there is no finish line...enjoy the ride...

Is Your Protein Powder Bad for Your Health?

I have been on an ongoing quest to make smart choices that optimize the quality of my health and the health of those around me for the past 25 years.  As a result, I’m continually researching the latest information to meet this objective.  Over the years research has been unclear on the topic of protein.  I’m often asked by athletes and friends; what is the best kind of protein, how much should I take a day, is animal protein better than soy protein, is Whey protein the best, what’s the difference between Whey Isolate and Whey Concentrate? 

As with all research related to the human body, if you rely on a narrow scope of data points you may find that eating something that can have a positive effect in one area, may have a negative effect somewhere else.  You may find that the quantity will have either a positive or negative effect or the timing of when you eat a particular food, may impact your athletic performance.  I recently experienced an issue that was the result of not doing my full due diligence and I want to share with you my observations and conclusion so you can avoid making the same mistake, which could have serious health consequences over a long period of time.

A little Background

It may seem like common sense that if you don't use your muscles, they'll eventually atrophy, yet so many people fail to apply this information in their daily lives.  The older you get, the faster your muscles will atrophy if you're not regularly engaging in the appropriate exercise. Additionally, older muscles do not respond well to sudden or intense bouts of exercise, so the key to avoiding sarcopenia (age-related muscle loss) is to challenge your muscles with intense exercise on a regular basis throughout your life—and it's never too late to start. As the super star actor Will Smith says, “Don’t get ready; Be ready”.

 
GROWING OLD IS NOT FOR SISSIES

Protein is essential for healthy muscle growth and maintenance, but as you age, your body becomes increasingly less able to utilize the protein in your food for building muscle, which makes the following information all the more important. According to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, a group of researchers set out to find which protein was the best for muscle protein accretion, and would therefore help stave off sarcopenia (Loss of muscle mass with age) that may be caused by a reduction of muscle protein synthetic response to food intake.  As an avid cyclist, a loss of muscle mass as I age will have serious consequences on my performance, and the last thing I want is to be dropping in a bike race because I no longer have the strength to keep up with all those young guys. Three groups of older men were fed a meal-like amount of whey, casein, and casein hydrolysate proteins. Their protein ingestion was combined with an intravenous tracer which was used to assess digestion and absorption, and their muscle synthesis rates were also calculated from the ingested tracer. The study concluded that:

"Whey protein stimulates postprandial muscle protein accretion more effectively than do casein and casein hydrolysate in older men. This effect is attributed to a combination of whey's faster digestion and absorption kinetics and higher leucine content."

So what did this meant to me?  Whey Protein is the best, so I rushed out to my local health food store and purchased one of those giant tubs of Whey Protein.  I got the Isolate variety, because the sales person told me so. She said, Whey Protein Isolate was the best because it is more a "higher quality Protein" and contained less fat (Hmmm? Less fat = good, or so I thought).  Note to self: always understand the reason why a sales person recommends anything before buying it).  So for the next month and a half, I added this to my morning whole fruit berry smoothie.  Life was good, or so I thought.

We’ll get back to my story in a minute…..

Is Strength Training Sufficient to Prevent Age-Related Muscle Loss?

Sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss, begins affecting people in their mid 20’s, initially at a rate of 1% loss of muscle mass per year, with accelerated rates as age advances and the muscle mass is replaced with fat.

Causes include:

• Hormonal changes
• Sedentary lifestyle
• Free Radicals
• Oxidative Stress damage
• Inflammation
• Insulin resistance
• Acidic Diet

It's a major challenge that many go through, especially the elderly, and as I just mentioned, regular exercise is essential to counteract this muscle loss. However, it's important to realize that simply lifting weights will not result in gaining muscle mass. Additionally, if you are involved in prolonged exercises like aerobics or running, you will not have the hormonal influences to build muscle either, even if you lift weights. It's important to understand that in order to effectively build and maintain muscle you need to incorporate short bursts of high intensity interval exercises that elevates your heart rate above your Anaerobic Threshold.  This kind of exercise allows your body to produce human growth hormone (HGH) naturally. Yea, the same stuff that athletes take to cheat in their sport, however they take it in the form of a synthetic drug.  HGH is also known as "the fitness hormone," and is essential for healthy aging, fitness, and yes, muscle building.

