Trick or treat, smell my feet
give me something good to eat
if you don’t, I don’t care
I’ll pull down your underwear!

Trick or treat, smell my feet
give me something good to eat
if you don’t, I don’t care
I’ll pull down your underwear!

For a kid, is there a better holiday than Halloween? It has the coolest premise of any of the annual celebrations: dress up, be mischievous, and get candy. Genius! Is that even legal? It was the “purge” before The Purge. Even as unsophisticated kids, we knew that we couldn’t prepare for Halloween carelessly. We decorated our houses and classrooms with cobwebs, spiders, witches and all things creepy and crawly.

On television, it was endless entertainment. “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” to “Poltergeist” to the Universal Monster classics kept us glued to the couch for an entire month. Our costumes had to be perfect, down to the last detail. You needed to get to the store early, otherwise, the good costumes would be taken. If you wanted to be Michelangelo from the Ninja Turtles, you’d better be at the costume shop on September 30th. If you hesitated at all, you would be lucky if you could get Leonardo.

I remember my mother trying to save money and buying costumes that were knockoffs of the mainstream originals. Arachna-Man, instead of Spider-Man, Owl-Man instead of Batman, or shape-shifting-truck-bot instead of Optimus Prime. No, way. I would have been the laughing stock of the fifth grade, setting up my middle school years for non-stop bullying. “Hey, there’s that kid who dressed up as ‘GI Steve.’ Get him!”

Today, everybody goes to the mall or some such nonsense for candy. Where’s the fun in that? I can’t imagine going to Macy’s for some Twix, or Victoria’s Secret for candy corn. Why wouldn’t you just go to See’s Candy? It is, literally, a candy store. I sense a pattern with many parents. They have fun, grow up, and take all the enjoyment out of things for their children; Halloween being no exception.

I’m not sure why. Do they not want to walk? Are the streets too “hilly?” Sometimes, you need to break a sweat for that chocolatey goodness. Is it for safety? It was much more dangerous for us in the 70’s and 80’s than it is now. Every kid has a cell phone with trackers and a whistle, making it virtually impossible to get lost or kidnapped. We had to worry about maniacs putting razor blades in candy apples. Today’s parents worry about gluten and “offensive” costumes. I sound like a curmudgeonly old man barking about the “good old days.” But, they were good—very good.

When we were young, we went door-to-door like we were running for public office. Before we could say “smell my feet,” we’d get a handful of mini-snickers in our bags. This was also our first exposure to a vetting process. We’d tell other kids to visit or avoid certain houses, based on their payloads. “Don’t go to Mrs. Wingo’s house, she only gives out pennies.” “Dude, you have got to get to Mr. Taylor’s house! He’s giving out King Size Snickers! I don’t know how much he has left. Better book it!”

A perilous night like All Hallow’s Eve is not all fun and games. We had to stay on the lookout for the dreaded “bag snatchers.” These were the jerks who ran past you and yanked your candy bag from your hands. Since they were usually older and faster, there was no hope of getting your stash back. You either had to start over or you’d go home empty handed, crying to mom. You’d end up with “pity candy,” usually in the form of stale butterscotch that’s been in your grandmother’s purse for seventy years. It was the best holiday, but not without risks.

At the end of a triumphant evening was the ceremonial “candy trade,” where we’d sit together and swap candy. It was a hustle from start to finish. Your goal was to get their best candy, without giving up yours. “I’ll give you a Mr. Goodbar for a Nestle Crunch.” If you had some King Size candy, you had real negotiating power. After a few hits of “Pixie Stix,” it became an intense reenactment of Glengarry Glen Ross.

The parents would try to intervene with a candy-distribution-socialist idea, but we would have none of that. I worked hard for that loot. Matthew hit fewer houses than I did and I had a better costume. He wasn’t getting a finger on my Butterfinger. If Halloween fell on a Friday or Saturday, it would be the best night of the year, times two. After the candy stock exchange was completed, it was time for the scary movies. Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, Chucky, and Michael Myers each supplied a night’s worth of boogeymen, guaranteed to give us nightmares.

