PSA: STOP OVERCOMPLICATING HEALTH

Stop promoting a band aid, and start promoting a fix

Politics and Health Culture:

The health culture/industry has many similarities with today’s political climate. A whole bunch of people, many of which leave you questioning their intelligence, taking divisive stances that are rarely based on data. This stems from people trying to provide the magic “pill” that will cure everyone’s problem, instead of helping treat the underlying issues that are causing issues both in our country and our health. Both in Washington and in the health field we need to demand better. We need to demand people to stop pushing unhealthy extremes, and promoting it as healthy. We need to quit promoting every diet or workout as THE answer, because there are much deeper issues that are engrained in ourselves and in our society that we must address first.

Stop going to the Extremes:

In our society, we view the incredibly skinny model or the incredibly ripped body builder as the pinnacle of health.But the sad truth is most of these individuals are not “healthy”. Up to 40% of

models are known to have an eating disorder. These eating disorders, can also be seen among adolescents across the country, because as a health industry we have led them to believe only the extremes to be “healthy”.Body Builders are no better. According to a research article in the Journal of the American Urological Association, bodybuilders have a mortality rate 34% higher than those in an age-matched general U.S. male population. None of this takes into account most of these individuals that we view as the definition of health, typically have a lot of help from drugs, photoshop, spray tans etc.

What I want to see in the health industry?

I want the health industry to promote building a strong foundation for people to learn how to live healthier lives. This doesn’t mean cutting all carbs, while only eating 1200 calories and performing HIIT workouts everyday. Instead we must promote conscious eating that is centered around eating nutrient dense foods in moderation, increasing activity levels, even if that means parking a little farther away, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, or taking a couple 15 minute walks throughout the day. Most importantly we must promote importance of taking care of our own mental well being through getting proper amounts of sleep, learning new strategies to help manage stress and help build self efficacy. These small changes, that are not hard to implement and maintain will create much greater long term effects due the compounding nature of them, compared to a 2 week crash course diet/workout plan. So I guess the point of this article is…

Stop promoting a band aid, and start promoting a fix