After glancing at the title, you may have some reservations about proceeding with this entry. It may sound like you're getting ready to delve into a political piece that's loaded with possible left/right wing biases, but that's not true. The truth is that I have spent the past 10 minutes trying to think of a title that would catch your attention and pique your curiosity (okay, maybe not 10 full minutes, since I'm sitting here watching "Clifford the Big Red Dog" with Max) so you'll be willing to stick around for the meat of the entry.
We're fat. Indiana is fat and America is fat. Every year when researchers publish their findings on the fattest states, newscasters always seem surprised at how low Indiana ranks. What I've yet to understand is why so few people seem spurred into action after the findings are given to the media. If you think about it, obesity is the one disease that is solely your fault. Sure, someone may get lung cancer, but did they smoke the cigarettes or was it brought about from second-hand exposure? Many people have died from lung cancer and have never even put a cigarette to their lips. How many more people have died (or are going to die) from all of the bad food they put into their bodies?
Let's ponder some of the reasons why people may be the sizes they are and what can be done. Some people are emotional eaters. When they're depressed, they eat; when they're happy, they eat. People also eat when they're bored. One excellent remedy for these people is exercise. Science has proven that when you exercise your brain releases endorphins. Endorphins are neurotransmitters that are released and provide a natural high (like the term "runner's high") many find encourages them to exercise more. It would be a logical choice to exercise if you're sad because you will not only be relieving stress from the sad event, but your brain will take care of you, too. If you're happy (which is great), exercise to help stay happy (because eating may make you happy now, but may turn around and make you sad later). It's just that simple. Additionally, many people eat when they aren't even hungry. More often than not, what we mistake for hunger is actually the body's way of saying it's thirsty. The next time you find yourself rooting around for a snack, try drinking some water and see if that hungry feeling was real or not.
Everyone knows that physical activity is a key component to being healthy, but many aren't able to discern between which foods are good for you and which are not so good. This particular problem bothers me the most because it's the one people know the least about. If you think back to your school days, when did you take your last health class? Sometime in high school, right? Do you recall the primary focus of high school health education? Yup, sex and STD's. As I sit here, I honestly cannot remember the topic of nutrition coming up in anytime after middle school. That being said, it's not too surprising to find that many students push any nutrition education out of their memory banks in order to absorb information for calculus or chemistry. Yeah, you may be able to remember that a Mol is 6.02 x 10 to the 23rd power, but what's the difference between trans fats and saturated fats or your HDL and LDL levels? Between you and me, I think that the latter information is more important.
Now, I'm not going to jump up onto a soapbox and pretend that I know all about food and nutrition. Trust me, I don't know nearly as much as I should. However, I have been taking it upon myself to seek out any information I can find about eating well and promoting one's health. It wasn't a big concern of mine a few years ago, but having children will bring about changes like that. Once my oldest started getting ready to eat "real people food" I had to start being concerned with what he was eating since he wasn't the one doing the grocery shopping. After looking through assorted cookbooks (seriously, check my cabinet--I have a ton), I was starting to discover what I really needed was nutritional information in my cookbooks. Out of the cookbooks I have, few of them provide nutrition labels for each recipe or portion size. After doing some research on my own, I found two wonderful websites that provided me with what I was looking for: yummy recipes that included portion size and nutritional content. The first is Spark Recipes and the second is Cooking Light. Both of these websites also have bonuses: Spark Recipes has an iPhone application that is wonderful and Cooking Light is also a magazine. Another thing that I really like about Spark Recipes is that it is primarily geared toward people with dietary restrictions (i.e. wheat/gluten free, low cholesterol, etc), so if you know someone with a dietary restriction that they're struggling with, refer them to the site.
Going back to the title of this entry, what does this have to do with health care reform? I'm not telling you to go march on Washington D.C. or anything--all I'm saying is if you want to change your health, it starts with you. As a friendly gesture, I'm going to share one of my favorite healthy recipes from Spark Recipes. I encourage you to post any healthy recipes you may have in the 'comments' section so we can share them with others.
Slow Cooker Chicken Taco Stew
Enjoy and have a wonderful day!
~Jenna
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