Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Heart Disease Anyone?

I overheard last night on the news that there is supposed to be a new wave of heart disease in the age group which includes people in their 20's to 30's.

In addition to this fun medical fact, is the apparent need to exercise everyday for 60 to 90 minutes vigorously.

Now, the last I heard on the subject of how much physical activity was desirable was the recommendation that you get your heart rate up and keep it there for about 20 minutes and that you should endeavour to achieve this cardiovascular goal three times a week.

Does the aforementioned disparity ring any bells?

The Canadian Food Guide called for, and only as an adult did I realize how non-sensible the serving numbers were, an awfully high daily number of servings of meat, grains, dairy, and fruits and vegetables.

Three square meals a day was considered the norm and now some wisdom is saying six smaller meals a day is ideal for digestion.

And it turns out you really don't need eight glasses of water a day; especially for men as apparently the extra pressure on a males bladder is not good for the prostate.

I am not saying that we shouldn't be exercising or being mindful of what we eat, to the contrary, we have become one of the least physically active generations in human history with access not only to an abundance of relatively healthy foods in the industrialized world, but an equally abundant amount of relatively unhealthy foods as well.

The recent Canadian cardiovascular update just made me think about how conventional wisdom when it comes to our health which persists can be so easily dismissed, ignored, and/or proven inaccurate in the future.

No comments:

Post a Comment