Tyler Netherland

Senior Paper
Jason Fisher
English IV.Class, Period 1
May 9, 2016
It must be understood that society is on a sharp decline. The western world's
culture is drastically changing to accommodate the needs of the people in a quick
lifestyle. People demand quick food, quick service, and a quick way to get in shape.
People expect to live a fast paced lifestyle and give up when they have not met their
fitness and nutritional goals. This affects people mentally; they give up, eat comfort food
to feel better and so begins a vicious cycle. To counteract the rising trend in obesity,
individuals need to practice good nutrition, instill a high standard of physical fitness, and
apply both to achieve mental preparedness. Incorporating all three will drastically
improve one's life and help them jump out of the rut of obesity forever and enjoy a
healthy lifestyle
For centuries the human race has relied on their ability to adapt and survive in
very hostile environments. There are millions of documents describing brutal conflict
with only the fittest surviving. People - until the industrialization of food manufacturing
and mass distribution methods- often found themselves wondering what their next meal
would be. This obviously kept people slimmer. A even more current example is the
american rise in obesity in the past 50 years. According to stateofobesity.org Over the
past 35 years, obesity rates have more than doubled. From 2005 to 2006 to 2011 to 2012,
rates remained the same. The average American is more than 24 pounds heavier today
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than in 1960. ( Obesity Rates np), The issue with obesity as it is presents many health
problems and overall, prevents people from fully functioning. The human body is not
designed to handle all the extra poundage that comes with obesity. As
healthUSNEWs.com beautifully states,Its an orthopedics Catch-22: Obesity puts excess
pressure on weight-bearing joints, so heavier people are more likely to need joint
replacement. But obese patients face more risk from the surgery, and they get less
improvement. ( US News np) Obesity is a huge problem that the American public need
to tackle.
To begin, nutrition is overlooked by a surprisingly large number of the general
population. nutrition is crucial to achieving total fitness. Nutrition can never be
overlooked. What people have eaten and how it affects them has been noticed for
thousands of years starting with one of the earliest texts, the Bible. According to
Christian Nordqvist, as written in his article Nutrition: Why is it so important?, the
book of Daniel in The Bible details an early example of a healthy nutrient rich diet and
its benefits. Daniel was captured by the King of Babylon and had to serve in the King's
court. Daniel objected to being fed fine foods and wine, saying he preferred vegetables,
pulses and water. The chief steward reluctantly agreed to a trial, comparing Daniel's
dietary preference to those of the court of the King of Babylon. For ten days Daniel and
his men had their vegetarian diet, while the King's men had theirs. The trial revealed that
Daniel and his men were healthier and fitter, so they were allowed to carry on with their
diet. (Nordqvist 2015) The reason Daniel objected to the king's food was because Daniel
knew the fine foods were fatty and the wine was full of empty calories. Additionally, he
understood that good food and the nutrition it provided equaled a strong soldier. Healthy

nutrient full foods are a key component to a sound body. Not only is nutrition important,
but moderation is essential in maintaining health. It is important to stress that how much
people eat that has the same dramatic effects on their health as making poor choices in
nutrition. This concept called moderation is essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
According to Lynn Hetzler, Eating in moderation means you do not consume more
calories than your body needs to function properly. (Hetzler 2014) For example, A
glass of wine contains around 90-120 calories, in moderation an estimated 100 calories is
nothing. However, if person spent the night drinking an entire bottle, that person would
have incurred estimated 1,800 to 2,200 extra empty calories that does absolutely nothing
to assist the body in its daily function. Health is like yin and yang, nutrition is the yin,
and the yang is exercise.
Instilling a high standard of fitness will drastically improve an individuals overall
health and guard against obesity. Exercise is as simple as walking up stairs or carrying a
heavy object. Anything that requires the bodies muscles and organs to work is the
beginning of an active lifestyle. To stay healthy, the Center of Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) recommends at least 2.5 hours of intense aerobic exercise and at least
two days of anaerobic exercise a week. (Physical Activity 2015) In following CDC,s
recommendations for a healthy lifestyle, one must first understand the fundamentals of
the types of exercise. They include aerobic exercise, anaerobic exercise and interval
training. To begin, aerobic exercise is critical in strengthening the heart and lungs.
According to Richard Weil on eMedience Health, aerobic exercise is the type of
moderate-intensity physical activity that you can sustain for more than just a few minutes
with the objective of improving your cardiorespiratory fitness and your health. (Weil

