Americans Are Less Healthy Than They Were in 1988

nytimes.com:

Five fruits and vegetables a day. Exercise, several times a week at least. No smoking.

Anyone who hasn't heard the healthy lifestyle message has to be living under a rock. But whether it's the vegetable-hating inner child or the primal urge to conserve physical energy asserting itself, millions of middle-age Americans are having none of it.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[cookingwithdia]

There are different ways to live a healthy life. Personally after a never ending brain tumor, I have become macrobiotic. That regime may seem too strict for most people. I always say anything in moderation can't hurt. I no longer have refined sugar and find that natural sugars like agave nectar are sufficient enough in my comfort food recipes.

An easy first step for everyone would be to replace sunflower oil with safflower oil. Instead of drenching your chicken or fish in butter, try some toasted sesame oil. Start eating super foods like chili peppers--they are known to boost metabolism and ward off infections. Sprinkle everything you eat with sesame seeds, as they are a great source of calcium.Those of us who are vegan can benefit from them. There are so many simple ways to fix our health.
http://cookingwithdia.com

[jmpurser]

Gee we're the only country with a for profit market driven health insurance industry in the world and we have the highest cost, the lowest results, and the unhealthiest people.

I wonder if there could possibly be a connection between doing something really stupid and poor outcomes?

[yellowdoggie]

Okay, I'm going to turn off my computer and go walk my dogs now. Then I'm going to have a small helping of non-fat, plain yogurt with some fresh blueberries and a few chopped pecans.

Bye

[AngieMom57]

It's all interconnected:

Health care & health
Economy & work habits & stress
Ecology

When we take those independent first steps towards self-reliance we stop depending on government and start down the road to compassionate communities.

[LadyR]

Yes, too many of us are not taking care of our health. As to working out before going to work, I just read that it's better to work out later, when your body has had some nourishment. As to preparing meals, if you keep your freezer and fridge stocked with individual servings of protein and always have fresh fruit, vegs, nonfat dairy, whole grain bread, pasta or couscous plus olive oil, it will only take you 5-10 minutes to prepare a healthy dinner. Just thaw a serving of protein, cook your vegs in a bit of olive oil, heat up a serving of couscous in the microwave, and you've got a completely balanced, healthy and delicious meal. Follow it with 1/2 cup of nonfat yogurt topped with 1 cup of frozen blueberries, and you will have eaten a meal fit for a king. Yum!

[FreedomAgain]

A lot of it has to do with schedules. You have 15 minutes to make it across town, what are you going to eat (probably some fast food)? You have to work late, and are totally worn out by the time you get home, are you going to cook a healthy meal? Going to go for a walk in the dark where there are no sidewalks? It seems like people have less free time and more stress these days, and we certainly don't have enough options for proper exercise. At least in Europe they have bike paths and sidewalks in most places which would give you greener transportation options and better exercise.

[LitDr2B]

Europeans also have a drastically different attitude toward work than do Americans. It's not their entire life.

People choose how busy they want to be. People can decide to stop over-scheduling their children so they're not shuttling them around to two-three different places a day. People can choose to spend less time on-line and watching TV and channel some of that time into preparing a healthy snack or meal ahead of time. Fresh foods do not have to take hours and hours to cook. You should be able to reasonably put a healthy, fresh meal on the table (or into someone's hands if it's traveling) in about thirty minutes.

People don't want to do it, though.

[Chas53]

We were not meant to eat most of the processed foods that folks consume. Eating a fast food burger, fries and Coke floods our digestive system with as much sugar and fat as if we had just consumed 10,000 lbs of a primitive diet. Plus, most people just don't exercise. Fat city prevails. Good for cardiologists, who are more than willing to put a stent in any and all blockages of your coronary arteries. Eat up and plug up.

[marlovian]

We're just living in the post-modern period of natural selection.

[zizyphus]

Okay. It is all about the Yin and the Yang. One must strive for balance. Sure, we are going to eat junk. Just balance it with whole foods, from your garden or farmer's market. If I eat junk, it better be the highest quality junk. Pure, dark chocolate in a homemade cookie, for example, instead of a bag of "Chips Ahoy".

Even my qi gong master, a grandmaster, smokes.

[SangZe]

The USA solves all its problems with murder and terrorism. How more unhealthy can you get?

[Poes Law]

To me it is a matter of time and energy. I work M-F from 8:30 to 5:30 and don't get home until around 6 p.m. (as I assume most Americans do). After sitting ALL DAY LONG at a desk, staring at a computer, my energy level is drained and I don't have the energy to go to the store, search for the right foods, come home and prepare a well balanced meal. Quite often I succumb to fast food or TV dinners. I also have a hard time finding the time and energy to exercise. I think about it but then I get worn out trying to figure out what to do or where to go. We need healthy fast-food (and no, that doesn't mean just salads!) and work-sponsored exercise programs (perhaps getting off half an hour earlier to participate in an exercise program). If people aren't willing to change (which has been proven) then other changes must be considered.

