What country is evolving...

1. 77

   Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years ago

   toward strength and robust health?
   
   The US used to be evolving, but I don't see it any more.
   Maybe we are just going through the doldrums.
   Maybe it will become strong again.
   
   One thing which is weakening us, in my opinion, is a lack of wholesome foods in the average American diet. Americans are eating too much processed and genetically modified foods, such as corn. Europe does not allow GMO foods.
   
   At an elementary school, the other day, I analyzed some pictures of students in classes throughout the years starting in the fifties.  To me, the kids of the fifties seemed the most happy and strong.
   
   Today's kids are either too fat or too skinny. Many hyperactive. Many on pharmaceutical drugs.
   
   I blame it on the easy access to non-foods. Chemical laden, processed foods such as TV dinners, supermarket bakery items… (For instance, have you ever read the ingredients of cookies or muffins made at Ralph's?)
   
   Cookies, cakes, ice cream, pies, chips, candy, crackers, have no nutritional value and are usually full of processed sugar, white flour and chemicals.
   
   Welfare familiarity and the casual use of EBT cards can't be helping either.
   
   
   Just wondering.

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   1. 84

      tsmogposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Monaco for one according to Health Fitness Revolution. Ranked #1 healthiest country in the world they used lifespan as its primary consideration while offer a short supportive paragraph with additional reasoning. From their research they listed the top ten healthiest countries. Bloomberg offers #1 is Singapore while Forbes places Iceland as number one. The common link between all the studies I read share three common elements, although its study seems complicated for sure:
      
      Food availability and its nutritional value
      Health Care systems
      Stress levels
      
      Another common link seems to be European nations are most mentioned in the top twenty such as the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, France, and others.
      
      Evolution has many views, although one is it is the transformation of one state of a physical property to another. Using the main criteria for most of those studies - life span, overall lifespan has increased with a world average today of about 68. Source: Wikipedia - List of Countries by Life Expectancies
      
      Interesting enough life expectancy for the U.S. for 1915 or 100 years ago was 52 for men and 57 for women (demog.berkeley.edu/~andrew/1918/figure2.html). So it seems evolving has occured as transformation. However, that does not say anything about our current state of affairs regarding healthy living.

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   2. 79

      Credence2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, I cannot dispute that. But I bet if they ate more fruits and vegetable, GMO, or not, they would fare much better. Also, numerous studies reveal that they do not get enough exercise. How they spend their leisure time is different from the way it was a couple of generations ago, it is cause for lament. Sometimes, simpler is better.

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      1. 77

         Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         ...natural is better too. Kids are expected to play sports in organized ways. I really truly think they need more FREEDOM... like we had in the 60's and 70's!
         IMO.

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         1. 79

            Credence2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I don't know, it seems like the past was more structured, some form of PE was mandatory in the public schools for able bodied studies. I only could avoid the requirement in high school because of my enrollment in junior ROTC. I see it differently, the lack of structure is the problem. You didn't have a lot of choices with leisure time, no such thing as distractions with cell phone or computer video games. Go out and play meant just that. I think that children need more structure to be provided by concerned adults rather than less. Minors usually lack the experience and judgement to make good and balanced choices in many things

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            1. 77

               Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               We knew our boundaries. Our parents set down the law and most parents were on board. I would walk home with my friends and could visit them after school. The neighborhood kids would play outside structuring their own activities. My brothers and I often played at the park until dark. We knew when to go home and we took care of ourselves just fine. (The park was about a block away.) Other kids I knew played football on the streets where they lived. Are times really so much more dangerous that kids cannot walk home from school, play in the streets, or be in parks alone??
               
               Even in the 90's my kids had this freedom. My son and his friends played hockey with their rollerblades and hockey sticks at various safe locations in the neighborhood. As they became serious rollerbladers, all us mom's took turns picking them up after they were done riding around town. In liberty they developed balance and athletic abilities and the awareness to be proactively safe. My son never had one accident.
               During summer vacation, I would drive him and his friends to swimming spots along small rivers in the mountains nearby where they could swim and jump in from high rocks. Of course, I was there literally lifeguarding them and making sure they were safe.
               I just hope kids today have a certain amount of playful, self-directed freedom... within appropriate common sense boundaries set by parents, of course.

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2. 80

   Electro-Denizenposted 9 years ago

   The UK is very similar, though GM crop trials tend to get ripped up and destroyed by protesters, so they have to grow them secretly.
   
   If you look at the footage of school kids and teachers from the 1970s and earlier, everyone looks so skinny - not unhealthy skinny, just skinny by today's standards. In fact, if someone looks 1970s skinny today, people have a tendency to think 'underweight', which shows how perceptions change. The whole 'too skinny' issue is very muddy now, as anorexia and food paranoia (orthorexia?), gets muddled in people's minds.
   
   Lack of exercise probably is the biggest issue. And we just eat more than our bodies need.
   
   It's actually really weird, that science is on the side of recommending to eat less meat, especially red meat, and yet meat consumption is going up and up. Same in China, where people are developing Western diseases more.
   
   Robust health for a country? I was watching a documentary on long distance runners from Kenya, pointing out that they ate meat only extremely occasionally (e.g. weddings etc). I guess any country which hasn't slipped into the meat and dairy mindset, people there will have a greater chance at longevity and good health. Also, countries that don't eat all those processed food-like substances, that the body really has no idea what to do with.

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   1. 77

      Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I agree.

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3. 77

   Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years ago

   ...the country which does not depend on drugs for all physical and mental problems is the one which will evolve; the country which works with the body according to nature and treats the body/mind according to how it was designed. The country which does not addict its populace to pharmaceuticals.
   All pharmaceuticals are toxic to the liver, kidneys and brain. Why do doctors forget about this fact of the matter as they prescribe a drug? They could care less about true health. Yet, those are the doctors people in de-evolving countries trust. Yes, sometimes we need drugs to regulate the body from time to time when one really slips up and gets out of sync with nature. But, it is best to just work with nature according to sound day to day physical and psychological principals of health.
   It is not hard to learn what these are. It really isn't.
   
   
   TWISI

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