Opinion: Achieving Health

It’s the beginning of spring, summer is around the corner, and what consumes everyone’s mind? Getting the beach body that American insist will bring happiness, love, and success. 

To achieve this blurred perception of perfection, men, women, and even children will engage in risky behaviors by overly cutting calories, going awol with excessive exercise, and worshiping fad diets. Many will do anything necessary to shed pounds, tone muscle, and strive to become the photoshopped idols American’s constantly see in popular culture even though the body type portrayed in advertising as the ideal is possessed naturally by only 5% of American females (National Eating Disorders Association). 

American’s are missing the bigger picture. We overly focus on being thin versus healthy. The obesity and heart disease epidemic scares us into believing that weight loss is health. Constant exposure to unrealistic body images in the media convinces society that they are inadequate and unhappy. This can be harmful, especially to young adults and adolescents who are experimenting and adopting life-long behaviors. The National Eating Disorder Association released that over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives. Furthermore, 35-57% of adolescent girls engage in crash dieting, fasting, self-induced vomiting, diet pills, or laxatives. There is so much focus on appearance beginning at such a young age that we are blind to true meaning of being healthy. 

It is correct to identify obesity, weight gain, and high body mass index (BMI) as a growing problem among the United States and the link to chronic disease. This a real and serious issue. However, more significance should be placed on overall health as opposed to size alone. Thinness does not always parallel health. Health exists at many shapes and sizes and individuals should be encouraged to find their personal measure of health. 

Americans should consider stepping back to re-evaluate what is more important: shedding pounds to fit into a smaller size pant, or maintaing a healthy body that allows a successful and happy lifestyle?