Who's the healthiest of them all?

• Monday May 8, 2006 in: Tag(s):

  While all sorts of hullabaloo bombard the citizens of the United States on the daily basis, another concern that deserves to be given enough consideration has popped up into the scene.

  A news story from National Geographic said that Brits are healthier than Americans. This claim is produced by a study that was published just recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The thing is, this would have been not as interesting as it should be if only we are not aware of the fact that Americans spend twice as much as our British counterparts on health care. Sadly, that fact is staring at us in the face, and it drives home the point that being the richest nation in the world does not guarantee the position of being the healthiest also.

  Indeed, the study negates the common notion that wealth and education are contributing factors to the outcome. It is tempting to deduce that since affluence can generally provide avenues for good nutrition, wealthy Americans should have done well in the study. However, bad as it may seem, Americans who are living in the top education and income level barely measure up to the middle-class Brits in terms of potential insusceptibility to diabetes and heart disease.

  I guess this is the most appropriate time to check the lifestyle that we religiously cling to as we go on with our everyday lives. Though the authors of the study were unable to really explain the gap, no amount of explanation is needed for all of us to get the gist, and start a healthy lifestyle.

  For starters, take a look at your menu for the day. I guess that speaks a lot concerning our health status. It sure is not a surprise that big things can come from the food we serve right at our dining tables. A checklist on the amount of carbs and fats we consume everyday can be used to cutback the intake of less healthy foods.

  Finally, regardless of who beats us in the health game, as long as we hold on to the joystick with a renewed perspective to make healthy living a personal responsibility and not an institutional burden, losing can prove to be glorious.