The health landscape today is very different, both in America and around the world. In developed countries, access to high-quality food, a better understanding of public hygiene, advancements in lifesaving emergency medicine, and peace have helped more people survive and thrive well into old age.
Impediments to Good Health
The Cleveland Clinic’s 2017 “Heart Healthy” survey found that 68% of Americans were worried about dying from heart disease. Despite this, some 62% of those surveyed did not know what their blood pressure was, and only 18% knew their body mass index.Pressure to Eat Poorly
There are systemic reasons why individuals struggle with lifestyle upgrades. Cheap “convenience” foods are readily available and often cause poor people to struggle with obesity—instead of starve as they would have in previous centuries.The report asserts that “Frequent and widespread exposure to food marketing increases young people’s preferences, purchase requests, attitudes, and consumption of the primarily nutrient-poor, energy-dense products promoted.” This problem disproportionately affects Black and Hispanic children.
Expending Energy to Eat
Throughout history, humans could not secure food without labor. Hunting for meat, fish, and fowl took a great deal of energy, as did agriculture and gathering various edible plants. But once the fundamental relationship between hard physical labor and acquiring food was broken, humans became increasingly sedentary.Do Fad Diets Help?
Ever since public health officials noticed the enormous toll that chronic health problems—especially diabetes, obesity, and heart disease—take on the public, the question has been what to do about it. One approach has been fad diets, touted by doctors or nutritionists—some of whom have become fabulously wealthy by selling their diet books and programs.In the 1960s, cardiologist Robert C. Atkins proposed that his Atkins diet, which emphasizes protein and fat, could fix America’s broken health. Atkins, who ushered in a lasting low-carb craze, claimed that his diet would help people lose weight and keep it off, boost energy, and reduce high blood pressure.
A slew of diets are currently in vogue, including the Paleo diet, which advocates eating like a hunter-gatherer, consuming lots of meat and no grains; the ketogenic diet that promises its adherents that they will burn fat by eating fat instead of carbs; and the Whole30 program, which is based on eliminating potentially problematic foods and then reintroducing them one at a time to see which are causing issues.
One diet that enjoys more mainstream medical approval than most is the Mediterranean diet, which recommends eating meals rich in plants, whole grains, and olive oil.
Diets themselves aren’t new: Ancient Greek medicine was largely based on diet and exercise. Around 200 CE, Galen, one of the most famous physicians of the ancient world, wrote a book, “On the Power of Foods,” complete with culinary advice and recipes.
Traditional Chinese medicine prescribes a complex system of balancing foods in the diet—counterbalancing cool foods with those that warm you up, balancing different flavors like salty and sweet, and adjusting them all to the season and the individual’s constitution. Chinese medical practitioners also emphasize the importance of not overeating. Chinese ideas of health intrinsically involve movement, such as the traditional practice of tai chi, which both strengthens the body and calms the mind.
With so much disagreement and so many options, how can we know if these diets and eating practices help promote lifelong good health and vitality? There is plenty of disagreement among medical doctors and alternative practitioners who focus on nutrition. And the truth is, every human is different. One way of eating that works perfectly for one person may be a disaster for someone else.
Movement, Food, and Faith
For a long time, people have been thinking about the importance of diet and exercise to lasting good health and trying out different diets and exercise routines, but there doesn’t seem to be one perfect way to eat or to exercise. Exercise is just as debated an issue as diet. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) has been gaining traction among health advocates in the 21st century, though cardiovascular activities like running, rowing, and spin classes are also popular, and CrossFit gyms have proliferated.Some experts recommend that instead of doing HIIT, people can benefit from MISS (moderate-intensity steady-state exercise—challenging but manageable exercise that can be sustained for longer than HIIT) and LISS (low-intensity steady-state exercise, such as walking).
According to some longevity researchers, however, going to the gym or having an exercise routine does not matter. Dan Buettner, author of “The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who Have Lived the Longest,” argues that being active throughout the day is what matters most. Buettner recommends making simple changes that keep you moving: taking the stairs instead of the elevator; commuting by foot or pedal power instead of by car; getting up to change the channels on the television instead of using a remote.
Being active throughout the day and eating fresh, wholesome foods have positive effects on your mental health as well as on your physical well-being; mental and physical health go hand in glove. The deleterious effects of psychological stress on our physical health are well known, and one cannot be physically healthy if one is in mental distress. The Romans’ ideal of health was “mens sana in corpore sano”—a sound mind in a sound body.