The Real-Life Boogeyman, Obesity

Today, there is a super-boogeyman out there that makes all the rest look like Care Bears. It is singularly blamed for all of life’s misery, most specifically, obesity. It’s not a grotesque ghoul, hiding underneath your bed. We brought it into our homes by the pillowcase-full every year on Halloween, like the Trojan horse. Did we let the barbarians inside the gates? What have we done? Sugar, thou art a villain, but is sugar truly the bane of our existence?

In 2018, more and more people are having difficulty discerning between satire and literal narrative. With that in mind, I will say this next part literally: sugar is not exclusively responsible for obesity, type-2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Repeat the “not exclusively responsible” part again. Before you hunt me with torches and pitchforks, I will be clear.

Again, there’s a difference between controlling your sugar intake and scapegoating it for all the aforementioned problems. I advocate the former. The latter is a lazy tool of the media and creates a generation of orthorexics—orthorexia is defined as an obsession with eating foods that one considers healthy, a medical condition in which the sufferer systematically avoids specific foods in the belief that they are harmful.

Attributing a single-cause to any multi-factorial issue is a fallacy. If you’re asked why there is a lot of crime in a certain area, and your response is “nudity in movies,” you’re wrong. Likewise, obesity, heart disease, and type-2 diabetes are multi-factorial. They tried the single-cause fallacy in the 80’s with fat, later with all carbs, and now sugar. It’s an overly simplistic view and doesn’t solve the problem at-large.

For the “lone gunman” theory to work, you’d have to prove that sugar is solely responsible for obesity and the other health issues and that no shots came from the grassy knoll. With any theory, it can be tested. Meaning, for it to hold true, it cannot be falsified. Spoiler alert: it was proven wrong in a landmark study, published in 2015. Surely, people are eating more sugar today than ever, right? They aren’t, and don’t call me Shirley.

Photography by Jeffrey Perez, Oahu, Hawaii

How Scary Is Sugar?

Sugar intake has remained stable since the 1970’s. Since then, grain products have increased by 187 calories, fats and oils have increased by 185 calories, and sugars have increased by 38 calories. Together, they contribute to an additional 400 calories per day.

Physical activity has decreased by 140 calories in men and 124 calories in women. That’s 400 more calories coming in and approximately 130 less going out, which equals a surplus of 500 calories per day. That’s 3500 calories per week—a pound of body fat. That’s not considering neurochemistry, genetics, physiology, and economics. But, who cares about nuance and details?

Sugar intake should be reduced and controlled within a calorically-balanced diet with optimal protein. Context is important. A person who drinks three cans of soda a day is likely not eating blueberries and salmon. They’re presumably not exercising regularly. A good guess would be that they smoke and drink, also. It would be foolish to deny these additional influences on obesity, but it doesn’t fit the narrative.

Is it a good idea to limit added sugar to 10% or below of total caloric intake? Yes. Are two licks of a Milky Way going to turn you into Jabba the Hut? No. The media doesn’t deal in subtlety. They work on emotion, divorcing you from rational thinking. One must be irrational to buy what they’re selling. Rational thinking is important.

Still, I can guess what will happen after reading this. “I don’t care what he says, sugar makes you fat.” If that’s you, stay tuned for my next article: “How the Illuminati Took Over NASA.” I won’t pretend that I have the answers to obesity, food addiction, and heart disease. I do know where the problem isn’t. It’s not at the center of a Tootsie Roll.

This is about more than sugar. It is symbolic of a greater problem: the abdication of responsibility—the endless pursuit of a scapegoat for one’s problems is a dangerous problem in today’s culture. I should write a book called The Victim Diet, sell a billion copies, and retire.

Every page is filled with foods, people, and companies you can blame for your high body fat. We are living in a paradox. At the same time, people are more educated than ever before in history and yet succumb to the dumbest ideas. Did you know there are more “Flat-Earthers” today than at any point in time?

I run into people every day who bust their ass in the gym and work at a sustainable and healthy diet. When asked about the origins of their health problems, they don’t single out “sugar” or “nudity in movies.” They describe various disconnections they’ve made to a healthy lifestyle. They admit they eat too much. They eat the wrong things. They don’t exercise enough or correctly. They self-sabotage and don’t feel good about themselves. And you know what? These are the warriors that see real change. The victims disappear after a week.

Holidays are holidays for a reason. They are a deviation from everyday life. That’s why you shouldn’t light fireworks on random Tuesdays, like an ass. It’s a special part of New Year’s and Independence Day. If you dressed like a cowboy at work today, people would think you’re insane, unless you’re a male stripper. Costumes are for Halloween. Santa Claus is for Christmas.

Halloween is about dressing up, being prankish, getting frightened, and yes, eating sugar. We shouldn’t eat and behave like it’s a holiday all year long. If we did that, they wouldn’t be holidays anymore. The majority of the year should be filled with healthy food, normal clothes, and not egging someone’s house—unless they really deserved it.

The post Next Halloween It’s Trick or Diabetes appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When it comes to diet and health change, humans have a bug in their operating system. Obesity spirals more and more out of control and the vast majority of efforts are futile. Anecdotal evidence as well as recent studies support that over 90% of people who lose weight gain it all back, plus some, within five years.

I’ve long belabored the flaws of our niche diets and “no pain, no gain” approaches to lifestyle change. We are littered with programs promising rapid results. We’re littered with 20 day cleanses, 30 day challenges, and a billion perversions of counting calories all marketed in such a way as to be new and unique.

I stand by my message. It is less sexy and less magic in a bottle, but it is the only approach I’ve ever watched work—an approach rooted in education, intentional values, sustainable habits, and understanding that this change is not a quick fix, but the gradual process of a lifetime.

The Trouble with Actual Change

My approach, unfortunately, tends to falls on deaf ears. There are successes and those people are changed for a lifetime. However, the vast majority just don’t like it. Clients, family, and friends have consulted me time and time again. They’ve heard my advice, ignored it, bought the diet program and started the extreme fitness.

Changes aren’t rooted in the principles of sustainable health, or in any value structure that might promote continual learning. Instead of actual change, these people have opted for a cheat code. Unfortunately, it’s a time bomb waiting to go off.

Their metabolisms are slowed only to eventually be subjected to their old patterns, resulting in even more weight gain over time. I’ve watched this endless cycle of failure as the majority weave in and out of the latest weight loss industry gimmicks. We could blame them, but that doesn’t bring us any closer to a solution. Perhaps the issue is in my presentation.

This brings me back to that bug in the operating system. People want simple. They come from an environment with little to no education or models of what sustainable health looks like. They are fed a conveyer of contradictory messages. In their desperation all they want is the simple answer.

They want me to tell them do X and they will become healthy. Instead, I offer a very complex, layered system. It requires patience, consistency, and education that, initially, only creates more questions. They need only look on Facebook to find examples of people who took another route—people happy to share how effective counting calories has been for them.

They don’t see the unsustainability. The obsessive tracking feels productive and empowering at first. A friend loses weight by eating 25 grams of fat or less each day. That sounds doable. After all, grocery aisles are littered with fat-free, sugar infused goodies. It isn’t healthy, but it is simple and straightforward.

People want simple! They want to hear “do X and you’ll get Y.” This revelation is full of promise, if we are willing to accept it. I can do simple. The path to health change is individual. It will depend on the person, their experience, emotions, support, preferences and many other factors. Yet it is simple.

Nutrition Change Simplified

Step 1: Pick one thing and replace it. Replace, not eliminate. Eating habits are just that, habits. Habits consist of a cue (like hunger or boredom), a routine (eating), and a reward (pleasure, satiation, etc.). We’re substituting one routine.

Possibilities include:

• Replace the daily soda with a daily iced tea with lemon or soda water and a lime
• Replace the bag of chips with a bag of cashews, almonds, or mixed nuts
• Replace the daily yogurt with an apple

Step 2: Eliminate temptation. Get rid of whatever you are replacing. Make it less available and create roadblocks to falling off the wagon. Feel free to make rules like, I will no longer have ice cream in the house, but can eat it at special occasions or at social weekend activities.

Step 3: When this is easy, consider adding a new change. Start back at Step 1 and add another substitution, keeping in mind that whatever change you make should be doable for a lifetime.

Fitness Change Simplified

Step 1: Pick one simple habit and adopt it. Make sure the cue, routine, and reward are consistent. Start small.

For beginners these are good initial habits:

• Go on a walk every morning.
• Adopt a 5-10 minute daily morning exercise circuit
• Sweep the house every day when you get home and mow every weekend
• Work at a standing desk
• Always park in the furthest parking spot and always take the stairs
• Bike to work
• Wake up to a movement circuit

Step 2: Manipulate the environment to make sure you follow through. Set two alarms, the second by your bedroom door next to your shoes and clothes. Take the chairs out of your office. Fire the house cleaner. Buy a dog that you have to walk. Sell your car. Maybe I’m getting carried away.

Step 3: If and when you want more, add more. It can be an exercise program, a weekly racquetball game, a new hobby, or any of the other options mentioned in step 1.

The Advanced Simple Plan

This extra step involves eliminating added sugars and artificial sugars. Eat only whole foods (foods available in nature like fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, meat). This typically follows a change in values and philosophy, but I’ve seen it be very effective.

It works as a general model, allowing occasional deviations and treats. For some who really struggle with sugar addiction (it appears to be more addictive than cocaine), full scale prohibition may actually be recommended.

You Must Have Lifelong Lifestyle Change

I cannot make up for the fact that sustainable health change only happens with lifelong lifestyle change. This is certainly far more likely if you live in an area that promotes health and where healthy behavior is the norm.

For those not willing to move and who want the simple solution to health change that actually sticks, this is the plan for you.

The post Simple Health Changes: The Ideal Versus the Reality appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

While there are many contributing factors to obesity, lack of physical activity is a biggie. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that kids get at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day.² As a mom to three young kids and a health enhancement teacher to over 100, I can tell you first-hand this is not enough. Kids need to move their little bodies, a lot! Despite this, there are many kids failing to get even the minimum amount. Only 21.6% of 6 to 19-year-old children and adolescents in the United States are physically active for 60 minutes, five days per week.³

Considering the effects obesity has on these little bodies and the fact that approximately 80% of overweight children become overweight adults, ⁴ something needs to be done. Yes, this is a multifaceted problem that won’t have an overnight solution; however, things need to change, now.

I think one of the most important steps we can take is to start kids on the right path as early as possible. Getting kids in the habit of moving rather than maintaining a sedentary existence is a good starting point. But what’s the most effective way to do so?

Facts to Ponder

A very recent study compared three different types of recess time for preschool children. One consisted of free play where the kids could do as they pleased; the second was structured and involved a fitness instructor leading the children through different activities; the third, the control, gave the kids access to age-appropriate books, computer games, and learning activities.

Accelerometers were used to measure activity levels of the children during the three different types of recess. As you’d expect, the kids were significantly less active during the control recess. There was no significant difference found in activity levels between the free play or structured recess. However, after the recess period, researchers discovered something of interest.

For starters, kids who participated in the control recess completed significantly less physical activity throughout the rest of the school day. Secondly, when the children were engaged in structured play during recess, they were significantly less active after recess compared to both the free play and control groups.

Researchers deduced that children who were highly active during free play exhibited a significant reduction in physical activity during structured play and visa versa—kids who were not as active during free play significantly increased their activity level during structured play.

What Does This All Mean?

To me, it means kids are similar to adults — we all have our preferences and personalities. While some like to run wild and do whatever comes to them on a whim, others are more reserved with their bodies and actions. Their brains and bodies may not intertwine in a way that makes spontaneous movement possible or even fun for that matter. These kids need to be instructed on what to do and how to do it.

I see this all the time in my classes. I do quite a bit of structured activity in order to teach the kids specific skills but I mix in free play every few classes. During free time, the majority of the kids are going wild, but there’s always a select few who don’t really know what to do with themselves. In contrast, these quiet ones thrive when they’re instructed on exactly what to do.

Whether you work with kids professionally as a teacher or coach or you simply have a couple little humans running around your house, it’s our responsibility to show them how to incorporate, enjoy, and crave movement. Get to know your kids. Find out how they prefer to engage in physical activity and cater to that need. It will be better for everyone involved if we can get our kids moving and reverse this childhood obesity trend we’re dealing with. It might be a small start, but it’s a start.

References:

1. “The State of Childhood Obesity“, Iowa State Obesity Data, Rates and Trends – The State of Obesity. Accessed June 22, 2018.

