International Flavor

Look around your neighborhood, work area, or during your drive to run an errand on the weekends, and you will see plenty of people biking, running, walking, or playing a recreational sport. If you live near a lot of students, you can probably see this occurring everyday.

This is the United States.

Now, imagine everything you see that is humanly active around you and digest this short statistic...the United States does not even crack the top 20 in most healthiest countries. The top 20! Countries like Singapore, Italy, Cyprus, Switzerland, and even are neighbors from Canada, the only top 20 healthiest country on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, take leadership in this category. Does it mean that we are struggling? Yes. Well, plenty of people are struggling with their health and getting in adequate amounts of exercise and nutrition. I'm not going to sugar coat this topic by saying we are not struggling. Is their room to shake off the struggles? Yes. Does the majority of individuals who struggle shake off the exercise and nutrition dilemma? No. Are we trying to shake the struggle? Yes, by many means.

But, why can't we simply adopt what other countries are doing? For one, it is a culture and geographical difference. Some states do better than others. For example, Colorado is supposedly the healthiest or fittest state in the U.S. Whereas, Mississippi has not reached that prime health status yet. Is it a money issue? Perhaps. Is it an access issue? More likely. Wait, it's an access issue. It's an exercise and nutrition, among other characteristics, access issue. Access does deal with knowledge, experience, and money. But, as I have looked at the list of top 20 healthiest countries, I realized that the top 20 had many freedoms in exercise and nutrition as an entire culture:

Four of the countries are near the Mediterranean Sea, which is home to arguably the healthiest diet in the world. Many of the countries in the top 20 are home to cold climates. Those habitants have to move to stay warm. But, does everyone have to migrate to the most recognized sea or to frozen tundra? No. Really, it is all about the flavor you choose whether you are from the East coast, West coast, or the Gulf coast.

By the way, for the record...Bloomberg News was used to check out the top 20 list.

The bottom line: what makes you the health nut in your neighborhood, family, or at work? If it is nothing, would you be willing to become the protege and share your active wealth? If it is something, do you adopt any international flavors?

Purpose and Development,
Derek

Derek Arledge, CSCS           TEEM Performance Training            www.teempt.com