Lean Chicken Or the Egg White...

Cultural norms versus exposure.

In this section of our delve into Food Systems, we will be looking to understand the connection to poor eating habits, grocers and culture. 

This is important, as these three play an intricate role in behavior change and asking the chief question; which one lays at the center of the problem? Grocers play a vital role in the health of our communities, this being said, we play a even more vital role in our health - meaning that at the epicenter of our health, it is our responsibility to be healthy. However, considering the systems, barriers, policies and environments in place, that's easier said than done at times. 
The questions I will be asking in this section are does culture perpetuate what foods are available in our local markets, or food deserts; or is it the lack of exposure to the right foods that shape our understanding of what we should eat? The idea that communities in need purchase poorer quality food and have higher prevalence to obesity begs the questions of whose driving here? 

We will jump right back into The Grocery Gap for more information and answers to guide this discussion. 

In the first scenario, we can see a community purchasing foods that are poorer in nutritional value based on factors of interesting in the type of food, or cultural connections. To be a little more clear, culture consists not only of heritage, but also understanding, perception, experiences and beliefs. These also don't have to have generational ties or have been present over multiple generations. This would paint that the behaviors in food selection are based on customer demand. 

I find this argument interesting; for the fact that in areas of need store owners (whether supermarket, or local corner store) are being guided by their customers to supply the products they are most interested to purchase. This scenario would also incite such ideas of education to the community on what to buy, and why, being the most effective way to change how and what the store owner buys to stock his or her shelves. 

In juxtapose, another scenario brings the idea that the store owner, based on designs and structures unknown (or not mentioned in the article), only supplies the communities in need with poor quality food, thus conditioning and rewiring eating behaviors and limiting how these communities connect or identify with healthy foods. 

This argument, in my mind, lacks a why. However, I do understand the system of racism and the model of perpetual poverty design. The lack of grocery stores in urban and rural areas has more to do with access to paying customers, cost of doing business and resources, as it does with poor equity. If poorer communities do not have the same buying power, or access to resources, the business decision seems calculated. However, this isn't by any means saying that the research doesn't show that there are gross inequities and that if you expose these populations to the produce and foods that are healthy, they will in fact eat it. 

If food deserts had greater access to healthy foods would that solve the issue? Or possibly having more grocery stores or supermarkets established in low-income areas would bolster healthy eating and weight loss? Or would giving communities more education on healthy eating and the benefits of produce, whole wheat and low-fat milk drive local markets to focus on providing healthier foods to buy? 

Cultural norms are very deep seeded and highly influential; that coupled with supply and demand, makes for a very difficult task to shift ideals on food, health and nutrition. However, exposure allows for new experiences, ideas and opportunities, allowing access to healthy foods could spark behavior change and pandiculation to better nutrition. The latter, of course, coupled with education - As in the words of Maya Angelou, "You can't do better, unless you know better", has shown to be very successful. 

The article mentioned the positive effect of higher produce purchased with the exposure of fresh fruits and vegetables in low-income communities of need, even when controlling for all the variables. If knowledge can change behavior, primarily when complimented with factors such as support, follow up, reinforcement and incentives, it is possible to argue that exposure has a greater impact on culture, than culture has on exposure. 

If you don't move on purpose, you will get lost on purpose.  - Jason Gillette 

Your Absences Makes Me Grow...

In our first entry into our food system, we will be looking at our local grocers and their impact on our health. It is not doubt that obesity and food go hand in hand; and why not, obesity is largely caused by consuming larger quantities of food.

So, the questions I had when reading more about this topic were: 1) is the presence of a local grocer a factor in obesity? 2) Is this a fruit or root (no pun intended) issue, where culture and knowledge drive the intervention as one is the byproduct or cause of the other. Also, does what drive sales drive product selection?

The term "food desert" has been used when defining areas, whether urban or rural, that have little to no access to nutritious foods. Though, these areas have access to food, in many cased the food is of little nutritional value and also high in salt, fat and sugar.

We will delve into the first question more deeply in this grocer section and see the many angles it has and how we can best think about the issue and its possible solution. From a prelusive perspective, culture, knowledge, and income are large factors that impact the availability of food. Or, is it the other way around?

I'm excited to continue learning and read more into the food system and how the grocer plays an intricate part in our health, obesity and community.

"If we do not move with purpose, we will get lost on purpose."

It's Alive!

From the depths of absence and distractions I return... It's been far too long and so much has happened in the time elapsed. So with little excuse for the delay and less time explaining why, let's get right back on board with more Movement Of The Mind.

