Publisher, Healthiness, Inc. has taken its own advice and has encouraged all of its employees to leave a shallower, greener footprint by living healthier lifestyles.
Recycling, reduced hydrocarbon consumption, and emphasis on renewable resources are all familiar ways we know to reduce the footprint left behind as we live out the course of our lives. We’ve heard a lot lately about living green as a lifestyle choice designed to keep that footprint small, but what about the idea that we can keep it shallow as well. Can maintaining good health reduce the impact we have on our surroundings? You bet.
Lifestyle choices can reduce problems like the ‘big three;’ coronary heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension. In the U.S. we face costs that passed the $100 billion per year mark four years ago for expenses that are generated by these conditions. This is, mind you, a multi-billion dollar national invoice, about half for medical cost, and the other half for productivity lost, lives that are shortened, increased health insurance costs, and the burden on our families. It is, however, a set of problems that diminish as good lifestyle choices are made on the individual level.
Changes in lifestyle that directly reduce the occurrence of these killers, as you would suspect, are all about changes in what we eat, how much we eat, and taking our bodies out for a little exercise. These are all changes we associate with reducing the amount of excess fat we carry around, but here is a surprise for you. Recent research from Southwestern Medical Center has opened up the possibility that overeating, rather than the obesity it causes, is the trigger for developing all of the big three conditions.
The take-home is this; a lot of us consume more than we require. We live in a country with extraordinary food choices so we can still live well if we and eat only what we need, but no more. Add exercise to our lifestyle and we leave a shallower footprint that makes our world a little greener.
Healthiness, Inc. publishes Personal Fit Weight Loss Guide a web based information center delivering knowledge, insight, and direction for those who recognize a need to lose weight.
Personal Fit Weight Loss Guide dx.doi.org/10.2121/Weight-Loss-Guide-111006
© 2008 Healthiness, Inc.
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