Additionally, you need to supply your muscles with the appropriate fuel at the appropriate time to provide them with the proper building blocks to produce new muscle tissue. This is where my whey protein comes back into play. Through my research, I found you should consume the whey about 30 minutes before your workout to help increase both fat burning and muscle building and within an hour or two after you exercise.  Taking Whey before you workout will stop the catabolic process in your muscle and promote protein synthesis towards recovery and growth.  There is ONLY a two hour window after exercise that allows your body to fully use the proteins you ingest for optimizing  muscle repair and growth, so it is important to get the timing right. One of the reasons whey protein works so well is that it is a protein that assimilates very quickly, and will get to your muscles within 10-15 minutes of swallowing it, supplying your muscles with the right food at the right time. Because meat based proteins take hours to digest, they are ineffective and produce minor results.  A study published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports & Exercise showed the amino acids found in high quality whey protein activate certain cellular mechanisms, including a mechanism called mTORC-1, which in turn promotes muscle protein synthesis, boost thyroid, and also protect against declining testosterone levels after exercise.

All this sounded great and I thought I was on the right track for my athletics and long term health, however during the month and a half since starting on this program of adding Whey Protein Isolate to my diet, I noticed my internal pH began to drop and become very acidic.  At the beginning I thought this was because I wasn’t eating enough fruits and vegetables.  Or there may have been a residual effect from the red wine (very acidic) from the weekend.  So I adjusted my diet and eat even more fruits and vegetables and cut out wine  with no success.  In fact, my internal pH continued to drop from its usual 7.0 to 7.4, to a very acidic 5.0 to 4.5!  An increase of 100 to 1000 times in my acidity!  This kind of acidic level is consistent with most people that eat a typical North American diet full of junk foods and soda pop.  Needless to say, I was quite concerned.  An acidic internal system has many serious health consequences, which I’ll speak to in a moment.

Beware: Most Whey Proteins Are NOT Good For You

There's no shortage of whey products on the market, but unfortunately most of them will NOT give you the health benefits associated with a high-quality whey product. First of all you want to use a whey protein concentrate. High quality whey protein concentrates also contain glutamylcysteine, the major precursor to glutathione, which is another phenomenal anti-aging nutrient.  There is probably no other area of processed foods where you need to be more careful than in selecting a high quality whey supplement. 

Most whey proteins are processed from ultra-pasteurized milk and many are exposed to acid processing. Heat and acid damages the protein and makes it insoluble in water. This is one of the key ways to differentiate high quality whey protein from inferior ones. But the whey manufacturers know this, and know that insoluble powders are not appealing for a variety of reasons, so they add chemical flavors and detergents to restore flavor and solubility. They put in genetically modified soy lecithin, and also dump chemical surfactants, which are used in soap, like polysorbate 80, propylene glycol, and ethoxylated mono-diglycerides along with maltodextrin, caseinates, and hydrolyzed proteins, which are  really disguised MSG. They also use artificial sweeteners, like aspartame and sucralose, which are hazardous to optimal health.

Whey Protein Isolates is a Dangerous Form of Protein

If you’ve followed my blog long enough, you know I’m a huge believer of natural (organic whenever possible) whole foods that are exposed to as little processing as possible.  As discussed above, all whey protein isolates are highly processed and devoid of nutritional co-factors including alkalizing minerals, naturally occurring vitamins, and lipids, which are lost in the processing.  This renders them deficient and overly acidifying, hence my increased internal acidity to a dangerous level. Unlike whole protein whey concentrates which does not acidify your body due to its alkalizing minerals, whey protein isolates are over acidifying, thereby making them a liability to your health. If chronically consumed (such as with bodybuilders, athletes like myself, or the average person wanting to maintain muscle mass), it can acidify your body and over time lead to metabolic acidosis with consequences that include wasting of muscle and bone tissues, total metabolic shut down, and increased vulnerability to degenerative disease.

Additionally once the fat has been removed from whey protein isolate, you lose some of the most important components of its properties, such as phospholipids, phosphatidylserine and CLA. All of the IgG immunoglobulins, which are an excellent source of glutamine and glutamylcysteine, are also bound to the fat globule, and therefore lost in the processing of whey isolates.  So the bottom line is that if you want to use whey protein, PLEASE do not use an inferior whey isolate as there is no doubt in my mind it will cause more damage to you than benefit.