Waking up can be hard, but is necessary... I think

As  a recap, MOTM is all about looking with the intent to better understand or hoist a different perspective towards your current thinking to facilitate deeper discussions, or paradigm shifts. My aim is to help you (and me) look at health in a way that impacts behavior (the Mind) which would spur change in how we address our health (the Movement).

So let's go. I left one series incomplete and will leave that as is. I'd like to begin anew; I'd like to start with looking at our food systems, what ails us as a society and the respective relations between them. I plan to look at five areas within our food systems (of which we could construct graduate level courses, but let's keep it surface for now) that impact society. These areas are:

- Grocers
- Student lunches
- Dining
- Demographic/Mapping
- Money

Again, of these we could pontificate to no end, but MOTM is about fostering stronger conversations and allowing for perspectives (without adding value) to permeate our understanding and build on current knowledge, or dispel common ignorance.

In our first area of Grocers, there are a lot of misconceptions, even for me, that I am interested in learning more about. This entity plays a vital role in the food system that shapes our lives, communities and our health. Objectively, I'd like to aid in assisting all of us to be more informed about what we need, where to find it and how to advocate for your own health.

So, we will delve into how Grocers operate, what is their objective, and empower us to look at them differently (again, without adding value). MOTM is all about health, I feel that our health is the main thing that we need to be better, feel better and deliver better to everyone we encounter in our lives. So, looking at our local grocer and relating that to how we need to think to in turn be healthier seems right up MOTM's alley!

I am excited to reembark on this journey and am eager to grow my fan base [...crickets chirping...], but this blog is for me primarily to learn more and build my knowledge base to be the best as what I do. So...

LET'S LEARN!

Happy 2016 everyone, let's make this one count!

The Perfect Storm: Environment

Can living here, or there have an impact?

As mentioned in the previous blog entry, we are opening up the four sections that make up a system that impacts obesity.  This first section will discuss environment.  When I initially wrote The Perfect Storm entry, I was looking at reverse engineering the system that creates obesity, by teasing out the main factors that impact it.  I find that it is easier to work backwards sometimes to go forward, especially when looking at an issue such as this.  I hope to gain new insights and paradigm shifts in my thinking along the way.  Just as a perfect storm needs all the right elements to be successful (and that term is relative), obesity needs to have the same elements to get to where it is today.  So, let's look at our environment to see how this impacts obesity and where we can make cognitive changes to improve our approach.

Our environment consists of a few components, some of those components are our family, neighborhood, and knowledge.  While looking at these and their impact on our health (namely obesity) we can discern that how our family eats, we'll eat, how our family views physical activity we more than likely will follow suit, and how our family's genetics (which we will talk about later), and health history are, ours will probably be similar.  We can also derive from our neighborhood how our community is structured (adequate lighting, sidewalks, crime, etc.), and where we are located in regards to green spaces and accessibility to healthy foods.  Our knowledge (I think) is the most significant subsection we're discussing under environment of all.  With knowledge we find that our cognitive abilities are the most pliant of all the three.  With more knowledge, we can make better decisions, with better knowledge we can change our lives; so knowledge is key to impacting how we define our health, access health and incorporate health into our lives.  

Our environment is more than the grid or the street we live on, it's all encompassing, more so than some have given thought to.  The late Maya Angelou once said, "When you know better, you do better", and I feel that speaks to the section of our environment that focuses on our knowledge.  It can also touch on how those of us responsible for communities can do better as well.  Our environment of course also included air quality, and clean water, etc., respectively, so those aspects included, the three components we've touched on should be our starting point to looking at reverse engineering obesity in the environment.

Our environment is one part of a larger whole, however, it is important and imperative to look at all aspects and target the ones we have the most impact on first, As health professionals we must always look to those in our environment/where we live to continue the efforts and support healthier communities.  

"We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community...."  - Cesar Chavez   

Time's Up, Back to Work...

A long ways away, isn't always about distance.

In the past ten months I've taken time to work and reevaluated myself and the direction I am going in.  I've had the privilege to learning so much this year and working with some amazing people in the process.  More importantly, I learned that I'm on the right track, both in my thoughts and direction.  However, I have a very long ways to go to reach my goals.  I will continue the unfinished series on the perfect storm, but for now I just wanted to become familiar with my keyboard and thinking through processes again.  My goal with this blog is to approach health and health concepts in a way that could provoke further thought, or new ideas.  I've had a great time writing these and love having people respond about how much they appreciate or enjoy my writing.  Having said all this, I am growing more excited to get back to work.  So... Let's go! 

The Perfect Storm

When everything comes together and all aspects of a system begin to meld and work in concomitance the results could be beyond expectation.  Exponential results can occur when elements align, which is what we are most interested in.  This idea could be likened to a perfect storm, where under the right barometric pressure and other varying conditions, the results can be catastrophic.  

