Breaking News...Michigan is Fat

I didn't even bother to look up who did the study or where the rankings are taken.  I know this, no one measured my BMI. (Body Mass Index)  If they did, I would be classified obese.  But, walk down the street, head to any Mall and you probably won't argue the results.

I think I remember that Michigan has always ranked high in the obesity charts.  It was a title we fought with Mississippi (the new number 1).  Michigan is the only state that isn't down south.

One could argue that it's a reflexion of the health of the economy as well.  Poorer states are usually fat.  Pretty simple.  But it's more about education in my opinion.  There are as many affluent overweight individuals as there are poor.

The Michigan Governor, Rick Snyder, after the results were released, initiated a Pure Michigan Fit program. Four tenants.  A few are excellent, breast feed your babies.  This should be pushed in hospitals.  Having been in a NICU unit for my daughter, I know this wasn't the case.  (They sure did push for my little premie to get a Hep B shot though).  Another is limit juice consumption, a step in the right direction.  Juice is like sugar water.  Push fruit and vegetables as a first type of solid food.  Another step that seems pretty solid.  The last was limit saturated fat. An example was to replace whole milk with skim.  Horrible advice.  Studies have shown that skim spikes insulin more.  Insulin spikes usually result in fat storage.

There lies part of the problem.  There still exists wrong information that is being dispensed as "health."  Diet soda isn't healthier for you.  Eating saturated fat is good not bad.  Low fat isn't healthy.  Butter isn't bad.  Low calorie snacks doesn't make them good for you.  Eating late at night for the majority of your calories isn't detrimental to your health, just as breakfast isn't the most important.  Cereal is not a great breakfast choice.  Fortified means all the good stuff was taken out and had to be put back in.  Vitamin water is sugar.  You probably never even came close to working out hard enough or long enough to justify that Gatorade.

One step in the right direction is stressing the need to increase movement.  Move more.  They talk about increasing bike and running races.  Cool.  More events.  That isn't going to help one thing.  If I'm struggling with money, I'm not going to pay 30 dollars to run a 5k.  There are some awesome programs out there like Girls on the Run.  But how about thinking large scale.

How about figuring out a way to put gym class back in school.  Michigan no longer requires it every day.  Growing up we had gym for an hour every day.  These days it may be 30 min every other day.

There is a crazy stat out there that like in 20 years one in three kids will have type 2 diabetes.  It currently costs the US 100 billion dollars.  So not having the money to do something like creating jobs for PE teachers is not logical.  Spend a little, save a lot.

Thomas Jefferson said, "Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning."