One of the signs of prosperous society is obesity. When people have more money, they often tend to enjoy eating more fattening foods and more food in general and trust me, all you have to do is take a jaunt to your nearest Walmart to see just how true this is. We’ve all seen those email or webpages of people who shop at Walmart wearing what they shouldn’t be wearing in public.

I have to be honest and admit that last time I visited the beach and laid out in the sun, I was afraid someone would mistake me for a beached whale and try to force me into the water.

America has a weight problem. While some poorer individuals starve and suffer from malnutrition, the greatest weight problem is being overweight to the point of being obese and morbidly obese. Our decadent and perverse society has even featured a few reality television shows on obese people. They’ve also had shows where obese people compete to see who can lose the most weight in a given period of time, generally by a combination of diet and exercise.

If you talk to most doctors and nutritionists, they will stress diet and exercise. One needs to give up the burgers, steaks, French fries, loaded baked potatoes, breads, chips, ice creams, cakes, candy and many other unhealthy choices. It’s hard for many people to give these foods up, especially all at once, because they are our favorite foods and they admittedly taste sooooo good.

They also recommend that we give up soda – pop, many juices, beer, and other drinks loaded with sugar or carbs.

Instead, they want you eat rabbit food – lettuce, kale, spinach, carrots, tomatoes – along with more poultry and fish. If you want to drink a juice, then they want you to juice veggies and drink that. Sorry, folks, but I’ve never developed a taste for tomato or carrot juice or the leading brands of veggie juices.

In addition to changing one’s diet, they want you to get more active. If nothing else, walk for 20 minutes at least 3 times a week and then work up to walking longer and more frequently. Aerobics, once very popular, are still a good workout and recommended for those who are able.

To help prevent osteoporosis, it’s strongly recommend one does resistance type exercises. This can be weight lifting, or exercising using exercise bands, or even pushing up against a wall. These types of exercises can help one lose weight and build up the density of their bones, preventing breaks as they grow older.

There are also tons of diet pills that make all kinds of promises but the promise they guarantee is that they’ll take your money.

A recent study has found another way to help lose weight and it’s more enjoyable than you may realize:

“Scientists from Washington State University and Harvard discovered a chemical in wine, called resveratrol, that helps the body’s fat cells from acquiring more fat.”

“They found that drinking two glasses of wine a day can help lower your risk for obesity by about 70 percent.”

“Part of why wine is recommended in the evenings is that its calories help maintain your feeling of fullness, reducing your cravings to binge on foods late at night.”

A number of doctors also recommend a small glass of a hearty red wine at night because they claim it helps with circulation and it helps increase good cholesterol.

So, in the evening, instead of reaching for that bag of chips or dish of ice cream, pour yourself a small glass of wine and sit back enjoy.