[Kayte]

Many people do live the 9- 5 lifestyle you describe, myself included. It is not an excuse to not actively try to incorporate the healthy into your lifestyle. I too am so drained sometimes after work to even think of going to the gym for an hour. Solution...I go before work...3-4 times a week. You are not having a hard time finding the time and the energy, you just aren't making it something that is that important for you to do. Nowadays there are so many fitness sites that can tailor a health conscious grocery list/meals for you, and all you have to do is go shopping. Even walking for 20 minutes around your neighborhood is beneficial AND will give you more energy.

[Poes Law]

You are correct, but that is the point I am trying to make. I do want to eat better and work out more, but it isn't important enough for me to get up early. I know I'll have more energy once I work out, and indeed I did used to work out more when I lived closer to a nice gym that offered cheap memberships. My point is that many people, including myself, don't put eating better and working out high up on our list of priorities. Some people don't live in safe neighborhoods, and some don't live near (or can afford) gym memberships. Americans have tons of excuses, so the only viable solution is to force change on people. Make changes people will actually use, such as healthier fast food that tastes good, and incentives to work out (like time off work, etc.)

[FreedomAgain]

If everyone had sidewalks, I would agree with your statement. Too many places have no sidewalks for people to walk or use greener transportation.

[DennyCrane]

This is the real reason our health care costs are so high. But you'll never hear any politician say this. Americans are great at blaming everyone else problems they created on their own. Maybe if people had to pay more out-of-pocket costs, they'd take better care of themselves.

[DXM]

Americans' unhealthy lifestyles are not THE reason for our high health care costs (there are plenty of other countries in the West with unhealthy lifestyles that manage to have lower health care costs than we do but with better overall outcomes) but it certainly does contribute to the higher health car costs.

[indywoman]

Our high health care costs are due to the fact that we have health for profit. No one should profit from our health needs. Doctors should be paid well, very well, by the government, but no one else should profit. Drug companies could still profit, but there should be a limit on what they can expect to make. Currently, they are making gargantuan profits, which is why they keep coming up with excuses to make new pills!!!!! And, they produce them and sell them before they have the bugs worked out, adding to the overall health care costs, which just benefits them.

Drug companies and health insurance companies run this country. They pay for the politician of their choice, then push the legislation that allows them to run at the highest profit margins. It has been out of control for generations, and it must stop. But, due to the fact that they put most of the politicians in office, it would take a miracle to break this system.

[skippypicasso]

Taxes to support national health are out-of-pocket costs.

[popart]

when i was a child in school many years ago i expected that for a lot of reasons the Chinese one day would rule the planet...now that i am an adult i think the same think but now i know why......America is not very impressive these days....fat and lazy....instant gradification...no vision for a better world...unless that means more KFC's and MacDonalds in foreign lands. The Chines are a good people...maybe they should rule the world....as long as they don't become like us.

[econ1]

Well at least their health care costs will be paid for.

[Aesthete]

This is truly sad news. We Americans eat WAY too much. I work in a hospital environment and the human physical wreckage resulting from overconsumption coupled with a sedentary lifestyle is something I see plenty of on a daily basis. Is there some void in our lives that we are trying to fill with food? In short, we are killing ourselves, something that all the terrorists on the planet could never accomplish.

Perhaps eating habits have been passed down from earlier generations when people did much more manual labor. As a black woman I know that my ancestors consumed their share of "soul" food, heavily loaded with animal fats, carbohydrates, and sodium. However, many of them were slaves or sharecroppers who worked daily at hard physical labor and thus burned the calories. I do not seek to "honor" my ancestors by emulating their diets. In spite of walking and exercising, my lifestyle is still far more sedentary than theirs and their "historic" diet would be a killer for me.

[indywoman]

Fast food companies have sprung up like weeds in the last 20 years. They are owned by huge corporations. They started out with normal portion sizes, and with so much competition graduated to larger and larger portions. Guess who loses in this situation??? The little guy. Every one of us. I stopped eating at any chain restaurant years ago. I didn't want my kids to eat that crap any more.

When my daughter was younger, it was difficult to get her to understand that most of the stuff she begged me to buy in the grocery store, just wasn't good for her. The packages were so kid friendly it made it an impossible task, but I would only allow her one item per trip of pre- packaged variety. I hated buying that, but I had to compromise. Now, years later, she knows so much about nutrition, that her health teacher at high school was astounded.

Corporations sure make it difficult to eat right, because they can't profit off it. I have always wondered if single owned healthy drive thru's would be successful. People sure need it.

[skippypicasso]

I blame Jared.