And I haven’t even touched on the negative affects Soy Protein.  I will save this for another day and dedicate an entire bog post to the topic of Soy, because it deserves much more than a brief explanation.  But for now, believe me when I say don’t touch any Soy based protein powders.

Guidelines for High-Quality Whey Concentrate

To ensure you're getting a high-quality Whey product, make sure the whey you're buying fulfills the following requirements:

• 100% certified organic Whey Protein Concentrate
• Non-GMO ingredients
• From cows that are grass fed & pasture raised without the use of pesticides or fertilizers
• No added hormones (rBGH), steroids or antibiotics
• Certified organic flavoring
• No artificial sweeteners, if sweetened only use certified organic stevia leaf extract, or equivalent

So how have I adjusted and what is the result?

After much research and over a couple of months of self testing, I’d like to share with you my pre and post exercise regime.  I found an excellent product made by Progressive Organics that meets all the key criteria mentioned above in this post and I prepare the following smoothie….and I must admit, it’s as delicious and it is good for you!

 
You will need a blender.  I invested in a VitaMix blender years ago, because I have smoothies all the time.  There more expensive than most, but well worth it.

Ingredients:

• 1 scoop (30g) Progressive Organics 100% Organic Whey Protein Concentrate (Organic Cocoa flavor)
• 4 ice cubes
• 4 strawberries
• 1 peeled orange
• 2 oz YouthJuice

Blend for a minute or two on high and you’ll have a nutritious and delicious drink that will maintain your muscle mass, while ensuring a healthy internal pH.

Enjoy the Ride …. Rob

 

Do you know who’s making the food that's making you sick? The answer may surprise you!

I was watching TV the other evening and I ended up focusing on the advertisements rather than the actual show.  I generally record programs I’m interested in watching and just skip through the commercials, but this time I watched them and they fell into four general categories,

1. Unhealthy food products,
2. Diet programs for the obese; caused by eating the unhealthy food products
3. Pharmaceutical companies “pushing” their drugs to counter the resulting illnesses directly associated with eating the unhealthy food products. 
4. And auto commercials (go figure)

Having carefully watched a number of these commercials, by the end of the evening, I struggled with who I despised more, Big Food, or Big Pharma?   One industry intentionally makes us sick with their unhealthy processed foods and the other masks the health symptoms caused by eating these unhealthy food products.  And neither one seems to care about health promotion or illness prevention.  I often wonder if these two mega industries are in some kind of symbiotic relationship, designed to keep us in a perpetual state of sickness, while they both enjoy “healthy” profits.

What we don’t realize is there is silent third member in this “ménage à trios”, and it will shock you what a critical role our government plays in our nation’s deteriorating health.  I was reminded of a documentary about the food industry that the late Peter Jennings from ABC did a while back titled, "How to Get Fat Without Really Trying".  Below is the ten minute overview, but if you really want the details, take the time watch all 5 segments I’ve copied below from YouTube and share it with the people you care about most!

 

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

This documentary is focused primarily on the US consumer, but the information about our food industry and the way BIG FOOD brings their “edible non-food” products to market is very similar in Canada and other countries around the world.  Clearly, the North American farm subsidies are promoting obesity by lowering the cost of ingredients that go into foods—particularly high-calorie processed foods that are responsible for so many of today’s degenerative diseases.  

Given the way our food is subsidized by government, one could conclude they want us to be fat and unhealthy, which of course is contrary to the public messaging delivered by our elected officials.  However, their actions speak louder than their words, and as long as they continue to subsidize the very crops that contribute to the current health crisis, why would one think differently.  And the ultimate insult comes from the food industry executives that blame you, the consumer for your obesity because you’re not exercising enough to burn off their unhealthy calories found in their products.  Given the low cost of unhealthy food, because of government subsidies and the marketing machinery Big Food employs, do you even stand a chance? 

How the Food Industry Impacts Your Health

The food industry spends billions to get you to eat food that it highly processed, extremely unhealthy, yet highly profitable for them. But we should also take critical look at the government’s role and contribution to poor health through their agricultural subsidies, for example, corn, soy, wheat and rice. By subsidizing these crops, particularly corn and soy, the government is actively supporting a diet that consists of these foods in their processed form, namely high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), soybean oil, and grain-fed cattle – all of which are well-known contributors to obesity and chronic diseases.  Again, your government is directly contributing to bad health and rising health care costs.

