[pronut-hiv] Physical activity - Loosing grip wth the old fashioned lifestyle

["Jecinter oketch" <jessieoketch@yahoo.com>]

Stacia,
   
  In  the beautiful valley of a 1000 hills in Kwazulu Natal where I have spent 6 months, it is difficult for me to believe that the majority of the population do not even mill their own flour but depend on refined range of flour from the supermarkets. Enriched porridge lesson consist of a shopping list of processed products that could be added to the mealie meal (refined white maize flour) and peanut butter and the women might not understand the concept of combining grains and legumes prior to milling a concept we are so used to in Kenya.
   
  Activities of the day consist of going to the supermarkets and sitting for the rest of the day and few people own kitchen gardens to spend sometime doing some physical activity. It is worrying how fast we are loosing grip with the old fashioned lifestyle that kept our grandparents healthy and a live for many years.
   
  Jecinter Oketch

-----Harry Kanis <hwkanis@gmail.com> wrote:
  Stacia,

Thank you for reminding us all about what we can learn in Africa about the
importance of the role of *exercise* and specially about *walking* for our
daily health!
When I worked in Africa as a medical doctor, I was often amazed that even
people with illnesses walked far en long to attend our Outpatient Clinics
throughout the rural region.
Many steps were often made before any special medical care could be
provided.

The present international medical research is very clear about the
advantages of exercise and making enough daily walking steps ( at least
10.000 (!) steps a day say the Americans and Japanese researchers) *for* in
particular *your Vascular Health &* *the prevention of many chronic diseases
associated with the unhealthy Western lifestyle of eating too much and
spending too little again in energy consuming activities. *
**
*More Daily Walking Steps* (simultaneously lowering your blood pressure,
cholesterol and blood sugar!) proves to be an excellent strategy to combat
these unhealthy developments, which unfortunately affects ever more and more
people in our world especially in cities and urban areas..

There is a very good example in the long and (pre-)historic times of
mankind when modern chronic diseases like diabetes and coronary heart
disease were virtually non existent. Certainly in the traditional (e.g.
hunter-gatherer societies) of long ago.

I too had to pay my price in chronic disease when I developed diabetes some
5 years ago, This diabetes developed (next to my diabetic family genes)
after many year of too little exercise, associated with a sedentary job
environment.

But there is hope for many of these nasty modern chronic diseases,
in starting early and even after you have catched them already: *making more
daily steps for improving your vascular health. *

The Japanese have developed excellent cheap quality pedometers (step
counters) to keep track of your daily steps and also American exercise and
walking experts recommend them for simple keep track and monitoring and
above all motivating you in making more daily steps.
See e.g. also my review *"Walking is the best Medicine (Hippocrates)"* at
the Amazon books website for a good book on subject
**
*Pedometer Walking* by Exercise Prof. David Bassett.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1592287026/002-1048097-6202418?v=glance&n=283155

In fact the daily balance of a Healthy Bites and Steps lifestyle in
preventing many modern chronic diseases is so relevant and important that I
have developed a Dutch language website on this subject.

Harry Kanis, MD MPH, public health physician
The Netherlands




-------- Stacia Nordin wrote:
>
>
> This article shows an area that the 'developed' industrial world could
> learn from 'developing' world where exercise is still a part of life.
>
> One lifestyle example that comes to mind is pounding grain into
> flour. For those of you that have been around it, you may have experienced
> the same feelings I've had when taking part in this cultural event. A small
> group of women gathered around the mortars, singing to the rhythm of the
> pestles pounding, chatting about life, and laughing. It is a wonderful
> sound, a great social and great strengthening exercise. Pounding grain can
> produce a wonderful product still packed with nutrients. A person leaves
> this process tired, but really happy and energized.
>
> Now grain mills are moving in on the scene and my neighbors struggle to
> find the money to pay for the mill, they have to walk long distances from
> home and too often find the mill broken or out of fuel or electricity and
> have to take a longer walk to a further mill. There is still socializing at
> the mill, but the pounding of a mill is nothing to sing or dance to. For
> the mills that use fuel it adds to the strain on environmental
> resources. Most mills seperate out the best, most nutritious parts of the
> grain leaving just the carbohydrate to be taken home, although one can
> choose to keep the grain whole, but this is often not the case. A person
> leave this process tired with resources expended, but not in the same
> positive way of leaving the cultural event.
>
> There is something to be said for the way our grandparents lived. I hope
> we as a society find ways to keep the 'old fashioned' things that were
> beneficial in more ways than we realize and that we learn to make
> improvements that consider all aspects of life.
>
> Stacia Nordin, RD
> Malawi
>
> ----- ProNut-hiv wrote:
>
>
> > BBC: Children need even more exercise
> >
> > Children should do at least 90 minutes exercise each day, experts say.
> > The current UK guidelines recommend an hour of exercise - but a recent
> > study found only one in 10 children of school age achieve that limit.
> >
> > Writing in The Lancet, they say children should up their activity levels
> > in order to ward off heart disease and obesity.
> >
> > The Department of Health said it would consider whether its guidelines
> > needed to be reviewed following the study.
> >
> > If current trends continue, half of all children in England could be
> > obese by 2020.
> >
> > Sedentary lifestyles
> >
> > Among children, the rates of obesity have tripled during the last 20
> > years. One in 10 six-year-olds is obese.
> >
> > The authors of the latest study stress that getting enough exercise is
> > important not only to tackle the problem of childhood obesity, but also
> > to prevent future generations dying prematurely from illnesses
> > associated with sedentary lifestyles.
> >
> > They looked at over 1,730 children, aged nine or 15 years, from schools
> > in Denmark, Estonia, and Portugal.
> >
> > For each child they measured a combination of risk factors for
> > cardiovascular disease, including blood pressure, weight and
> > cholesterol, to calculate a combined risk factor score.
> >
> > Over one weekend and two week days the children were asked to wear a
> > monitor that measured how physically active they were.
> >
> > The researchers found that their risk score for cardiovascular disease
> > decreased with increasing physical activity.
> >
> > The lowest risk scores were found in the nine year olds who did 116
> > minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity activity and the 15 year olds
> > who did around 88 minutes daily.
> >
> > This would correspond to walking at a speed of around 4 km/h for 90
> > minutes.
> >
> > Professor Lars Bo Anderson, from the Norwegian School of Sports Sciences
> > in Oslo, and his team stress that the 90 minutes of daily exercise they
> > are recommending for children would not have to be done in one chunk; it
> > would be spaced over the day.
> >
> > Little and often
> >
> > For example, a child could walk or cycle to and from school, run around
> > at lunchtime and play sports in the evenings and at weekends.
> >
> > Neville Rigby of the International Obesity Task Force said children were
> > being stifled from doing exercise.
> >
> > "When you drive your child to the school gate in your Chelsea tractor
> > you are not helping your child.
> >
> > "Most kids in a previous generation had to walk to school, cycle to
> > school or catch a bus."
> >
> > Professor Chris Riddoch, head of the London Sports Institute at
> > Middlesex University and one of the researchers who conducted the latest
> > study, agreed, saying: "We have engineered a society that does not
> > exercise - kids as well as adults."
> >
> > He said children needed to be allowed and encouraged to be active at
> > every opportunity.
> >
> > "Every little bit helps. If we are not successful then the next
> > generation of adults will be less healthy than we are and we are no role
> > model."
> >
> > He said much was being done to improve the situation but that unless
> > things changed the NHS would crumble under the strain of treating
> > escalating ill health.
> >
> > Concerted effort
> >
> > A spokeswoman from the Department of Health said policy makers would
> > consider the implications of the new findings "very carefully in the
> > context of our efforts to halt the rise in obesity among children under
> > 11 by 2010."
> >
> > "It is important that we keep our recommendations under review as
> > evidence like this comes to light," she added.
> >
> > She said there were a number of schemes working to increase physical
> > activity among young people, including issuing schoolchildren with
> > pedometers - devices that measure how many steps someone takes.
> >
> > The government also wants all school pupils to receive two hours of PE
> > and sport a day by 2010.
> >
> > Steve Shaffelburg of the British Heart Foundation said: "For children to
> > develop a lifelong healthy attitude to physical activity, it will take a
> > concerted effort from many groups working together to find long-lasting
> > solutions."
> >