McDonalds is setting an incredibly bad example with their barrage of commercials for the 2010 Olympics. It’s not surprising for an organization like McDonalds to provide sponsorship for the event but these commercials have crossed a line. The video above shows a series of spots for the Canadian airwaves (a similar set was shown for the US). It’s absolutely ridiculous for these amazing athletes to purport this body-destroying junk. It may be true that some like to eat McDonalds [and occasionally at best if they want to remain competitive]. But the athletes are setting a terrible example for millions of kids, world wide, who idolize them, as one blogger as noted from her personal experience.
There was one commercial that really bugged me: A coach talking to a kids ice hockey team. He said that they played like Olympians today, so today they eat like Olympians. Cut to the shot of them in McDonalds. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? This is just blatant. And I’m sure it’s a slap to the face to all the Olympic athletes that work so hard to train and take care of their bodies.
Eating well is a confusing mess and much of that is due to bad information purported by self interested parties (more on that in a future post). Fortunately there are a bunch of legitimate resources out there to help you eat better. The NYT Magazine article, Unhappy Meals, blew me away and really got me rethinking the whole notion of eating better. This piece was written by Michael Pollan who has written many other great pieces regarding food culture. One relevant example is In Defense of Food which is an expansion of his NYT Magazine piece.
Another fantastic NYT Magazine piece, written nearly a decade ago, is What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie? by Gary Taubes. This piece is striking because it completely upends the notion that fats are the “nutritionary evils” that most people consider them to be. If anything, this article is worth a read because it spurs the kind of thought required to dispel much of the bad advice on eating well.
The following two books are interesting because of their seemingly antagonistic nature. Several reviews for Nina Plank’s Real Food slammed the book for bad advice and the reviewers suggested reading The China Study, by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, instead. Seeing this, I decided to read both and did in fact find a common ground in between them.
InReal Food, Planck argues that foods containing saturated fats and cholesterol are improperly labeled as bad guys and consuming these foods is better than vegan or vegetarian diets. She also argues against “food”, such as soy this and soy that, that imitates other foods.
In The China Study, Campbell argues that the “western diet”, which often put animal products at the center of the plate causes “diseases of affluence” (heart disease and cancer among the biggest of these). Assertions are based on his decades of research that compare diets and disease occurrence between western cultures and traditional cultures (in this case, rural areas in China).
It is very interesting that each of these books addresses the same issue but from opposite ends. Certainly, they both call for eating food that is less processed. Also, they push for food that is closer to what humans ate for hundreds of generations before its transformation in western societies.
There are plenty of other great reads on eating well and our food culture (and I’ll cover some of those in future posts). But I’ve found these five pieces particularly astounding in providing a big-picture view for eating well – between bringing light to the mess of information on how to eat, to the actual process of eating better.
The main part of training your body is obvious enough. You just do it. You push on. You sweat. You fight through the pain (or enjoy it). The other part, equally important, is not so obvious – the recovery. Your body needs to rebuild itself after training. And guess what? It’s gonna have a very difficult time doing so if you’re neither sleeping plenty nor eating properly. Real foods such as vegetables, grains, and fruit go a long way to help the body repair itself (as well as to optimize performance during training). There’s no sense in doing another training session if you’re cutting short your sleep for it. Wasted effort at best.
Whatever new healthcare changes we have are ultimately doomed. It’s not that the reform ideas are bad ones; they’re actually outstanding and much needed changes. It’s just that the American way of life is very incompatible with this system. We Americans are health destroying machines and there’s no way our healthcare system can pick up the slack. We put very little means into taking care of ourselves and that has very serious, painful, and expensive consequences. Imagine if every unhealthy person in the country, which is to say most of the population, was covered by insurance. There’d be no way to pay for all of their medical expenses.
Unless we start eating better and doing more physical activity, among other things, we’re heading for a total disaster. We could very well bankrupt the country in trying to pay off health bills or fees for insurance. So take care of yourself. In doing so, you build your own “insurance” – one of your own wellbeing. I know it’s not easy as it does have its own costs, including time. But it’s one we’re better off paying now than the huge costs we’d incur in the future instead. We also need to approach our food system as we’re doing our health system, as food writer Michael Pollan has stated. With this, we will make eating healthier easily attainable goal.
Many people skimp on these things because they’re so busy doing work or other supposedly important things. This strategy is only good in the very short-term, like when you’re eager to finish up some exciting project. However if, on a regular or even semi-regular basis, you aren’t getting enough sleep, are eating crap, aren’t moving very much, or not seeing those close to you, you’re wasting time. Simply put, your body and mind are considerably less efficient when you’re not treating them well. How productive will you be when you’re tired every day? Obvious not very much. The consequences are apparent in the short term time of days.
The long term impact is even more striking. By not living vitally, you also trade your future health for extra time now. Surely you’d cut off years from your life in a strict sense. But it’s even worse that because you’re also cutting off productive and enjoyable years from your life because you’re busy treating health problems in the latter part of your life.
I don’t like the word exercise. It sounds like work. It sounds boring. It sounds like something I don’t want to do but am forced to do. A lot of people see exercise this way. They don’t realize that physical activity can and should be fun. But the word exercise remains. We need a better term for the incredibly fun ways we move, and show expression through, our bodies. Physical activity doesn’t cut it. Being active doesn’t seem specific enough. I’m at a loss here. Does anyone have a better term?
What is the essence of yourself? Certainly your mind. Definitely your personality. And especially your body. So treat it well. Of course you should fuel it properly. And bring it to life!
Our bodies are incredible masterpieces with amazing capabilities. So why not let them shine? So get moving. Do fun things. Enjoy the soreness because it’s a sign of progress. Bask in the mighty health benefits that physical activity brings.
Run/bike/skate through the neighborhood. Take up a sport. Practice a martial art. Walk around with energy. Run up the stairs. Throw yourself upside down. And turn that boring life upside down!
It’s all too easy to find an excuse to not do something productive. I suggest reversing the excuse so that you make an excuse to do the productive thing. Even better if you can use the same excuse:
Original excuse:
“My muscles are sore today – I’ll skip my training session today”
Reversed excuse:
“My muscles are sore today – I should go to my training session to loosen them up”
You can also reverse the excuse when approaching new endeavors and trying new things:
Instead of letting an excuse hold you back:
I can’t do _____ because
I’m not strong enough
I’m not flexible enough
I’m not experienced enough
Use the excuse as a reason to go for it:
I should do _____ because
Foresight can be a great asset. Understanding the manner by which problems arise helps you take steps to prevent said problems. Often, preventing problems of the future (benefit) does require extra effort (cost) at the present. But it is well worth it because the effort required to deal with a problem if, or when, it crops up is typically much greater than the initial prevention requirements. So keep the future on your mind. Avoid yourself great expense and especially great suffering.
The most obvious application for this is with your own wellbeing. Everything you do every single day plays a role in this. Unfortunately, it is something that many of us need to improve upon.
What are some other places to apply this concept? And what are ways to fight impulses of the present that sabotage the prevention of future problems?
Many people spend their days at jobs they dislike and often cannot enjoy the things they work so hard to pay for. Should Monday be so dreadful? Can we have a society where people don’t complain about or hate their jobs? Surely there’s the argument that we have to work in order to provide for our families and to survive. But is this survival really living? Our work lives very much represent who we are. The livelihood should be something integral to life rather than the thing that sucks out life. Everyone should feel they have a purpose at work, and it should be something they care for. Good for the employees because they’ll be happier. Good for the business because employees will be more productive.
What work environments are inspirational and productive? And what work environments cause grief?
