For what purpose should a person move out of there comfort zone and actively gain good health, are we going to aviod death by doing so.
If a person enjoys eating junk food or smokeing why does society need to try to make them feel wrong for doing so.
The only reason i can take from societys stance on health is for looks or money reason’s
Overweight or people who smoke must be feeling harrased, i know i am.
for example our warnings on smoke packets went from a writen warning to these grafic one’s of gange green, ect…ect how doe’s that not qualify as harrasment.
do what you want to youself aslong as it doesnt affect another person negatively people shouldnt have a problem with it.
the state should make sure you know all the facts and then let you decide.
people who smoke in public should take a sledge hammer to the face for forcing bad health on many others who do not wish for it…
aside from the “gov’t wanting you to do something you don’t want to do” aspect, which i think most here agree is the gov’t stepping out of bounds, i believe you are also posing a question as to “why should one seek good health.” correct me if i’m wrong …
i’m a health fanatic. have been for a long time. i was not dealt a great hand in terms of health to start with. i also associate with more people in the health industry than most. so i’ll give you my take on why people want to be healthy.
ease of living. while laziness pays off now, in the long run, it makes everything so much more difficult. to breath. to walk up the stairs. to get out of bed. to get a good nights rest. to concentrate. to be happy. to play with your kids. your grand kids. your great grand kids!
lifestyle. i’m accustomed to a specific lifestyle. an active one. i’m outdoorsie. i like hiking. i’ll leave it there before this begins looking like a personal ad. but frankly, i want to be able to continue my lifestyle for as long as possible. how many 80 year olds do you know that backpack? go camping? skiing? hunting?
curiosity. i want to see what 70 years from now looks like. look at the last 70 years. imagine if our world changes that much in the next 70! i’m curious as hell to see that. to experience it. to make fun of the next 10 generations of kids. to yell at each one of them for walking on my grass, damn them!!!
good health makes you feel good (and say corny things). like being in love, ya know? it improves the mood. it boosts the immune system to keep you even healthier, it just builds up right on top of itself. who wants to feel like crap? who wants to be depressed?!
Adell Davis, who started the health food craze, died of stomach cancer in her fifties. Jim Kick, who started the running craze dropped dead of a heart attack while jogging, he was 42.
My mother, who smokes and drinks and doesnt exercise is 81 and in perfect health, we, her children figure she will probably outlive all of us.
The whole diet exercise craze is a marketing scam playing on the narcissism of the individual even though psychological satisfaction is a much better indicator of longevity.
these are exceptions to the rule. these examples cannot be used to speak for the majority. reading medical journals regularly, i can tell you that the studies done on those that exercise regularly are much healthier than those that don’t. same goes for unhealthy habits like smoking, bad diets, etc. these people are 95% of the time much less healthy than otherwise.
looking back on my list, i do find that everything there is selfish in the way it is entirely because of my own wants and needs, no one elses. many consider looking after yourself first is shallow. i think it is necessary.
I think here you have hightlighted one of the main problems of goverment and society.
Is that an individual should assume a negitive outcome to his actions based on what has happened in the past or to others, but there is no person who is living an identical life to me, so i have no projected outcome of my life.
So there warnings are pointless unless i’m willing to project a negitive outcome to my life based on no evidence.
not necessarily so. warnings against unhealthy lifestyles and habits are just that, warnings. they are not definitive judgements. the surgeon general is no prophet or fortuneteller. but while you are most assuredly correct in saying that you are like no other, it does not mean science cannot tell us the probability for a certain outcome of a specific action/habit.
take one of the cigarette/cigar warning labels for example:
this is not saying that every smoker is going to get lung cancer and heart disease. it’s saying that there is enough scientific evidence proving that there are links. that the more one smokes the higher the percentage of lung cancer and heart disease risk.
there is a certain point for everyone where the risk outweighs the motivation to continue a habit. for some, a mere 1% increased chance of cancer may take push them into living in a bubble. others, it may take 99% increase in cancer risk before they stop smoking. yet, like all gamblers are well aware of, at any point in a persons life they may come up with that 1 in a million number.