The American fitness paradox and The price of being healthy…

People have been slaves to fashion and trends for eons.   And for equally as long people have been in love with control and money.
These ideals fade in and out through out the ages…and where one’s local happens to be.  At certain points in history, having a pot belly or being a bit rotund was seen as a symbol of wealth or even attractiveness.  Take the image of the Chinese Buddha for example or the artistic renderings of the renaissance…or even jolly ol’ St. Nick.  The idea of having a pleasantly plump icon to look up to, was that for most people food and money were scarce.  If you could attain plumphood then you must be doing something right because as far as most people were concerned it was difficult enough just to survive.

At other points in history being extremely small or “fitted” was in.  Trends like corsets that broke ribs and made women pass out were the rage and binding womens feet to the point of them being unable to walk.  These trends were not only affixed to women…the first high heel was designed for men.

People have been obsessed about how they look since the dawn of time.  It’s our dance…our feathers that we strut…our fine coat that we preen.  And since the first person realized that they could swindle tons of cash, favors, and power out of the need of others to build their self esteem people have spent their lives making others feel miserable enough to buy into their products.

Over the past one hundred years, things have changed both drastically and not at all.   On the drastic side is that we have gone from a culture based on extensive labor and little free time to a culture based on office cubicles and lots of free time (even though anyone you ask would say the contrary).   What has not changed, is the group of people who are willing to create a problem in order to “solve” it, the group of people willing to take advantage of a drastically changing society in order to line their pockets under the guise of health and happiness.

According to the government and every other health guru out there there is an epidemic of obesity in America.  The diseases associated with obesity are the number one factors in the deaths of Americans on a daily basis.  At the same exact time there is a consumerist epidemic going on…the obsession with being thin.   The median goal should be to be healthy but the concept of thin as healthy is an oxymoronic premise due to the visual ideals set forth by the media.  In an effort to push society into thinking that skinny is right, the acceptance of anorexia, bulemia and fad diets instead of healthy life styles has created it’s own health crisis.   We shun obesity so much that society would rather have a child with some defect than have an obese child.  And while we look at anorexia and bulemia as the diseases they are we do not grant them the severity they deserve because to many, while they are unhealthy ways of attaining a goal, the premise is that the person is at least attempting to do something about their weight.  At the same time we still hold to the idea that people who suffer from obesity are simply lazy and just need to stop eating so much.  There are few people who would walk up to someone suffering from anorexia and tell them to stop doing things, sit on a couch, and just eat something.

After WWII things changed in America.  We went from a factory based economy to a technology based economy.  In the change over how we ate changed.  Local markets closed and an influx of processed pre-packaged foods flooded the market.  People had money to spend and time to spend it.  People went from hard physical labor to sitting in chairs.  Somewhere along the lines we learned that food was something that didn’t deserve effort or time, that it could be left by the wayside so that we could focus our energies in other more important areas.   And then it got worse.

Sometime during the 70′s a “Fitness revolution” began.  People realized that there was money to be made off of American’s eating habits.  The post WWII ideal of having toiled and suffered and now reaping your rewards had led to the realization amongst business savvy people that soon the repurcussions would be noticeable and people would scurry to reverse what had happened over the past few decades.  The problem is that nothing else changed.  People began to realize slowly through the 80′s that they needed to be healthy but there was no set guidelines on how to accomplish that goal.  What they did get was an ever increasing visual deluge from the media on what they should look like.

Americans are a hodge podge collection of the world.  They are an amalgamation of cultures that immigrated to attain the American dream.  A plethora of low income families that had toiled and suffered abroad, made it through the depression, suffered through the war and then were exposed to an influx of change.  Everyone wants the American dream but no one is given the proper set of instructions on how to attain it.

A prime example of how this philosophy gained momentum and then plays out in the food/fitness world is a commercial for a candy bar in the 80′s…”You deserve it”.   The post war mind set primed American society for the obesity epidemic.  The extremely intelligent health and consumer world was ready to pick up the crumbs.

Fast forward to the present…

Why are we such an obese country?

We know the consequences of our unhealthy eating habits and being healthy is what makes you or breaks you in the American dream.  So why are Americans still so unhealthy?

Because the root of unhealthyness is never addressed.  Why?  Because too many people make money off of Americans being unhealthy.

Think for a moment of all the companies that would suddenly fold if Americans started to truly take care of themselves.  Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, all of the mega gyms,  and various medical specialists.  And then think about the absurd price difference between “healthy” food and unhealthy food.  If the government and various companies were truly interested in helping Americans be healthy as opposed to making tons of money, everything that was horrible for you would be priced more than the foods which would be healthy.  But that is not the case.  Go down any “health food” aisle in your local grocery store and you will see hundreds of examples.  A bag of whole wheat pasta is 2.00 to 4.00 dollars while the processed white flour store brand pasta is .50 cents.   The 97% fat free turkey burger is 5 something a pound while the 75% fat free hamburger is 2 something a pound.  Organic yogurt with active cultures made from milk that doesn’t contain antibiotics and additives is double or triple the price of the name brands.   Products that use cane sugar instead of corn syrup, that use whole grains instead of processed flour, that are actually healthy and promote a healthy life style are exorbitantly more expensive than their unhealthy counterparts.

Programs that are started to help the public lose weight do not do so by providing the life skills necessary but by providing easily purchasable products that require little to no effort on the part of the purchaser to think about what they are actually putting in to their body.  Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers make money because they know their focus group.

When flipping through your tv late at night how often have you seen an advertisement that offers free help in achieving a healthy life style?  Not even doctors will do that.  They send you to a specialist or to a dietician who schedules numerous visits that even for most people with decent health plans are still not completely free.  Health plans and places of work offer you discounts at various fitness centers but it is rare that any of them give the applicant close to a free ride.

The people behind the healthy revolution want americans to be obese so that they can offer their services and save Americans from their unhealthy ways.    And until Americans realize they are being duped they will continue to be “saved”.

The post depression/WWII mentality has evolved.  It has turned into the stress relief mentality of todays work force.  Go to your local restaurant and kick back…have those ribs and french fries…drink that sugar coma inducing margarita…in fact drink a few…and shrug off that nagging boss because you deserve it.   In fact…indulge because you know that for every pound you gain there are 5 new companies willing to take the money you would have spent here next week in order to help you lose it and you can always run to the bathroom…Mary Kate and Ashley do it and everyone still loves them.

What has been lost along the way is a true appreciation of food and the real role it plays in our lives.  Food has been reduced to a form of sustainance and an emotional outlet.  Ask yourself the last time you had something truly amazing.  What did it taste like?  What was it?  Why did you eat it?

The other missing piece of the puzzle is simply the normal every day human exertion level.  Americans eat more and perform physical activities less.   The human body is not designed for the office life.  Not that we were designed for the extensive physical labor of factory life either.  But there is a balance somewhere in there of using our bodies the way the were designed to be used and eating in a way that both supports that lifestyle and allows us to fully appreciate what we put into our bodies.

But until there is no longer money to be made off of fooling the american public into thinking that they can have their cake and eat it too we will continue to pay the price of being healthy.