Kicking Our 2 Worst Habits: Sugar and Sitting
As I observe and interact with others, it is clear that the vast majority of people are not taking very good care of their health. Given the resources that are available, including proven medical advice, about diet and exercise and their positive effects on health, weight, energy, and longevity, the level of individual participation in any health-related regime is shockingly low.
Based on my reading, the 2 areas that have the most significant ill effect on our health are 1) eating sugar of all types, including any highly processed carbohydrate (think sugary breakfast cereals, candy bars, and soda), and 2) lack of movement (think about the amount of time we spend sitting on any given day). This toxic combination of ingesting high-calorie, low-nutrient food and not moving enough to burn those calories and keep the vital systems of our bodies functioning as well as they can accounts for the preconditions and eventual development of most major diseases. These include metabolic disfunction, atherosclerosis (“hardening of the arteries”) and heart conditions, dementia, diabetes and, increasingly, many forms of cancer.
Why Do We Need to Kick the Sugar Habit?
A recent New York Times article, “This is Your Body on Sugar,” points out many of the downsides of a high-sugar-content diet. Your teeth, digestion in the gut, pancreas, liver, body weight and fat storage, heart, and joints are all directly and negatively affected by taking in too much sugar, and particularly sweeteners such as high-fructose corn syrup and sucrose which are hidden ingredients in many processed foods. All those parts of the body react to the sugar as they should, as a TOXIN, something that shouldn’t be there. The resulting conditions, anything from arthritis to heart disease to diabetes to obesity, are the effects of the body’s attempts to keep the sugar from causing even more damage. This fuels a vicious cycle of the body’s efforts to fight the sugar and then the body’s reaction to those efforts, setting the stage for even more damage. An analogy is when you have a cold and your immune system reacts by secreting more mucous in your nose and sinuses to rid the body of the virus. The follow-on effect of this is not only discomfort but less ability to breath well, which further inhibits your immune system.
Lots of new research points to how, once the metabolic disfunction that sugars (or any processed carbohydrate) induce takes hold, the body is less and less able to be robust in its housekeeping and immune functions. This leads to more and more risk of major disease as you get older. The “cleaner” your diet is, i.e. the less artificial ingredients and the more natural foods you consume, the better your chances of avoiding major diseases.
Why Is Sitting So Harmful?
Our modern lives are designed to sit, especially on comfortable chairs and sofas. This was not the case for most of our existence as human beings, when the only options for sitting were on the hard ground, a log, or a rock. Those seating options didn’t bend and warp our spines or compress our lungs and organs like our cushy sofas do. They required us to engage our back, leg, and core muscles to sit upright and breathe fully. How routinely we sit is shocking. How many times have I seen people, even younger people, rush to empty seats on a subway train or bus as if a seat were some coveted prize? If only they knew the damage they were doing by prolonged sitting and, instead, took advantage of the opportunity to stand up straight, breathe fully, engage their legs and back, and practice balance every time the train or bus starts and stops.
Want an example from my life? My 20-year-old daughter is in veterinary school and spends many hours a day in her books and computer. She used to do this at a desk or on a sofa, which she found sluggish and sedentary and led to a sore back. She now has started using a standing desk which she finds much more comfortable and active and keeps her mind more alert! And no more back aches!
A few studies I have read recently emphasize why sitting—and sedentary behavior in general—is so harmful. One study looked at 20 and 30 year olds who sat all day for work, averaging 8.5 hours a day of sitting. Most of them, even at this young age, showed an increased risk of heart and metabolic disease, as measured by cholesterol levels and Body Mass Index (BMI) even if they exercised moderately when not working. The study also suggests that these preconditions, once set in motion, incline a person toward chronic conditions rather than the opposite condition: healthy living. Another study of identical twins (to discount genetic differences) showed similar results, but also revealed that vigorous physical activity offset the effects of sitting and sedentariness. Here is a quote from this study: “Failing to disrupt sedentary behavior could set a course toward poorer health and function across the lifespan.”
The Solution? Get Up and Get Moving!
Who wants either of those outcomes—poor health and function—when the only thing you need to do to avoid them is get off the sofa and start moving? Go for a walk, stand more, or at least sit upright with your hips, back and shoulders engaged.
Tackling our 2 worst habits, sugar and sitting, is a sure-fire way to increase our health and improve our healthcare systems. Yet we are bombarded every day with the lure of comfort and the lure of sweetness as the pinnacles of “enjoying life.” I don’t believe that regulating or taxing the companies that tempt us will work to stop those devastating habits. The root of our addictions to sugar and sitting lies in our behavior. If those habits are causing us to be sick, they might need to be treated like diseases, much like addictions to alcohol, drugs, and gambling, with roots in our psyches as well as our bodies. I believe in the power of health and the human spirit to overcome them. Once exposed to what healthy life can be like, we can also find help and inspiration with kicking these habits, and the strength within us to pursue lifestyle habits that are more beneficial to ourselves and our loved ones.
