kill him before his time.
And this goes for you too.
The bottom line is very simple. Keep your insulin levels low, very low. You can measure this with an inexpensive blood test that nearly any doctor can draw for you. Your level should be about 2 or 3. The way you lower it to these levels is by exercising, avoiding processed foods and refined carbs, and by eating the appropriate amounts of carbs for your nutritional type.
All it takes to keep your weight at an optimum level is a faithful program of exercise and an optimized nutritious diet designed for your unique biochemistry, and your overall health will more closely resemble Michelangelo’s original David, than the image depicted here.
"Hmmmmm.... considering he is not wearing a helmet, he is probably not an American. :)"
Circumcision must make your eyesight better! I can't see that much detail on the "accessories" samurai!
OK. There is something about my writing style that everyone thinks I am a man.... this frightens me. My indentured servitude in the corporate world & working with men has made my personality male-like. My ex-boyfriend called me a "dude-chick"....
I work in the medical field and I see FAR TO MANY co workers who are overwieght and on all sorts of weird diets eating strange combinations poo poo to loose weight. Then if they do loose it they may look nice for a while but do so just because they are eating less poo poo. Then, I would estimate from my own observations of our staff for 7 years that aprox 95 % of them put most of the weight back on within a year.
It makes me VERY SAD. Patients actually comment to me about the fat nurses.
It's funny, people also say that I am tiny, but in reality, I'm also at 18% BMI, and I think I'm quite curvy. A lady wanted to introduce me to her son butcommented that he usually doesn't go for really thin women. Excuse me?
Stars today are looking progressively more emaciated, and the shoppers at Wal-Mart are getting bigger. I sometimes feel like I'm living in a twilight zone episode.
I visited my dad in the hospitals once, and all the nurses were eating McDonalds right there in the ICU. Unbelievable.
Peanut -
It is the weird diets and emaciated movie stars that contribute largely to much of the overweight in America. People (read: women) try to diet into a size that was not meant for them and end up gaining back all the weight and more, each diet further messing up insulin and other hormones. If healthy, we are all supposed to be a little different, some more muscular, some more curvy, some boney. I believe that striving to look perfect leaves people hopeless and heavy, chowing on junk because they are too tired to think straight.
Don't forget the weight loss industry is HUGE and very profitable. They need us to feel bad about ourselves so they can keep selling us hope. For anyone that has not yet dieted themselves into obesity (on highly processed foods prescribed by diet plans) I say please strive to have a high level of fitness, happiness and self acceptance. By following Dr. Mercola's advice (including EFT for loving yourself just the way you look) you can save yourself a lot of torture and money - and you may save your own life.
Fitness is not about how much you weigh, it is about how healthy you are and how much endurance you build. There are some heavy people that have a small waists and very high levels of fitness.
I'm with Bridestein on this one. He drives a Dodge Cummins 3500... and the lift is a good addition.
Oh! Let's make it a dually!
It takes b___s to make a change personally, politically and internationally.
We NEED to VOTE this election for people with proverbial B__Ls to change the perspective of health care in this country to prevention and dump the present sick way of looking at health care. Fix the stupid, prevelent attitude of indulge and then expect science to fix your blood pressure while you consume trash. We have laws that tell us how long our grass can be yet we allow our "food" to be processed with lethal weapons.
Islander,
I agree!!! :)
I spent six weeks in Italy recently, and small statues that look like this are sold to tourists as gag gifts. The Italians are too polite to say it, but I think they already view these as "the American version" of David. You can easily spot the Americans in Italy -- they're usually overweight, and the Italians aren't. Although that's changing as our American fast food chains invade.