 

In a nutshell, the agricultural system promotes and produces junk food, which is opposite to what we all need in order to live healthy lives.  Take HFCS, for example. It’s actually quite difficult to find a processed food product that does NOT include HFCS!  And oftentimes it’s one of the top three ingredients. With everything we know now about how HFCS and other sugars create obesity and chronic disease, is it any wonder we have a health care crisis on our hands?

The food industry is quick to point out that the choice is yours -- they’re not making you buy something you don’t want. But seriously, if you have to hunt the grocery aisles to find a product that doesn’t include HFCS, how much of a choice do you really have?  That’s why I suggest purchasing food on the outside shelves of your grocery store, as the inside aisles are where you’ll find the highly processed junk food.

As I mentioned above, Big Food is quick to blame our nation’s obesity epidemic on people’s unwillingness to exercise. Naturally, a lack of exercise is part of the problem, but to deny the impact of farming subsidies and the power of misleading advertising will only contribute to the problem; not drive us to a positive solution.

The High Price of Cheap Food

Last year, the New York Times posted an interesting chart titled “Why Does a Big Mac Cost Less than a Salad?” created by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Well, the answer becomes obvious when you take a look at what foods receive the most subsidies:

• Meat/Dairy -- 73.8 percent
• Grains -- 13.2 percent
• Sugar/Oil/Starch/Alcohol -- 10.7 percent
• Nuts/Legumes -- 1.9 percent
• Vegetables/Fruits -- 0.4 percent

It’s no wonder a Big Mac puts a smaller dent in your wallet than a bowl of salad, in fact that one piece of lettuce you get on your Big Mac probably costs as much as the entire meat patty.  And the foods receiving the greatest subsidies are the very foods you should be avoiding, or at a minimum eating less.  Again, it’s an example of how our government is saying one thing about healthy living, but doing another, while the food executives say they’re only meeting a consumer demand and blaming the negative health consequences on human nature.

Does Big Food Mislead You Through Brilliant Marketing?

Incredibly, the food industry spends TWICE as much on advertising as the drug industry. Just look at the commercials your kids watch on TV every day.  You and your children are being brainwashed to choose highly processed, convenient “edible-non foods” that will accelerate the journey towards degenerative disease, or an early death. The drug industry then picks up the ball where Big Food leaves off by pushing their drugs to control, or mask the symptoms created by a junk food diet...It’s truly a symbiotic relationship made in hell.

Fast food and processed food usually tastes great to the majority of consumers as it has been carefully engineered and designed to do so. It is also relatively inexpensive, so for many, especially in a depressed economy, this has become an easy choice.  Pay less for great tasting food; what could be simpler?  This is why 90% of the money spent on food goes toward unhealthy processed foods.

What people fail to factor in is that they will almost certainly pay a heavy price for the bad food choices in the long run. Living on foods that are subsidized by government and processed by Big Food is a surefire way to accelerate your aging and compromise the quality of your health and the health of your family.

What's the Root of the Problem?

It’s my belief that many of the chronic diseases consuming our nation could be resolved if serious attention was paid at the highest levels of government to the root problem – our agricultural subsidies and obscene marketing practices by Big Food.

They could promote the growing and eating of healthier foods like fruits and vegetables by offering greater subsidies to these crops, which would significantly drive down the cost of these healthy foods—but they don’t.  Instead, food subsidies have, and still are, creating a diet excessively high in factory-farmed meats, grains and sugars, with very little fresh fruits and vegetables or healthy fats from nuts and seeds.

Part of the problem is that the US Department of Agriculture is deeply entrenched with the agri-business, and current legislation protects the profits of Big Food at the expense of public health.  In fact, as amazing as it might seem, the agriculture lobby is more powerful than the pharmaceutical industry!

