| Año 3 • No. 126 • diciembre 1 de 2003 | Xalapa • Veracruz • México | Publicación
Semanal |
| Of
Information and Obesity Jay Bildstein |
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| There
is a cynical expression where I come from that has it that “no
good deed goes unpunished.” Me, I’m an optimist yet I balance
that optimism with another saying; “in nature there are no rewards
nor punishments just consequences.” With that in mind I’d
like to take a look at two issues that are very much of the times;
computer technology and obesity. Now before you go jumping to conclusions, I’m no sybarite, but I do question whether technology has brought us just progress. Frankly, I don’t think so. The trend to people being overweight in North America is a serious health threat and I can’t help but think that a lot of it has to do with decreased physicality based on increased activities which are sedentary in nature. When I was a kid growing up in the United States there was a public service message that played on television that showed a bunch of heads in boxes speaking to each other. Their bodies were no longer needed as they had “evolved” technologically to the point where movement was unnecessary. The point of the advertisement was to instill in us a respect for physical fitness, to understand that if we didn’t use our bodies they would wither away. I wonder how close we are coming to that in the developed world? Perhaps it is even worse, the body devolving at a frightening pace to pillowy appendage. The trend in the North American continent is toward less physical activity and more food leading to fatter less fit people. This unhealthful state leads to diabetes, hypertension, heart attacks and is even implicated in a variety of cancers. Are we becoming a society of computer and television dwelling blobs with all our physical development posited in fingers and wrists from keyboard, mouse and remote control work? Is that our average level of activity? For many of us, I fear it is. Ironically, we are in an age when the body is exposed more than it has been, probably since the Garden of Eden. Britney Spears and Christina Aguillera come to mind as part of the latest crop of the almost undressed set. The human body ... especially the body beautiful is being shown off in commercial settings more than ever before, scantily clad and as living artwork. Cosmetic surgery, piercings, tattoos and jeans with the waist pulled down to the ankles are all about flaunting the body and its provocative appeal. Are we simply becoming computer and television bound voyeurs, ourselves getting fatter and flabbier while the bodies of the buff glitterati are paraded in front of us to sell what we aspire to be, but are not? The internet, the computer, the television, cellular phones, fax machines, they are all tools which can make our lives better by facilitating the useful exchange of information. However, when we trade in lives of robust activity and relegate ourselves to being nothing more than receptacles for our machines, then we have missed the point of their relevance and have traded down our integral and important physical being to a shamefully diminished status. Before we end up as so many communicating heads with our bodies nothing more than something that takes up a seat, I have a suggestion, we need to all go take a walk and we need to do it daily. Walking is not only good physical activity, it helps to clear the mind, reduce anxiety and improve our health leading to better mental performance. When I get my walking and physical activity in I feel better about myself corporeally as well as mentally. When I don’t, well frankly, after a short time I can feel downright wretched. I know I am not alone. We all must safeguard our health and fitness by planning time to get physical. In a world where more and more work is accomplished by flicking our fingertips on keyboards, we need the habit if not the steely resolve of incorporating into our lives some meaningful level of physical activity. Walking is a great form of transportation and can serve double duty, as exercise and more basically by getting us from A to B without the cost of gasoline or the annoyance of traffic. I could sit here at my computer and type more, but I am going for a walk. I’ll see you on the street, wear comfortable shoes. |
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