Currently, physical inactivity and a poor diet are together poised to overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Did you catch the key word in that sentence? Preventable.
Even if it’s only for the sake of prolonging your life, becoming physically fit is more than worth it—but there are numerous other reasons why it pays to become more physically active. For starters, it can reduce your risk of certain cancers (e.g., colon, prostate, and breast), help lower your blood pressure, prevent or reverse heart disease, reduce depression and anxiety, prevent thinning bones (osteoporosis), reverse prediabetes, and greatly lower your risk of developing diabetes. If you already have diabetes, being active can make good diabetes control a great deal more attainable.
The more sedentary you are, the greater your risk of dying prematurely from myriad causes becomes. Even more important, though, is your increased chance of not feeling good while you are alive. Honestly, would you really like to spend the last twenty years of your diabetes-shortened life impaired by diabetic complications? Why risk lowering your quality of life with diabetes when you can prevent it—and other chronic health problems—simply by becoming physically fit?
The real causes of unfitness today
Nearly half of all American adults report that they are not active at all, while 70 percent aren’t moderately active enough to meet the recommended thirty minutes a day “most days of the week.” Why are we all so sedentary? Blame it on the industrial revolution, and you won’t be far off the mark. We’re the modern-day “hunter-gatherers” who no longer do either. Moreover, in the past half century, Americans have experienced a rise in sedentary, leisure-time pursuits unparalleled in human history.
Labor-saving devices like dishwashers, remote controls, and personal computers have left most of us sitting on our (ever-expanding) derrieres more than ever. When was the last time you shopped on the Internet instead of walking in the mall? If your answer is “today,” you are not alone. Not only do most American homes have at least one TV, but most also have one or more computers—usually with Internet access. In this fast-paced world of ours, is it any wonder that we often choose to let our fingers do the walking (on the keyboard) instead of our legs? And who twenty years ago could ever have imagined playing an Internet-linked video game on your cell phone? As a result of all these “improvements” to our way of life, we have become a society of unfit and fat people.
Of course, diet also plays a dramatic role in the current unfit state of most Americans. Not only have portion sizes increased during the past several decades, but we have also become entrenched in a “fast-food” mentality, leading us to expect and demand an ever greater selection of fast-food restaurants and low-nutrition, prepackaged food ready for consumption in supersized, “bargain” portions. And all this despite decreasing our energy needs with sedentary behaviors! We all tend to move around less after we gain excess weight from poor food choices, and the ensuing inactivity then causes us to gain more weight and become even less physically active—creating a vicious cycle. So, despite the proven and publicized health benefits of physical activity, the vast majority of us remain sedentary, unfit, and overweight.
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