Changing Your Approach the Food You Eat

So if you want your family to be healthy, someone in your household must spend some time in the kitchen preparing your food from scratch, using fresh, whole ingredients. Avoiding processed food requires a change in lifestyle, which is not an easy task, but it CAN be done! Rather than looking at processed foods as a good tasting convenience, try thinking of it for what it really is:

• Extra calories that will harm your body and make you fat.
• A toxic concoction of foreign chemicals and artificial flavors that will lead you to disease and poor quality of life.
• A waste of your hard earned money.
• Most certainly lead to increased health care costs for you and your family.
• Not something to give to your children, whose bodies are still developing and in great need of healthy nutrients.

Your goal should be to strive for 90 percent non-processed, whole foods. Not only will you enjoy the health benefits—especially if you buy mostly organic—but you’ll also get the satisfaction of knowing exactly what you’re putting into your body.

Choose Health Over “Convenience” Every Single Time

To optimize your health, you must return to the basics of healthy food choices. And, as more people grasp this concept and demand healthy options, the more good food will be produced at a competitive price.  

However, there is still much confusion about what is “healthy,” and in some cases, whether or not something is actually food!  Can you say “Twinkie”?  This is the epitome of human engineered, edible non-food.  Understand that the easiest way to get confused and be led astray is by listening to food advertisements, especially the ones that focus on added ingredients or nutrients rather than the food as a whole.  If a food requires man made nutrients to be considered healthy, instead of receiving it from the whole food, it should be avoided. For example, Vitamin Water is a product that redirects the consumer to focus on their added vitamins, and not the High Fructose Corn Syrup to make it sweet tasting.  Ditto for cereals boasting to be made with whole grains but contain more sugar in one serving than a donut.  

The easiest way to control of your health through diet is by focusing on WHOLE foods.  In a perfect world, I would encourage you to seek out organically grown foods wherever possible.  I know how difficult this can be, so I personally eat a healthy diet consisting of grocery bought whole foods, but knowing the whole foods from the local grocery lack all the key nutrients through the degraded food supply, I supplement my diet with a whole food drink called YouthJuice to bridge the gaps on a daily basis.  And I never eat fast food, and avoid processed foods found in the middle aisles of the grocery store. 

Remember, any amount of time and money you save by stopping at a fast food restaurant today is bound to be repaid tomorrow in the form of medical bills, or poor quality of life.  You can either make time to be healthy today, or have lots of time to be ill in the future.  And if there are no healthy choices available to you for whatever reason, you will be FAR better off fasting until you have access to healthy choices.

Enjoy the Ride ….. Rob

 
 

Happy Birthday - No Finish LIne Blog

 
Well, it’s been one year since my daughter Nicole, who had already been writing a very successful blog on Global Brand Marketing (More Than A Logo), inspired me to share my ideas, insights and facts about improving health and wellness through blogging, thereby reaching a much larger audiance. Over the past year I was never short of material to share, as I wrote 40 blog posts on a wide varity of topics to an audience that has grown from zero to over 6000 world-wide.  It seems I always have 6 to 10 topics that I'm either researching, or in various stages of development. 

The most rewarding aspect of writing blog posts of this nature beyond increasing my own knowledge is when someone shares with me how the information contained within a blog post has improved the quality of someone's life, or the lives of their family. 

There's lots of confussion out there about the food we eat.  In fact, according to Sang Liwei, Director of Beijing Office of Global Food Safety Forum, "Basically, people now feel nothing is safe to eat. They don't know what choices to make. They are really feeling very helpless."  It’s my hope that over the past year I’ve provided some clarity about our diets, the foods we eat and that “Big Food” has no interest in our collective good health.  As a result we now have Healthcare systems that are no longer sustainable, as seen by the long wait times and costs that will banrupt our country if left unchecked (Canadians spend over 43% of every tax dollar towards healthcare and the US spends more for even worse care).  And these systems are plagued with people suffering with degenerative diseases that are enitrely preventable if only citizens spoke with their dollars and stopped buying food that is killing them.

Over the past year, I also emphasized the importance of daily exercise and although it wasn’t one of the top read posts, my most recent blog about how our children aren’t getting enough daily exercise was highly viewed.  Exercise is the single easiest prescription that anyone can integrate into their daily lives to improve their overall health, but given the size of the pharmaceutical industry and its influence on people's behaviors, most North Americans would prefer to simply pop a pill to hide the symptoms of bad health.  Instead our drug companies should be focusing their R&D dollars on the prevention of disease.  But then if they did, they would put themselves out of business as they require sick people to return "healthy "profits to their shareholders.

So, for my anniversary post, I thought I would share with you a few of my more popular posts that seemed to resonate with all of you based on viewership. 

1. Know Your Numbers:  Within this post, I shared 10 health indicators that when monitored on a regular basis, a person can either maintain good health, or significantly improve their long term health through lifestyle adjustments.  Since writing this post the Alberta Government released this announcement (https://www.infoway-inforoute.ca/index.php/lang-en/about-infoway/news/news-releases/722) indicating that every Albertan will have access to their Personal Health Information within the year much like you have access to your personal financial information from your bank.  This is not only a significant step forward for healthcare reform in Canada at the individual level, but by making this health information available to its citizens, each Albertan will now be able to make better personal health decisions for themselves and their families which will have profound and positive impact on the out-of-control costs associated with our Healthcare system.
2. Lifestyle Choices for Positive Health:  A week after I posted the above blog about the numbers every individual should track to maintain, or improve their personal health; I shared 8 lifestyle choices that will enhance your health and wellness.  I find humans approach their personal health in much the same manner as we approach many things in life.  It seems we only take action when there is a crisis.  We’ve seen many disasters throughout history that were entirely preventable; the Space Shuttle Challenger and the recent BP Oil Disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, immediately come to mind.  We also see the same behavior when it comes to our personal health.  Given there are now more overweight and obese North Americans then there are people of healthy weight and an increase in just about every degenerative disease, it seems most citizens are waiting for a persoanl health crisis before they take action and implement the lifestyle choices included in this blog post.
3. Sugar: A Bitter Sweet Story: A friend of mine that used to work at Nestles, (the global food conglomerate) once told me for a food product to be successful it requires three key ingredients, Fat, Salt or Sugar.  Most people eat to satisfy the requirements of their taste buds, rather than their nutritional needs.  In the mid 1980’s reseachers linked fat to high cholesteral and heart disease and the world jumped onto the low fat diet craze we still see today.  And by reducing, or removing fat from many of our favorite foods, big food manufacturers compensated the bad taste by sweetening our foods with the sugar of choice, fructose.  This blog seemed to resonate with many of my readers, as it was one of my most popular posts.  It seems many of you were unaware that fructose can only be metabolized by the liver and the by-product is free fatty acid…ie. FAT.  So the result of a low fat diet without understanding or considering the impact of the added sweetener in the form Fructose (High Fructose Corn Syrup), we now have a nation of people that are fatter and unhealthier than when we eat fat.

I’ve enjoyed sharing my thoughts and information over the past year and particularly enjoyed your feedback and I look forward to another year of sharing information and healthy living.

Enjoy the Ride….Rob

 

Childhood Fitness: Where did it go?

Firstly, let me answer the question posed in the title of this post.  Where did childhood fitness go?  Well, it's gone to the same place their parent's health and fitness went.  Straight to the sofa with a bag of chips and a couple beers to watch the big screen TV.  Unfortunately our young people are seeing the same degenerative diseases consistent with their parents poor lifestyles, only decades sooner!

 

In 1966 when I was 10 years old, my best friend Mark Anderson and I rode our bikes from Burlington, Ontario to the small town of Campbellville, which was located 25km north of our homes.  A round trip of 50km, which we rode it on our "3-speed" bicycles, on roads with no shoulders, wearing no helmets and neither one of us had cell phones.  I don’t know how I ever made it to this age alive, because I was doing this sort of thing all the time when I was a kid...and I've never stopped?  The only difference now is I'll ride my bike from Calgary to Austin Texas, or Toronto to Ft Lauderdale Florida, or climb the famous mountain passes in the Tour de France.

Just so you don’t think my parents were completely irresponsible, my father took time to show me how to ride a bike properly and he also taught me to be self sufficient and change a flat.  And most importantly, both my parents encouraged me to always be active and participate in sport.  I don't think they would have let me do such a ride at the age of 10 if they weren’t confident that I was physically capable of riding 50km over a relatively hilly route….(questioning the better judgment of two 10 year old boys, well that’s a very different subject).  But I’m glad they let us go, because after that first ride, we were riding our bikes on those country roads all the time.

I’m sure if you’re of a certain age; you too will have fond memories of childhood activities that would be considered “unnatural acts” in today’s society of over-protective parents that fear the proverbial and non-existent “boogie-man”.   As a result, we have a population of unfit kids that sit their fat little behinds in front of the big screen TV or Video Game, eating and drinking junk food and the only thing that gets exercised is their thumbs on the game boy controller.  They're just like their parents.  The undeniable statistics tell us the sad state of health of our young people, as obesity, Juvenile Diabetes and other chronic diseases never seen before in children have emerged over the past number of decades.  In fact, if you have children under the age of 16, they will be the first generation of humans in the history of mankind that on average will live fewer years than their parents.  That's an amazing prediction given all the medical procedures designed to extend life.

So what made me think about writing on this subject?  Well for starters, I want to say something every time I see a fat kid sucking back a Big Gulp from 7-11 that their parents just purchased.  However, this time, the annual report card on physical activity was released by the Active Healthy Kids Canada and reported in the Globe and Mail on April 26th and the information prompted me to write this post.  Here are a few of this year’s grades:

• (F) for overall physical activity: Only 9 per cent of boys and 4 per cent of girls meet guideline recommendations of 60 minutes daily of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity;
• (F) for active play: Only one in eight children engage in play every day after school;
• (F) for screen-related behavior: Canadian kids spend, on average six hours daily in front of TV, computer and game screens;
• (D) for active transportation: One in four children get to and from school under their own steam, such as walking or biking;
• (C-) for physical education: One in four children get no gym classes; half get one to two gym periods a week and; one in four gets three to four periods;
• (C) for organized sport: 75 per cent of parents say their children participate in organized sport in the past year;
• (A) for proximity and availability: 95 per cent of parents polled say that parks and outdoor spaces are available locally.

What's disturbing is that these poor grades are a result of poor lifestyle choices that our children today are exposed to by their parents.  They feature a lifestyle that lacks daily exercise (or physical play) and healthy dietary choices.  Given that the majority of Canadians are now either overweight or obese why should we be surprised?  So what is the difference in parenting from yester-year that would yield such disturbing results?  Here are just a few examples of how exercise, fitness and health were built into every kid’s lifestyle when I was young and no one thought of it as exercise....we were just playing around.

Transportation to and from School:

When I was a Kid:  Grade school kids used to walk, or rode their bikes to schools every day.  And the weather didn't make any difference.  We walked or rode in the rain, snow or shine.  And we went home at noon to eat a healthy lunch prepared by our mothers.  You were the exception if you took a lunch bag to school and it wasn’t until we went to High School that we took a lunch.

Today:I live down the street from two elementary schools and every morning the street is filled with Dad's and mostly Mom's in their SUVs and Minivans driving their kids a few blocks to school and picking them up after classes.  I applaud the few Moms walking their kids to school and give a standing ovation to the kids that go home at lunch for a home-made, healthy lunch.

After School:

When I was a Kid: After school, my buddies and I would meet in the street to play street hockey until my mother called me in for dinner that was prepared (not bought at some fast food joint) and in the summer, we would be playing basketball, touch football or scrub (a form of pick-up baseball) in the street.  The only time my mother would allow me in the house after school, was if I were sick, and that didn’t happen that often

Today: I work from my home office so I get to observe the activity in the neighborhood all day.  The next time you drive home after work, take a look at the streets in your neighborhood....you will probably notice what I notice.....they’re empty and void of children playing.  When kids go home after school, as the report above describes, children just plop themselves in from of some screen (TV or Video Game).  I can only speculate why parents allow their children to live this kind of sedentary, unhealthy lifestyle.  It’s probably because they don't make health a personal priority in their own life, or they’ve bought into the media hype and believe the "boogie-man" is going to do something bad to their children, so they don't allow them out of their sight to play in the neighborhood.  Or they're just afraid they might hurt themselves.  News flash....it's ok to let your kids fall down and skin a knee or scrape an elbow.

Gym Class

When I was a Kid: We had no choice when it came to gym class.  Everyone had to take gym, period, no exceptions.  My grade 7 gym teacher, Mr. Gapes was an early pioneer in cardiovascular fitness in the school.  He would make us run every day for at least 30 minutes straight.  With the exception of the odd “mama’s boy” that whined that he was too tough, we did as we were told and did the workout.....everyday single day!   I think can thank Mr. Gapes for the cardiovascular fitness I enjoy today.

