Believe nothing of what you read and half of what you see!

                My grandfather taught me as youngster to always be sceptical of everything.  I may tend to take this a bit far, but for the most part he was right.  Believe it or not, there are people out there that are trying to sell you stuff you don't need and feed you full of information that is not always truthful.   The point of this article is to preach common sense and accountability on individuals.   I will tie this in with a variety of my thoughts and how it may pertain to the fitness industry.  Many of the stories below come from the countless hours we spend with our client's week in and week out.

Story # 1

This is from my session with one of my favourite Tuesday morning clients.  She is one of our fittest clients for her age range (15-83)!  Any who, in our morning conversation we talked about a doctor friend of hers that sits on a chair that is trying to make the major fast food chains be accountable for labelling nutritional values on all of their products.  The idea is wonderful, but I think they are getting a step ahead of themselves.  I'm pretty sure the people that eat at these types of restaurants are the same people that do not concern themselves with what labels say.  I go shopping 2-3 times per week and rarely see people paying attention to what they are purchasing.  Ultimately it is our responsibility as consumers to know what we are buying and putting into our bodies, then put a value on it.  Is this worth 500 calories, do I need this much salt, do I know what any of these ingredients are other than sugar etc.  I like to think someone wouldn't buy a new car without researching it first, but I would be wrong, otherwise the YUGO would not have had a stellar 4 year run.  The same is said for nutritional values, we tend to believe what people tell us without doing the appropriate research.   Just because a label says "fat free" or "healthy choice" doesn't necessarily make it so! 

                This group of doctors are doing tireless work and should be commended for it.  We need more people that are advocates for the consumer in this world.  My only criticism would be that if people don't care to read labels, how will this help?  If you eat at a fast food chain, I am pretty sure you know that what you are consuming is not healthy.  My suggestion would be to educate people as to what the labels mean first.  How many of you are aware of how many calories you should consume?  How much fibre you should ingest daily and how to get it?  How much sodium you should ingest etc...    I like to think that if people knew that they were getting their daily caloric intake, double their recommended sodium and no fibre, in one super duper value meal, they may be a little more interested as to what they are putting into their bodies.

                I do not want to take anything away from this great idea, but I think it would be beneficial to make it mandatory that the daily recommended values be taught in school and published on a regular basis in newspapers, on the news, in ads and most importantly-above urinals (It's a short read and at eye level!).  This will put the hones on the consumer and then we can point at them and tell them we told you so!  This is not without its problems as well.  The recommended values would need to come from unbiased sources, not doctors and scientists that receive funding from lobbyists. 

Story # 2

                This is from another one of my fittest clients that fall in the age range of 15-83.  There was talk of charging parents of fat kids with neglect.  This will tie into the above story regarding accountability.  If you are going to charge the parents, what about the schools, stores and fast food restaurants?   In the last few years, the schools have removed all "junk food" from their vending machines and replaced them with suitable healthy alternatives.  When is that last time someone thought "hmm, I feel like some carrot sticks, I'm just going to run to the vending machine"?  Joking aside, how do you put fruit in a vending machine and think that it will stay fresh?  Is putting foods full of nitrates and other chemicals healthy?  If kids want to eat junk, they will get it.  By taking junk food out of vending machines, we are just forcing the consumer to go to any store and get what they are looking for.  Many of these schools count on the vending machines for added revenue and with all the cutbacks to education I find it hard to fault them for it.  This is where my common sense kicks in! I would suggest putting in snacks that are healthier alternatives to candy bars, but not quite as healthy as carrot sticks or apple slices.  Granola bars, dried fruit and nuts, baked chips and pretzels and flavoured milks come to mind.  Sure, they are not the best alternative, but they are all products that may spark the kid's interest over time and are healthier than the nitrate and sugar rich alternatives that are in there now.  

                I remember doing a workshop with one of the local highs schools when this first occurred.  The vending machines sat full of somewhat nutritious goodies while the cafeteria sold candy bars and other crap foods.  If the ultimate goal is to increase the health of these kids and schools, then the only way for it to work is to not allow anyone in the school to sell it.  As I mentioned, budget cuts are killing these schools, so it is tough to fault them for trying to raise funds.   

                There is a fairly simple solution to both topics I have touched on.  Awareness!  Make both parents and children aware of what they are putting into their bodies and explain the consequences in a cut and dry manner.   We do not need pie charts and research studies that no one can understand except the lab technicians that did them.  Make the literature easy enough to read for a 7 year old to understand and word it so it is not insulting to academics.  If this seems difficult, maybe researchers should spend less time researching and more time talking to the people that their study is going to affect to ensure that there is an actual benefit for it.

My Final Thoughts:

                Please don't take this the wrong way; I am not trying to take anything away from these groups that are advocating healthier lifestyles.  I would just like to see us put more into education and awareness.  If people understood how to read the labels and were aware of how misleading they can be, we would all be accountable for our own actions.  For people that live a fairly healthy lifestyle, it is hard to understand why people are obese or overweight when we have so many healthy choices available to us.  I believe that if people had the slightest clue as to how many calories they were putting into their bodies with each snack, meal and drink-they might understand the benefit of just ordering a single patty burger as opposed to the triple patty they are used to.  Many people that eat poorly just need to understand the concept of calories in versus calories out.  Get off the crash diets and make small changes based off what you read on nutrition labels and you will see change over time.  For many North Americans this can be as simple as cutting back on or cutting out something as simple as drinking your calories (juice, pop, beer etc.). 

                Be accountable for yourselves and your families.  We all want to live a long healthy life and the pressure to do so is in our hands first.  We can blame fast food chains as much as we want, but at the end of the day it is up to us to decide whether we want to eat there or not.

Yours in Strength,

Joe McCullum