|
|
Health at every size
Can you imagine what our society would be like without diets, weight loss pills and supplements, and gastric by-pass surgeries? Can you imagine being accepted at any age, at any size, and focusing on our overall health rather than our overall weight? More "dieting" has happened over the last 40 years than at any other time known in the history of mankind. Yet the incidence of obesity in our country, as well as all other developing countries across the world, continues to increase. In fact, obesity has even outpaced malnutrition. The cases of eating disorders and body image dissatisfaction continue to rise and the ages of youths developing these disorders/disparities is becoming younger and younger. Even still, dieting can actually be harmful to our health not to mention to our pocket books--$40 billion per year is spent on diet books, foods, programs and weight loss gimmicks that produce 95 percent failure rate. What can be done? A new approach to resolving eating and weight struggles is beginning to emerge that focuses on a non-diet, non-weight centered way to deal with health and fitness. Instead of weight loss being the main focus to improved health, this theory looks at physical activity and nutrition as the main means of improving health with weight loss as a bonus if it occurs--body positive and weight neutral. "If I worked with a drug company to come up with a treatment that would increase your energy expenditure by 30 to 40 percent, increase your fat oxidation, allow you to eat more and still not gain weight, and still have no major side effects, you would probably go out and buy stock--but we already have this in physical activity," said Dr. James Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition, University of Colorado health Sciences Center. Physical activity has a huge effect on our overall health regardless of size or age. Being active, even without weight loss, can improve metabolism, lower blood pressure, reduce depression, lower risk for certain cancer and diabetes, and lengthen life. Large studies have shown that men who are thin and fit, average and fit, and fat and fit have the same death rate. Even more startling is the fact that the overweight unfit men had a lower death rate than the thin unfit men. Being thin does not necessarily equal being healthy. A big issue is that many Americans are not physically active. A 2003 study showed that 55 percent of adult Americans get less than the daily minimum recommended amount of 30 minutes of exercise. (The definition of exercise includes everyday activities such as housework and gardening.) On average, adults spend 1,651 hours per year watching TV, 84 hours playing video games, 167 hours on the Internet, and 77 hours watching movies at home. That adds up to a huge number of hours of inactivity. Food is the other major component to health. There is a lot of talk out there about the foods we "should" and "should not" eat, "good" vs. "bad" food. Food is a choice. There is no such thing as a "good" or "bad" food. There are foods that are better choices nutritionally, but all foods can be enjoyed in moderation. Food fuels our body, much like gas fuels our car. Our bodies need to refuel about every 4 to 5 hours with carbohydrates for energy for our brain, nervous tissue and muscle, protein for muscle fibers, blood components, hormones and enzymes, and fat for energy and fat tissue. Keeping a balance of these three main nutrients, being aware of our bodies internal signals of hunger and fullness, and focusing on really tasting and enjoying the foods we eat can be effective ways to better our health. Changing our country's obsession with weight and the "perfect" body shape and focusing instead on overall health through the winning combination of physical activity and nutrition can improve our society, both physically and mentally. Let's help each other be healthy at every size. Date: 9/10/07
Copyright/Privacy
Copyright 1995-2012. High Plains Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Any republishing of these pages, including electronic reproduction of the editorial archives or classified advertising, is strictly prohibited. If you have questions or comments you can reach us at High Plains Journal 1500 E. Wyatt Earp Blvd., P.O. Box 760, Dodge City, KS 67801 or call 1-800-452-7171. Email: webmaster@hpj.com |
|