I use the idea of a perfect storm to look at obesity in our society.  The reason being, that the results we are seeing in our society are on a epidemic level. The reason for this is just as diverse as the population it affects.  To better look at obesity, I've found it more interesting (and less frustrating) to look at the system in place to achieve such results.  If we think of the system it would take to produce the results we are seeing, I feel it is easier to understand what elements impact obesity, and which merely support it.  

An example of this would be, if I wanted to lose weight I could develop a system that could help me achieve this goal.  By regularly eating healthy foods and exercising I could directly impact my objective.  Whereas by merely watching less television or reading more material on weight-loss would only support my objective rather than impacting it.  

When thinking about what this system would impact I noticed four components that could aid this system in bringing about the results we see in our society today.  These categorical systems are: environmental, genetic, cultural and educational.  

Over several discussions, we will delve into these individually as subsets of the idea of a systems approach to obesity.  I feel that to look at how this storm sustains or creates its power, gives us better insight to how to reduce its impact, thus lessening the damage it produces.       

Moving In The Right Direction (Part 7, Physical)

Physical activity could be the conduit that empowers all facets

In conclusion of this series, I save the physical health portion for last.  Why?  Well, I felt it was important to introduce and expose the other facets of health that are often overlooked before venturing into the only aspect of health a majority of people pay the most attention to.  Physical health is important, however, we would do well to understand that physical health only addresses a portion of our overall health.

Movement of the Mind is not so much interested in devaluing physical activity, nor placing it on a pedestal either.  However, we feel that physical activity plays a huge part in possibly opening all other facets of health to an individual, and bringing satisfaction on multiple levels.  Being active leads to benefits that can last a lifetime.  There is so much research on the benefits of activity, like physical activity, and even as we age physical activity remains most important to ward off illness, disease and complications.

Our journey through physical health should take on the same approach as our previous escapades; looking at the issue in a more meaningful and abstract way, that delves into more than just the obvious (of course, to the best of our ability).  So, let's go shall we?  Our body starts to move from the moment we receive our first heart beat in our mothers womb, till our final movement as life begins to cease.  We are constantly moving, thinking, feeling, responding and living, everyday of our lives.  Though the degree to which each one of us moves differ greatly, it is our belief that we were born to move, born to interact, born to live.  Physical health leads us to understand or appreciate our ability to be active; to live every moment in full appreciation of our abilities.

Our abilities define us, in some way.  Runner's run, dancers dance, and children play.  Having activity in our lives, gives us more purpose, more energy and helps us define what type of life we want.  Understanding that there are several types of physical activity should help everyone better share in having an active life.  Exercise is structured, consistent movement, whereas physical activity is movement (of any kind).  So, whether you're walking, dancing, cleaning, gardening, playing, swimming, or moving furniture; all these constitute physical activity.

In this epidemic of fitness, we are often led astray to believe that fitness is health.  This, in fact is the most cloddish and disconcerting correlation in health.  To be fit, which is the forming and strengthening of muscle, is not to be confused with being healthy (though, there are relations, however, by no means are they related).  Being "skinny" as it were, isn't synonymous with being healthy, or being muscular for that matter.  Our body's ability to "do", more closely associates with health, than the previous.  Our ability to  walk up the stairs with no discomfort, or run around with our children or friends, or even more bio-metrically sound, having a well functioning body, that can process, consume, filter and secrete properly is health.  Having access to healthcare, healthy foods, safe environments and having peace, are the very staples of health.  I find great frustration with everyone looking to a certain poundage, or pant or dress size to reach to "be healthy".  Distortion of health in the media around us, cripple or cloud our clear thinking of what health really is, and what is needed to be healthy.  Finding the balance between our outwardly appearance, our ability to accomplish tasks (ranging from challenging to easy) and maintaining a proper functioning body, should be absolute key for us.

Physical health should be exciting, sustainable and challenging.  It should also, produce a better us, with the help of all the other facets mentioned and bring definition to our lives.  It is impossible to stop moving, in hopes to start living; we are designed to move and experience.  My hope, or our hope, is to create the mind frame that moves our thoughts, our perceptions, our understandings, to a place where moving is a stationary thought in our lives.  Though, understandably it isn't easy; we challenge you to think of what in life is?  Especially, those things that are worth while.

Buddha believed a clear mind stemmed from a healthy body, however, I'll take it a bit further.  How we think is an extension of how we feel, and how we feel, will move us in one direction or another.  Let us always do well to ourselves, movement is life, and we should all have a share.  No one, is perfect and no one exercise or physical activity program works for everyone.  Find you, in your movement and set your bar for yourself.

"Regimen is superior to medicine."  - Voltaire