Would you consider yourself physically healthy?

[Kirby]

I'm curious to see if go players on L19 find themselves to be a healthy bunch.

[hyperpape]

I just really have no clue how to weigh things against each other. I'm not a world class athlete, I don't have a severe chronic illness. But I'm in the US but it might still be pretty easy to be above average...

[Joaz Banbeck]

I turn 53 later this month, and I still play competitive volleyball with people in their 20s and 30s. ( Ok, I do quit after 3 or 4 hours, whereas they play longer, but I'm playing as long as or longer than everyone in their 40s. )

Too many of my peers are developing diabetes or cardiovascular problems or emphesema or rigor mortis or whatever, so it is easy to say that I am above average. And in many instances it is just due to sheer sloth.

Note to you younger guys out there:
1) Get regular excercise.
2) Eat/drink in moderation
3) Don't smoke.
Barring bad luck, those three habits will put you in the 'above average' category when you are my age.

[imabuddha]

I'm as healthy as an ox!

[Solomon]

Nope. [sips from can of Full Throttle]

[topazg]

Probably in reasonable health and shape. My diet has suddenly become depressingly good (joint initiative with the wife) and I'm starting to get myself properly back into shape again, but definitely only average-ish at the moment.

[cdybeijing]

Araban, I find it somewhat disconcerting that you self-identify as being unhealthy and joke about it. There are so many things that can be done to improve the situation.

I have a lot of opinions on the subject of health, but if I could implore everyone to do just one thing to substantially improve their health it would be to drink more water. For an average male around 175 pounds, that's about 3 liters.

[CSamurai]

Clearly not used to American's disregard for their own health.

Let me point out, almost every drink, including juices, offered in a public place, is heavily processed and suggared. Water is the one exception, but who in america drinks water with a meal? Any food you eat in a resteraunt likely contains enough sodium to make eating out with hypertension a 'hah' experience, and often things billed and packaged as 'healthy' are as bad or worse than the things they're supposed to replace. (Look at the sodium content of a wrap, and tell me that's healthy.)

The fact of the matter is, most of us American's don't prepare their own food, eat too much of everything, and exercise too little.

And it's not convenient to do otherwise. I work 12 hour days. On my days off, I prepare food sometimes, but since I live with one other person, I rarely want to spend large amounts of time preparing a meal. That means prepackaged food, and that's all terrible for you.

On days when I work, I could, yes, spend the precious few hours that I'm awake and not working preparing meals for the next day, free and take them in, but that's time that I'd, frankly, rather be spending talking to people, and 'having a life'.

If you're living in America, drinking soda and energy drinks, and eating fast food and resteraunt food, you may as well be honest with yourself.

You're not being healthy.

At least Araban isn't deluding himself.

[kirkmc]

I have a lot of opinions on the subject of health, but if I could implore everyone to do just one thing to substantially improve their health it would be to drink more water. For an average male around 175 pounds, that's about 3 liters.

Bogus. There's no scientific evidence that says that one needs to drink a certain amount of water. Interestingly, different cultures specify different amounts. In the US, it's generally a _gallon_ a day, which is a huge amount. In France, they say a liter and a half; just the amount in which bottled water is sold.

Drinking water is essential, but there's no minimum. Drink when you're thirsty and you'll be fine. If your urine is often very yellow, drink until it's pale yellow.

There are lots of myths about water that float around - for example, the myth that drinking coffee makes you lose more water than what you consume with the coffee...

[kirkmc]

If you're living in America, drinking soda and energy drinks, and eating fast food and resteraunt food, you may as well be honest with yourself.

You're not being healthy.

I left the US 26 years ago. At the time, obese people were rare. When I was in high school, for example, there were only a handful of "fat" kids, out of 4,000 students. When I left, Americans were just starting to get into the habit of always carrying around a drink, and, as you say, that drink was rarely water. My mother lives in SC, and when I've visited, I've found it quite astounding to see how many people were carrying around really, really big cups of soda.

I'm a water and tea drinker; I drink about 3 cans of soda a year. (Ok, I drink wine as well, but not during the day ). I don't understand how obese people think that drinking more sugar-water is in any way good for them.

[Solomon]

Araban, I find it somewhat disconcerting that you self-identify as being unhealthy and joke about it. There are so many things that can be done to improve the situation.

I have a lot of opinions on the subject of health, but if I could implore everyone to do just one thing to substantially improve their health it would be to drink more water. For an average male around 175 pounds, that's about 3 liters.

You can only read so much into single-line post =/.

[hyperpape]

I predict that the trickle of sanctimony will become a flood...

[flOvermind]

I don't understand how obese people think that drinking more sugar-water is in any way good for them.

That's of course assuming that they do it because they think it's good for them

[kirkmc]

I don't understand how obese people think that drinking more sugar-water is in any way good for them.

That's of course assuming that they do it because they think it's good for them

I don't think they think that. But they don't think that it's not.

Some people think that high-fructose corn syrup (introduced in the 80s) is in some way addictive. No studies have proven this, but the obesity epidemic started around the same time that HFCS was introduced.

[hyperpape]

There's a long article in the New York Times Magazine from a few weeks ago, proving that everyone who eats sugar or HFCS dies. It claims that there's no important difference for health between the two, and links them both to metabolic syndrome.

A striking point that I first heard a few years ago is that there is one small way in which the obesity epidemic is a good thing. One partial cause of rising obesity is decreased smoking, and obesity is much less dangerous than smoking. There are other causes of obesity, but so far as we've traded one for the other, that's a good thing.