In the Land of Jason

I wrote this 2 weeks ago and appearently is still hasn't taken. For subscribers this was the post I e-mailed you about previously. 

  Media is a huge influence in our lives. Being part of the health care industry over the years, I’ve gotten worn down by how people try to manipulate consumers into buying into a new health concept. If you eat this magical juice it’ll improve you alertness. Eating just orange vegetables will melt away yellow fat. The common thinking was that if you consume fat you get fat. I remember Susan Powter screaming that since pigs are fat we should not eat pigs. Even then I remember thinking that that was horrible logic. If I eat dairy cows will I produce milk or if I eat chickens will I lay eggs? Eggs became a “bad” foods years ago for the similar reasoning. Since they contain cholesterol, you should avoid them to lower your cholesterol. As science has stepped up we’ve learned that metabolism is far more complex. The biggest change in the last several years is what we define as a good nutrient. The truth is that healthy means eating complex nutrients (complex carbs, protein, and good fats) in moderation and healthy activity.

                    This past week Time magazine’s cover story “Why exercise won’t make you thin”, was a shocker that exercise alone won’t make you svelt.

                     Well, duh. You mean that even though I just burned 300 calories in the gym I can’t reward myself with a 450 calorie Snickers? You mean that if I do a thousand crunches a day I won’t have wash board abs? (You’ll have rock hard abs under a slab of fat).

                    It feels deeply, deeply cheap for a major magazine to place this on the cover. “Ohhh, expose! The medical community changes its mind again.” Being active is important for improving cardiovascular health (avoiding heart attacks and stroke), memory, cognition, reducing the long term effects of chronic conditions like arthritis, diabetes, and asthma, increases energy levels, mitigating stress and depression, and improving sleep patterns. It’s not a cure all and like all activities done in moderation. Exercise done to an extreme will destroy the body. The article seemed a kind of backlash against the fitness craze being pushed in the media. There is no magic bullet. It takes years to develop a healthy perspective and strong body. Time’s central theme was that if your sole goal for working out is vanity, it’s a waste of your time. If you want to be sexy it takes diet and exercise. In the health care field we’re much less worried about how sexy your abs are; rather how lovely your bowels and blood move.

Being healthy isn’t something you learn to do well in a matter of days or even months. My exercise habits have been bipolar years. Yet I’m still only about 35 pounds heavier than I was at 18 (nearly 15 yrs ago). That number includes added muscle and the 30 pound gain after my knee injury. (Though I should probably subtract the 9 pounds I’ve recently lost in prep for a 5k in November. Wohooo!) In 1996 I cut out everything out of my diet except boiled chicken and white rice with the intent of retraining my taste buds (I can’t recommend this approach for everyone but it was a starting place for me, talk to your medical provider and nutritionist). It was terrible and my apartment smelled like carcass. I lost weight but largely because I no longer wanted to eat. Bland food is not happy food. Slowly I added one spice and then another as I learned how it would alter tastes. Let me tell you lemon juice makes chicken taste like heaven after a week of bland food. I sought out cheap but healthy nutrients (beans, vegetables) and experimented. Most of my experiments were pretty awful. My former coworkers at the clinic will never let me live down my tuna chile (which I still maintain did taste good though it had a distinctive smell). Now despite the fact that most of my food is healthy (minus the desserts I make for work or church) strangers have actually asked for my recipes when I’m eating in the cafeteria. BUT its taken me 13 years and I’m still not as disciplined as I ought to be. It takes time to learn to be healthy and learn balance.

The Time article felt cheap, irresponsible, and lopsided. The only people that ought to take note are dimwitted narcissists. The health care community has been encouraging a balance of nutrition and exercise for decades. Booo, Time.

On the flip side the Consumer Reports September edition was about over-the-counter medications and what you need to know about hospitals stays. Excellent, excellent. It’s a must read. Fair intelligent and well researched. I don’t agree with everything there but it’s a great starting place. There articles were written well neither condescendingly nor to shock. They just lay it all out there. They also have a great list of websites that help you research your hospital. This alone is worth buying the magazine. The more prepared you are before you get sick the better decisions you’ll make with crisis hits. Read it and then buy copies for family members.

Time- 2 thumbs down

Consumer Reports- 2 thumbs up.

Spell check squirrel notes that there are way too many “S”s in “narcissists”. Some words just think they’re better than others.