The Cold, Hard Truth About Health
Sarabeth Matilsky
November 30, 2002
I'm tired of lying reports disseminated by books, ads, and headlines. I'm annoyed by how many "experts" try to reassure people that staying healthy is actually easy and simple, and all one must do is follow a few simple rules. I'm sick of seeing weight-loss strategies advertised as if it really were possible to healthfully lose thirty pounds in thirty days. I'm disgusted with how the media reports preliminary research as if it were fact. ("Earth-Shattering New Report! Vitamin C might, depending on whether the moon is full next Tuesday, be one of the factors implicated in preventing strokes in those over the age of 58 1/2!")
A reasonable response to some of those ads and books and headlines is, "Since it's so easy to be fit and healthy, it must be my fault that I'm not." We're a nation of people who are not only generally unhealthy, but who feel guilty about it. It is true that we have control over the way we live our lives, the foods we eat, and the amount of exercise we do. But something that may be important, as we collectively try to become healthier, is to acknowledge that making healthy choices, in a culture that encourages Super-Sized French-Fried Everything, is downright difficult.
I didn't used to think that. My mantra was, "It's easy! Eat simple, healthy food, exercise, and take care of yourself--then you'll be healthy." On that very basic level, the formula is simple. But there are so many things that complicate our quest for better health. U.S. farmers produce 3,800 calories' worth of food a day for every woman, man, and child in America. That's nearly double what the average person needs. Food producers and manufacturers and marketers spend tens of billions of dollars each year to get people to eat the excess. And they aren't promoting fresh, nutrient-rich whole foods. To be healthy in our society, says Walter Willett, author of "Eat, Drink and Be Healthy," you must be constantly vigilant. "Don't forget," reminds Willett, "that much of the food industry, because its goal is to sell more food, is out to exploit your weaknesses and destroy your defenses. You will need to be smart to avoid their traps."
That, I'm learning, is the cold, hard truth about well-being: if you want to be healthy, you have no choice but to take responsibility for it yourself. The most important contributing factors for good health are eating healthy food and exercising often, and you can't get those things from a pill. Instead, each of us must discover the best way to live, and it's different for everyone. To complicate matters, it's a life-long endeavor: the best diet and exercise plan for you may change as time goes by, and the only one who can keep abreast of your body's changing needs is yourself. The people who produce most of our food aren't watching out for us. The government won't do it, at least not when they still entrust biased entities like the U.S. Department of Agriculture (the agency responsible for promoting American agriculture, _not_ monitoring and protecting our health) with the task of recommending healthful living strategies to Americans. Doctors very likely won't be on your side--how can they, when many medical schools don't even require a single nutrition class in their entire four-year program?
The flip side of living in a country with so much excess is that we have a greater variety of food choices, and more knowledge available, than humans have ever had before. "Lifestyle Choices" probably aren't something our ancestors had to worry much about. They ate when there was food, and if they ate the wrong kind of foods, well, then maybe they died young from malnutrition or a heart attack or a poisonous berry.
Today, we make choices every time we put anything into our mouths. And it seems to me that we have to start making informed choices, before the proportion of overweight adults in America soars to more than two-thirds of the population. We have to recognize that the vast majority of our health concerns (from diabetes to hypertension to heart disease) are preventable, mostly by eating well and exercising. And we have to learn and pass on our wisdom to our children, so that they won't have to spend as much time as we do, standing--befuddled by the myriad (and mostly crappy) choices--in the cereal aisle. It's a lot of work to fight against the status quo, but if we don't do it, who will?