2013) Aerobic training basically gets ones heart pumping and is more commonly known
as cardio exercise. Examples of this type of exercise includes running, swimming and
biking. Improved endurance and cardiovascular health are the result of aerobic activity
with the additional benefit of building lean muscle mass. On the other side of the coin is
anaerobic exercise. Anaerobic exercise targets your individual muscles. Because youre
not jumping around and moving your entire body, this type of exercise doesnt require
oxygen, and only burns carbohydrates. Anaerobic exercise builds muscle through short
bursts of strenuous activity like weight lifting or performing push-ups at high levels of
intensity. This type of exercise builds your skeletal muscle, increasing your overall levels
of power and strength through weight and resistance as stated by Steven Lowis for
Livestrong.com. (Lowis 2013) Weight lifting, isometrics, and even jumping are some of
the most practiced forms of anaerobic exercise. Anaerobic exercise mainly helps with
muscular growth and bone structure health. For an individual that is looking to be
healthy both in both their heart and muscles, High Intensity Interval Training should be
considered. As summarized from the American College of Sports Medicine, High
Intensity Interval Training, also know as H.I.I.T combines both aerobic and anaerobic
training in an extremely fast- paced, timed period. H.I.I.T Training has drastically
increased in the past years and has become extremely popular. It is the best of both
worlds and will produce some of the best results in overall physical health. There are
many advantages to exercising but the biggest overall benefit is to health and well-being
that will result in a long active life., At The Center for Disease Control website, this
sediment is supported. The CDC says the advantages of exercise include, Control
weight, Reduce risk of cardiovascular disease, reduce risk for type 2 diabetes and

metabolic syndrome, reduce risk of some cancers, strengthen bones and muscles, improve
mental health and mood, improve ability to do daily activities and prevent falls, if you're
an older adult and increases chances of living longer. (Physical Activity and Health
2015) Exercise is essential to counteract Americans tend of raising obesity and allow for
a satisfying life.
What good does all the knowledge in the world do about nutrition and exercise if
the individual in question never musters the motivation to begin his/her life improvement
plan? Often times, the biggest barriers a person must overcome on the road to healthier
living are not physical, but mental. It is not easy to monitor everything that goes into your
mouth or even strap on your running shoes to go run everyday. Frankly, lifestyle changes
are difficult and embracing them requires mental work. Several studies have been
released about the effect that the mind can have on the body. In fact, just thinking about
something can have a profound effect on a person. For example, deeply reflecting on a
vividly embarrassing event will cause your face to redden, your heart rate to rise and your
overall body temperature to go up. The brain is the most powerful tool an individual has
when they plan to become healthy. List Verse.com re-published a study originally written
by Harvard psychologist Ellen Lange,
To prove the point that the mind has a major impact on the body, Harvard
psychologist Ellen Langer conducted an experiment on a group of predominantly
overweight hotel maids who, judging by their daily activity levels, should have
been thin. Despite essentially exercising all day long through their work, Langer
discovered through a survey that 67% of the maids felt they didnt do any type of
exercise. Langer predicted the maids perceptions were hampering their weight

