Fitness Files: A Wonder is worth the workout
We are on vacation, we’re hiking Zion National Park’s spectacular trails. Two-hundred-million-year-old sandstone shoots up 7,000 feet in sheer cliff and spire, sporting colors of orange, rose, toast, salmon and purple in geometric striation.
Easy hikes invite families and seniors to Weeping Rock and Emerald Pools.
Hikers’ conversations float by, but too many hikers lumber ahead, struggling on flat trails at 4,000-foot elevation. These are young people with beautiful skin, full heads of hair — attributes only a senior would notice. However, these young hikers carry 50 extra pounds with every step. Breathing harder than Paul and I, in our 70s, these youngsters are working too hard on vacation.
A survey of statistics from the American Medical Assn. puts the percentage of obese Americans at 34.9%. The American Heart Assn. says 70% of Americans are overweight or obese.
The list of obesity-related illness is well known: high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, some cancers. Michael Jacobson of Center for Science in the Public Interest puts the medical cost of extra pounds at $150 billion a year.
Why are Americans carrying more pounds than their bodies are designed for?
One reason — the “toxic food environment.”
I salivate at advertisements for juicy hamburgers and packaged cookies beside the checkout. Smells wafting from restaurants beckon. Everything on the supermarket’s crunchy chip aisle tantalizes. I open a magazine to appetizing food images. Paying for coffee, I spot the pastry display.
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity says that “in 2013, the food and beverage industry in the USA spent 136.53 million U.S. dollars on advertising.” Rudd researchers believe “that the number and frequency of food and beverage television advertisements, particularly those aimed at children, has contributed to the level of obesity in America.”
Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab states that, “The more visible and accessible a food is, the more of it will be consumed.”
In June 2012, the AMA classified obesity as a disease for the first time, stating in part that, “[C]onventional wisdom suggested that obesity is the result of personal choice, a failure of willpower, a disease of ignorance…New research presents a different view: …environmental influence make[s] unhealthful foods — sugary, salty, fat-filled snacks — appealing, desirable and even potentially addictive.”
So, what can those of us susceptible to food ads do?
For me, one answer is exercise. My food cravings and big appetite are hardwired. Dieting causes rebellious overeating.
Exercise is an opiate with its own addictive properties. True, I use calories with activity, but the inner reward, a sense of vitality, makes me come back for more. Comparing the overstuffed feeling with post-hike-glow, I’ll take a hike.
Today, Paul and I rented water shoes and sloshed through four glorious hours of “The Narrows,” a slot canyon featuring rushing current over rocky river floor, and the most spellbinding beauty available to wet hikers anywhere. Bronzed sandstone cliffs towered above us. Water changed from icy blue to indigo with dancing diamond ripples. We hiked in two hours past Orderville, a side tributary cutting through rock to join the Virgin River. Deeper into the slot, light shot down, turning the 3,000-foot cliff golden. As we turned back, surrounded by fit younger hikers, we realized that, at 71 and 77, we were the oldest to make it that far.
Hikers who’d huffed and puffed on short hikes hadn’t attempted this glorious inlet. My wish for them is to wade “The Narrows” next vacation. It is worth getting in shape to experience this Wonder of the World.
Newport Beach resident CARRIE LUGER SLAYBACK is a retired teacher who ran the Los Angeles Marathon at age 70, winning first place in her age group. Her blog is [email protected].