Kevin Harper

As stated on the Nutrition Class post I created a few of days ago, I will be sharing my responses to nutrition topics. This post includes my initial response to a question posted by the professor and comments I made to others’ responses to that same question.

The professor posted the following:
“The focus of this topic is fitness. You have just read and learned a great deal about physical fitness.
For your initial post identify the one benefit of fitness you believe is the most important and explain why.”

My Initial Response
[ME:]Yes, being physically active can help one maintain a healthy weight (or at the very least can help against further gain)… Yes, being physically active can help against cardiovascular disease.

Our book has mentioned these points on numerous occasions.

But for this question I want to step away from the “compartmentalising scientific mindset” and say that fitness benefits our health as a whole. In other words, I don’t like to think of exercise as a good way to burn fat or as something that is good for the heart. I’m sure the argument could be made that one of the reasons exercise is good for the heart is because eliminates excess fat just as easily as the argument for how exercise strengthens the heart and makes it more efficient.

Bottom line is, exercise does A LOT of things in the body that work in synergy with one another. As an example, one would get more from elimination of fat and improved strength through exercise than if one got a liposuction and did electronic muscle stimulation.

Although liposuction can eliminate fat just like exercise and electronic muscle stimulation can strengthen muscles like some exercises can, achieving these results though exercise compounds the benefits that each has individually.

Discussion Based on my Initial Response
[STUDENT 1:]I completely agree with you Kevin. Although or book does mention many long term and scientific facts of the benefits of physical fitness, I believe physical activity improves a person well-being overall. Like I stated in my post, physical activity helps increase energy, boost mood, and maintain a healthy weight. However, the most important thing is that it makes you feel good about yourself.

[STUDENT 2:]Kevin, I agree. Being physically active provides benefits beyond those discussed in our text book. What our modern society considers “exercise” is, historically, exactly the type of physical activity we humans are built for. Engaging in daily physical activity should be viewed as more than a treatment for obesity or high blood pressure, but an essential, holistic part of a healthy life. Many of our health “epidemics” are related to the sedentary lifestyle so many humans have adapted.

[ME:]STUDENT 2:

You mentioned something that I wholeheartedly believe about “exercise”.

We used to have to expend energy to get food. Like animals in the wild today, we used to have to calculate possible benefits and possible expenditures or energy and possible injuries before we ate. Whether we chased/hunted game, climbed a tree for its fruit, or dug.

All of these activities kept us in the shape we needed to be in to continue to get these foods repeatedly. No other animal just “exercises” for “fun”. Dogs sit around in the shade just as birds do. The only time they get up is to drink water, get food, hide from predators. Chimps… same thing.

Exercise is, as you alluded to, part of our very evolution.

[STUDENT 3:] Hey STUDENT 2,

I agree with you that being physically active provides more benefits than the book goes into but I don’t think that physical activity is viewed as a treatment for obesity or high blood pressure. Prevention is what fitness provides, for instance physical activity helps reduce the levels of stress-related chemicals in the blood stream that constrict arteries and veins, it also increases the the release of endorphins, raises the level of HDL in the bloodstream. By lowering your heart rate and improving the responsiveness of blood vessels -over time you can help reduce blood pressure through bodyweight maintenance. I think that your spot on with the fact that fitness needs to be a major part of everyones life style.

[STUDENT 4:]I do agree with you about the whole view of fitness, and not just focusing on one thing.
By living a healthier lifestyle, it allows us to make healthier decisions regarding other things as well. I’m sure for some people it allows for a more positive life, while others may make subtle changes that help them mentally.
Great point of view!

[STUDENT 5:]Kevin,
It is true that exercise is better than liposuction.I believe that in some instances surgery can be helpful as a preliminary step for obese people but that it can remove personal responsibility. So I believe that it can be beneficial but good hard exercise, although difficult, is the best way to change your body. In combination with a well balanced diet it will keep you healthy and active in your later years as well as opening up many new activities that one must be an active individual to participate in.

My Comments on Other Students’ Initial Responses
[STUDENT 1:]The benefits of Fitness, there are so many benefits that come with physical exercise. With physical exercise there is a less of a need to visit the doctor’s office as often because you’re always sweating out all of the bad toxins. There is a less of a chance of getting sick, you are in a better mood and more than likely if you are in a high stress related environment you would have less stress due to the fitness. Which I would have to say is true considering what I just went through. I have tested the stress and fitness theory and it works. With fitness you will have more energy which may sound weird considering you use so much energy. I would also have to say even if you don’t have a balanced diet you will still feel better throughout the day due to fitness, which is another thing I have tested personally. I have tried to consume the best balanced diet without exercise and I still felt better with a bad balanced diet with exercise; having said that if I don’t exercise with or without a balanced diet I don’t feel as good as if I do exercise. Over all the obvious would be to exercise and consume a balanced diet. There are still so many more reasons that fitness is important, these are the main reasons that I personally notice from day to day.

[ME:] You are right in mentioning that one sweats toxins/toxic substances when exercising. It is important, however to know that we also take in more toxic substances than we would otherwise.

When exercising, one breaths more heavily and in greater frequency than when resting. For this reason, exercising outdoors (especially jogging nears roads) can be very hazardous to our health. YEARS ago I read a researcher compare running outdoors to smoking a pack of cigarettes. Not sure if that was an exaggeration on his part, but a government website I found says that “Healthy adults of all ages who exercise or work vigorously outdoors are considered a ‘sensitive group’ because they have a higher level of exposure to ozone than people who are less active outdoors.”[1]

I’m sure there are hundreds of studies that have been done on contaminants that are found in the air we breathe and how they negatively affect physically active people.

PS: On a side note… I didn’t know this until one of my biochem professors corrected the class SEVERAL TIMES about “the issue”. A TOXIN is a poisonous substance created by a living organism – like penicillin. It is a substance we use as an antibiotic (anti life) because a bacterium produces it (and is immune to it) to kill off competing colonies of other bacterium. Something that is toxic to us but wasn’t synthesized by a living organism is simply referred to as a “toxic substance”. :) Thought I’d share with the class because I had no clue up until a couple of semesters ago.

References:
[1] http://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=smog.page1

[STUDENT 2:] Kevin,
Nice job explaining toxins. When people suffer from food poisoning, they often blame the “bacteria” in the food. However, it’s not usually the bacteria that make you sick, it is the toxins that the bacteria make that cause humans some pain. There are so many bacteria that are helpful to us. I find it amusing that so many foods are now being marketed with “good bacteria” since they have been around forever.

[ME:] STUDENT 2:

Yes… In addition, the bacteria in many (if not most) of these products is dead by the time the consumer buys them.

And your point about why it’s called good bacteria because it has always been around. I’ve always wondered the same about medicine.

“Conventional”/”Traditional” medicine is MUCH NEWER than “alternative” medicine which has been around since before man.

“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”
- Hippocrates, 460 B.C (one of the most well known physicians of all time)

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