loss, so she took half the maids aside and, in addition to taking their physical
measurements, explained that through their cleaning work they were exceeding
the surgeon generals definition of an active lifestyle. The other half of the maids
were given no information.
A month later, Langers team returned to the hotel and reevaluated the
maids. They found an overall decrease in systolic blood pressure, weight, and
waist-to-hip ratio in the educated group. The other group had no significant
physical changes. While some suspect the mere discussion of exercise somehow
altered the womens behavior, Langer said there was no indication any of the
maids modified their routines, and she feels the results were due simply to a
change in mindset.(Grant 2013)
As the hotel maids learned that they were actually exercising more, they lost weight. This
is unequivocal proof that the brain has the power to affect the body. The mind is a
primary weapon on the war against unhealthy lifestyles. Inversely, it should also be
stressed that the body also affects the brain. According to Sophia Breene from the
Huffington Post, a regular exercise regimen reduces stress, boosts dopamine levels,
fights cognitive decline, and boosts overall cognitive ability. (Breene 2013) According
to this article, fine tuning the body with exercise will make one happy and more
cognitively aware. Imagine how successful and pleasant society would be if they just
exercised! In looking at both studies, one can see how a simple mindset change had
dramatic effects in a person's ability to lose weight and through the other study, the
positive effects that exercise has on the brain. Both studies collectively demonstrate the

atomic effects that people get when they have established a healthy mindset and what
they can accomplish.
As more light gets shed on the topic of obesity and unhealthy living, more and
more individuals of all qualifications are stepping into the ring to weigh in on the topic. Is
Obesity bad? Is Obesity a disease? Can Obesity be diagnosed and treated by a doctor?
Can Obesity be healthy? The more the debate moves, the more politically correct people
have become and have justified their current poor health. To start, Proponents contend
that obesity is a disease because it meets the definition of disease; it decreases life
expectancy and impairs the normal functioning of the body; and it can be caused by
genetic factors. as stated on the website entitled Obesity ProCon. (ProCon 2016) It is
absurd to believe that a pill can fix bad choices in nutrition and exercise. Additionally,
relying on a pill to fix any problem has got to affect one mentally. All impact the key
components of a healthy lifestyle and is humorously ironic. The bottomline is obesity
does impair ones body; however, unlike the Zika virus, influenza or even ebola, it does
not just randomly occur, but is the result of a poor and unhealthy lifestyle. All are choices
that individuals make. With that logic, obesity would really just be a side effect of the
disease known as sloth. Another argument against a threefold health lifestyle argues that
individuals can still be healthy. Alice G.Walton explains this logic by stating that [for]
certain people, obesity may not be such an important issue in long-term health, as long as
you have good cholesterol, blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, and triglyceride levels.
(Walton 2015) This is called healthy obesity. Individuals that are overweight and embrace
a sedentary lifestyle still can proclaim that they are healthy. This is a farce. Cholesterol,
insulin sensitivity, and triglycerides are all measured by blood test. These are merely

markers to help physicians diagnose the potential of problems. An individual may have a
healthy blood test, but they can not walk up a flight of stairs without stopping to catch
their breath due to diminished endurance of the lungs. Alice G. Walton points out a study
conducted by University College London. University College Researchers
looked at data over a period of 20 years longer than any study on
healthy obesity had tracked health previously. Their first group consisted of 2500
people, 66 of whom were said to be healthy obese, based on their metabolic
profiles, which included analyses of high-density lipoprotein (good)
cholesterol, blood pressure, fasting glucose or use of diabetes medication,
triglyceride (blood fats) levels, and insulin resistance.Of those who started out in
the healthy obese category, over the next two decades, more than half had
moved into the unhealthy obese category and just 6% had lost enough weight
to move into the healthy non-obese category. (Walton 2015)
Based on this evidence, it is clear to see that their are no shortcuts to health no matter
how one interprets a small portion of test results. Health is all encompassing and should
not be looked at as individual pieces.
Obesity in America is like a raging fire in the wood with zero percent
containment. Not only do people have to deal with the issue affecting them right now,
they have to adjust their lifestyle and have good long term goals. Practicing good
nutrition, instilling a high standard of physical fitness, and applying both to achieve
mental preparedness will correct the raising numbers who are obese and languishing in an
unhealthy lifestyle. Transition to a healthy lifestyle is hard, but the benefits of a stronger
mind and body far outweigh the work. Nutrition and Exercise are the biggest tools an

individual can use to get out of fiery blazing rut of obesity. Many health professionals
express the urgency of this problem and scientific studies show that obesity is detrimental
to a person's health. Nutrition and Exercise unlocks the door to a sounder mind. With all
three aspects of the body balanced in every person, all aspects of society will flourish.
Everyone needs to take action and improve their health.