Canadian Healthy Lifestyle

HEALTHY CANADIANS

A slim, strong, and attractive body is what most Canadians want and some Canadians spend years in repeated, self-defeating attempts to attain it.
There is nothing wrong with pursuing a healthy body. Indeed, people who take control of their health tend to have a lowered risk for chronic illnesses. The difficulty lies in the discrepancy between what weights are considered healthy and what many Canadians see as an ideal body weight. After decades of hearing the media and the fashion, food and fitness industries glorify unrealistic images of feminine thinness and male muscularity, many Canadians over-value their body weight and size as keys to attractiveness, success, happiness and good health. However, the number of Canadians who are overweight is increasing.

While a reduction in weight will improve the health of some overweight people, a fixation on weight reduction and an ideal body shape can lead to yo-yo dieting, weight cycling, restrictive eating, obsessive exercising and negative perceptions of body image. Furthermore, the pursuit of a rigid standard for size and shape inevitably fails for most people over the long term. One- to two-thirds of lost weight is usually regained within one year and almost all is regained within five years.

Rather than focusing on weight loss, Canadians’ should aim to enhance there physical, psychological and social well being by focusing on eating well, being active and feeling good about themselves. By creating environments that support healthy choices in Homes, schools, workplaces and communities that support healthy lifestyles help empower people to make healthy choices about eating, being active and feeling good about themselves.

The “eating well” component emphasizes a lifetime eating pattern based on Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating. Healthy eating conveys a sense of wellbeing and the opportunity to feel, look and perform better. Former dieters can take control of their eating behaviour by learning to eat according to internal hunger cues and thus decrease overeating and binging. Because there is no rigid diet to follow, the guilt and the assault on self-esteem associated with a lapsed diet do not occur. Instead, the focus is on meeting the body’s energy and nutrient needs by enjoying healthy eating.

The “being active” component reflects the shift to active living, a way of life that values physical activity and makes it a part of daily living. Active living is based on a sound, scientific rationale in which studies have shown that moderate, everyday activities such as walking, dancing and yard work are important for health and longevity in the general population. Similarly, sustained, moderate energy expenditure is more effective than bouts of high-intensity exercise in managing body weight.

Many people believe that health is automatically improved with weight loss and achieving a low body weight. Several researchers have challenged this basic assumption and the negative effects of dieting and weight cycling are now being examined closely.

Healthy weight is concerned with physical, social and psychological well being. It urges social acceptance of a wider range of healthy weights and body sizes. A healthy weight promotes healthy eating (not dieting) and regular physical activity (not exercise), while discouraging social pressures for extreme slimness.