2. “Healthy Schools“, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. June 28, 2017. Accessed June 22, 2018.

3. “Healthy Schools“, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. April 09, 2018. Accessed June 22, 2018.

4. Burdette, Hillary L., Robert C. Whitaker, and Stephen R. Daniels. “Parental Report of Outdoor Playtime as a Measure of Physical Activity in Preschool-aged Children“, Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 158, no. 4 (2004): 353. doi:10.1001/archpedi.158.4.353.

5. Frank, Megan L., Anna Flynn, Gregory S. Farnell, and Jacob E. Barkley. “The Differences in Physical Activity Levels in Preschool Children during Free Play Recess and Structured Play Recess“, Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness 16, no. 1 (2018): 37-42. doi:10.1016/j.jesf.2018.03.001.

The post Childhood Fitness: Start Them Young appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

When I think back to elementary school, few experiences return as vividly as DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), the program of choice for keeping a new generation drug and alcohol-free. As a kindergartner, I remember looking at the older kids wearing their black DARE shirts—the red lettering smattered, almost like blood (which is cool to a 5-year-old boy). I couldn’t wait to get my own.

The DARE curriculum started as soon as we entered second grade and, assuming it was better not to teach 7-year-olds about crack and heroin, the overwhelming emphasis was put upon cigarettes. We’d role-play ways to say no to smoking. Police officers and other speakers regularly came in proclaiming every disturbing consequence of smoking cigarettes: “cigarette smokers are addicted, each cigarette is 11 minutes off your life, second-hand smoke is deadly, smokers have stinky breath and yellow teeth, you won’t get married, it’s a slow, painful death, smoking makes you part of Al Qaeda.” You know, stuff like that.

By the fourth grade, we completed the DARE course and were rewarded with a pizza party, the DARE t-shirt, and a DARE card. This was the late 90s and, believe it or not, our parents still allowed us all to walk home alone. Empowered by our new purchasing power, we’d run across the street to Panera Bread where the DARE card could be presented for a free soda.

The Fight Against Big Tobacco

Our communities have invested heavily in fighting “big tobacco” in a valiant effort to save a generation from addiction to cigarettes. Whether it was DARE or any of the many powerful ad campaigns, the effectiveness of this anti-smoking movement is undeniable. According to the CDC, the percentage of adult smokers has consistently declined since 1965, when 42.4% of adults smoked. As of 2014, that number was only 16.8%. Likewise, the number of students smoking, which hit 36.4% in 1997, was down to 15.7% by 2013.

Americans looked at the evidence and determined that a cultural normalization of smoking was needlessly killing millions. Americans banded together to fight an intensely profitable tobacco industry. Smoking will probably never fully go away, but today smokers are the outliers. They engage in an activity with intense scrutiny, where they are constantly confronted with the deep consequences of choosing to smoke.

In direct contrast to these strides in the fight against big tobacco, the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Report shows the destructive, deadly consequences of American eating habits. According to the report, “About half of all American adults have one or more preventable, diet-related chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, are overweight, and have obesity.” These preventable diseases have many causes. They are exacerbated by increasingly sedentary lifestyles, but American nutritional norms are the primary culprits. Processed foods have become the standard for each meal and have infiltrated every event in modern life.

Consequently, in the United States today, greater than 1 in 3 adults and 1 in 6 children are obese. Childhood obesity has more than tripled since 1970 and is only getting worse. In fact, a Harvard study projects that over 57% of youth ages 2-19 will be obese by the time they are 35. The cost of obesity in the US economy is between $147 and $210 billion annually. This epidemic is more widespread than smoking ever was and is poised to grow in the foreseeable future.

The Indoctrination of the Western Diet

The western diet has deadly and debilitating health consequences comparable to smoking. When you add entrenched patterns of sedentary living, the costs are probably greater. Add to this the intense isolation and mental degradation of smartphone proliferation and you have a terrifying mental, emotional, and physical health crisis devastating communities across the world. Undoubtedly, the way we normalize and program these patterns in youth today is every bit as destructive as handing them a pack of cigarettes. Yet, no one acts.