Today: If a gym teacher today tried to do what Mr. Gapes did to us when I was a kid, I think he would be up on “child abuse” charges by over protective parents, or a system that designs fitness programs for the lowest common denominator, instead of pushing for individual achievement.  In fact, as the report shows, kids don’t even have to take gym class and most don't get enough that do.  Fitness is as important as math, English and geography and should be a mandatory daily subject in all school systems in North America from grades 1 to 12.  If your child's school doesn't have a mandatory gym class, speak up and lobby your school.  It's your children's future health that's at stake.

Access to Facilities

When I was a Kid:  We didn’t have access to many facilities outside of school, unless you consider the street a facility, because we played hockey, football, baseball, soccer in the street and we had a basketball hoop nailed to the roof of our garage in the driveway and played hoops for hours.  Access to a "facility" never really impacted our ability to be active. 

Today: Regardless of your opinion of Arnold Schwarzenegger, I heard him speak at a bike trade show in 1990 when he was the Chairman for the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sport in America and he said something that stuck with me all these years.  Arnold told the audience to never accept a school that shuts down their physical education program due to a lack of funding for facilities or equipment.  Arnold said activities like running are free, sit-ups are free, push-ups are free, and jumping-jacks are free.  So true!  You require no facilities or special equipment to be fit.  As the report indicates, facilities are not our problem; in fact we have all that we need.  Our neighborhood has a large play field just down the street and with the exception of organized spring soccer programs, it’s almost always empty.   In fact, when I was a kid, we had to negotiate with the other kids, what part of the field was ours to play football or baseball on.

The Root Cause

Don't blame the system, the politicians, the schools and most of all; don't blame the kids for their poor fitness and health.  The problem lies on the shoulders of their parents.  It's their responsibility to ensure the health and fitness of their children from the moment they decide to have children.  I'm confused why parents will spring to action when their child is sick, but do nothing as they watch their kids sit for hours in front of a TV or video game eating junk food that causes them to get sick in the first place.  If a father sits on his butt in front of the big screen TV with a couple of beers and a bag of chips to watch the game, instead of actually playing the game, is it any wonder their children won’t be active themselves? 

When I was growing up, many of my buddy’s fathers would join us in a game of street hockey, or play some basketball or football with us.  It seemed there was always someones dad joining the game.  My Father did.  In fact, he was just one of the kids.  Why have so many families lost this important parent child engagement of yester year?

Here are a few ideas to get your children active:

• All you stay-at-home Moms and Dads, have your children walk to school (regardless of their age) and if you wish, join them.  It will be good exercise for you both, while providing some good one-on-one time with your child as they tell you about their day.
• Encourage your kids to play outside after school.  There’s never a shortage of games to play.  Whatever happened to good old street hockey, shooting some hoops in the driveway, or young girls jumping rope (ok, I'm dating myself)?  Homework is for after a healthy family dinner that doesn’t come in a bag from some fast food joint.  Finally, TV and video games should be the lowest priority activity and should only be squeezed in if there's time left at the end of the day.
• A maximum of one hour of “mindless” screen time per day.  I understand many homework assignments are now done on computers, so "mindless" screen time refers to TV and Video games.  I've worked in the IT industry most of my life and even though we had multiple computers in our home, my daughter never played video games as I child and now at the age of 25, she’s a healthy and successful business women living in London England.  Limited access to TV and no access to video games certainly didn't slow her down.  In fact, she's running a 1/2 marathon on May 8th, just 2 days before she travels to Tanzania to volunteer at a children's orphanage for a month, before returning to London to continue her career passion in Brand Marketing.
• No screen time during the day on weekends.  Encourage physical activities that involve the whole family.
• And finally, lobby your school if they have no MANDATORY Physical Education program, and don’t quit until they get one!

I would be naïve to assume that life today is the same as it was 4 decades ago when I was a kid, but one thing is universally true today as it was years ago.  When parents take an active role in their child’s development (physical and mental) and lead by example by being active themselves and eating a healthy diet, the outcomes are outstanding. 

Take a look at my good friend Bob Willett and his son Nolan to see what happens when a parent is truly engaged with their children and encourage them to live an active and healthy lifestyle.  Amazing!

 

Enjoy the Ride …. Rob