Paradoxes Solved

Everyone has heard about the French Paradox---the French eat heaps of rich sauces and wash it down with wine and still manage to remain svelte and keep a lower incidence of heart disease. You may not have heard about the Asian Paradox. I just read about it this morning. It seems that the pervasive idea that grain-based carbohydrates are doing us all in, causing organ inflammation and stubbornly depositing themselves around our waistband area, does not seem to be a problem in traditional Asian cultures that eat a lot of rice. Per capita, Asians have a lower BMI and a lower incidence of heart disease than the western world, but they have plenty of carbs on their dinner plates.

So what gives? We have doctors and scientists preaching to us in books and magazines. We have dogmatic signage in health-food grocery stores reminding us what we should be doing. We have television weight-loss experts chiming in about the clear path to the body beautiful. Are we supposed to eat like the French? Are we supposed to eat like the Asians? What are we doing here? Chop, chop. Let's go. Answers please!

If you read closely the treatises on these diet paradoxes, you'll note that these "healthier" cultures seem to move around more. The French tend to live in towns or city centers that we would call "walkable". And so they walk. To the shops. To the park. To the restaurant that will serve them a dollop of cream sauce and a glass of Chateauneuf du Pape. Asians tend to use bicycles as their primary mode of transportation...they are moving around on their own steam.

Not a one of these arguably healthy cultures live in a gated community without sidewalks located 20 miles from commerce so they necessarily have to gas up the SUV to get to work or the shops. These arguably healthier cultures are not exercising because they want to look like they did the "Jillian Michaels 30 day shred", they are exercising because it is a means to an end, namely transportation. If they want to go somewhere, they take the shoe leather express, rain or shine. It's not a choice. There is no need to motivate to go to the gym. If you need something, anything, you have to go there on your own steam and get it. And while you do, you are secretly getting exercise.

I think the movement component is far more important than the minute details of their dietary intake.

That is not to say that I don't support healthy eating...because I do. But it matters little whether you want to be high-protein/low-carb, or high-plant-based/low animal protein, or if you don't want a designer diet at all and just want to eat what folks might call a "balanced diet", what matters is that you let that food be fuel for your movement. I DO hope you choose whole, unprocessed food irrespective of your dietary habits. So whether you like carbs or think they are fat pills, the stuff you eat should be as natural and un-chemicalized as possible. And then you should get off the couch.

Now, you might wonder, what can you do if the cards are stacked against you? Maybe you have a really long commute that must be done in a car, to your really high-pressure job, that must be done in a chair, that leaves you really stressed-out so you just can't motivate to work out... you just really want to go home, eat your dinner, and enjoy a movie with your family. Plus, the nearest gym kind of seems like a meat-market for dumb singles anyway. NOT your cup of tea. Really...what can you do?

Well...you can get a dog and commit to walking him two times a day. And don't get lazy, because a dog is a responsibility and he requires exercise. If you get the dog, you walk that puppy two times a day, rain or shine. You can plant a garden and deal with it yourself. YOU deadhead the flowers, YOU till it in the spring, YOU pull the weeds. If you pawn this off on a landscaper, you've achieved nothing. While you are at it, mow your own lawn, with a push mower if possible. Paint your own living room. Clean your own house. Walk your kids to school. Or at least to the bus stop. Do a sport on the weekends. Wash your own car. Put away the electric mixer, and whisk your own batter (free tricep workout!). Take the stairs, not the elevator. Park half a mile from your office door. The bottom line is DO SOMETHING.

If you are lazy, your health and your body shape will give you away. Is that what you want to telegraph to the public?