Whether cigarettes or the western diet is more deadly and destructive is of no consequence. Both have tremendous costs. What bears consideration is why our communities are united and successful combating cigarettes, while every youth institution is staunchly complicit in the normalization of processed, convenience food. Remember the DARE card?

Whenever we want to provide youth incentives, we opt for junk food! Schools are filled with vending machines, PTA moms selling cookies, and sports teams loudly promoting their fast-food and soda sponsors. Camps and sports teams operate under the assumption that the only way to have kids show up and comply is a never-ending buffet of candy and refreshments.

Even the home institution is saturated with processed “kids” foods. Parents have bought the narrative that Pop-Tarts and Cinnamon Toast Crunch are normal, acceptable breakfasts for kids and that every lunch should feature pudding, white bread, sugar bomb yogurt, and chips. Not to mention that dessert accompanies every dinner, and that candy and soda should be made available at every destination.

Perhaps our stubbornness to admit the costs of mass junk food is the result of vague labeling. What does “western diet” even mean? This broad category typically is used to describe the increased reliance on processed foods in the United States that is now spreading across the world.

These feature foods lacking fiber and healthy fat while being packed with refined sugars and saturated fats. This is food that could not exist without laboratories and which our human biology could have never expected mass exposure. In short, it’s food that isn’t real. It is food that we create through complex chemistry.

The Social Role of the Western Diet

For most, there is a social stigma surrounding cigarettes that probably saves more people from smoking than any other factor. Right, wrong, or indifferent, humans almost always adopt self-destructive behaviors when there is social pressure to conform. We live in the age of shame policing, but social criticism can be a very constructive tool.

While cigarettes invite what could be thought of as constructive shame, healthy eating is the opposite. In almost every situation, you must work harder and be willing to be different in order not to eat overly processed foods. People will badger you about not having any donuts at the staff meeting. On Becky’s last workday, you’ll be a self-righteous jerk for not eating cake. Parents will think you have a problem when you ask them not to give your kids soda at a sleep-over. One could wonder who is more of a pariah: the health nut, or the smoker?

What accounts for the different social reactions between our health crisis and smoking?

Poor nutrition has been a harder nut to crack for a few reasons:

1. We have to eat. We do not have to smoke, so it is easy to say “don’t do that” (even though substitution seems a better tactic for breaking bad habits). There is no problem with eating—it’s wonderful. This seems obvious, but it is often lost to the popular health narratives and their insistence on burning the demon calories. The issues lie in the confusion that surrounds what to eat.
2. Poor nutrition is a less concrete issue. There is a lot of wiggle room for the food giants to entrench us in a web of poor health. There are a lot more variations of food with a lot more gray area between very healthy and very unhealthy. People hear sugar is the problem, only to hear a week later that sugar is great—it’s in plants like fruit, after all. They hear they should eat only meat and fats, and then they hear they need to avoid meat completely. They hear calories are the problem and opt for diet soda and non-fat, sugar spiked breakfast bars. Having no idea what the other days of their week look like, they are confused by a dinner date with their fit friends who drink and indulge in the new ice-cream parlor. The contradictory advice becomes more reason not to care.
3. We don’t think eating habits are addictive. You wouldn’t hear parents clamoring for kids to have cigarettes in moderation, but the food giants have been very successful in avoiding the label of addiction while taking every opportunity to confuse. The reality is that studies on lab rats show rats will eat to Oreos far past the point of satiation. In another study, rats that had been addicted to cocaine and morphine chose saccharin, a calorie-free sweetener, 94% of the time. Even after upping the dose of cocaine, rats still preferred the sensation of intense sweetness.

Distressed by the complexity, millions are comforted by an illusion that the western diet is “normal.” Convenience foods and fast food have become interwoven in the routines of American family life to such a degree that one can scarcely imagine a group of people coming together without making sure more than a week’s worth of sugar is on hand.

Educate Yourself

If you are interested in eating better, read, avoid extremes, and explore the prominent eating habits of areas where people live long healthy lives. It has been far easier to rally people to a clear enemy, like the cigarette companies, with an obvious solution: don’t smoke. Rather than flailing madly in an attempt to defeat every health threat, let’s identify the greatest villain and ride that momentum going forward.

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